And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.
Jesus and His disciples come at night after the Passover supper to Gethsemane, a secluded garden at the foot of Mount Olivet where He was accustomed to withdraw for meditation and fervent prayer. He directs the main company to sit and remain at the entrance while He goes farther to pray, taking Peter, James and John deeper into the garden to watch and pray with Him. As He nears and enters the garden He is bowed under a strange, deepening sorrow never before seen in Him, groaning under its burden and moving with labored effort. There He stands as sinless yet numbered with transgressors, with the guilt of fallen humanity laid upon Him, feeling shut out from His Father's sustaining presence and exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Prostrate in agony He prays for deliverance from the cup until bloody sweat falls to the ground, while the disciples He asked to watch fail to stay awake and leave Him to face the powers of darkness alone.
Garden Setting and Arrival
They came to Gethsemane at night after the Passover supper, after Jesus had been earnestly talking with and teaching His disciples on the way. The journey was made beneath a broad full Passover moon while the city of tents lay silent. Gethsemane was a secluded garden at the foot of Mount Olivet, a spot He had often visited to commune with His Father in meditation and fervent prayer. It was His familiar retreat where fervent prayer had often braced His spirit for trial and duty, sometimes through the whole night.
Because withdrawing to pray apart while they waited nearby was His accustomed practice, the disciples treated His direction to remain as ordinary and accepted it without remark or suspicion. They were used to watching a little while and then sleeping undisturbed nearby until He woke them in the morning to go out to labor again. As He neared the garden He grew strangely silent in a sadness they had never seen, entering that night in His last agony with a heart fuller of sorrow than ever before. They marked the change in Him and the deepening of His strange sadness, yet dared not question Him about its cause.
His form swayed as if He were about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, and He groaned aloud under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. Upon reaching the garden the disciples looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement, that He might rest. He told the main company to sit and remain at the entrance while He should pray, and took Peter, James, and John farther into the recesses of the garden where they could still see and hear Him. There He told them He was overwhelmed with sorrow and asked them to tarry, watch, and pray for themselves and for Him, then went forward a little, fell to the ground, and prayed about the cup of suffering.
The three taken farther were Peter, James, and John, favored disciples brought into closest relationship with Him and desired for their presence. They had witnessed His transfiguration and beheld Him glorified, and were to be His chief witnesses after His death. James's later death by martyrdom made clearer to him the meaning of sharing Christ's cup and baptism.
Christ's Suffering and Submission
At Gethsemane He is numbered with transgressors and has the iniquity and guilt of fallen humanity and the sins of the whole world laid upon Him who knew no sin. Though sinless He is treated as a sinner so that sinful people might be treated as innocent, and His suffering and death make atonement for human transgression. His anguish comes both from bearing that guilt and from knowing that many would reject the salvation He was making possible at infinite cost to Himself.
Throughout His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, able to say the Father was with Him because He always did what pleased Him, but at Gethsemane He seems shut out from sustaining light. Darkness presses upon His soul, He feels His Father's presence withdrawn and Himself separated from the Father's love. Sin appears so dreadful and its weight of guilt so great that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father's love, and feeling how terrible God's wrath against transgression is, His soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
Prostrating Himself in the solitude of the garden He faces an agony unlike anything He had known, praying for deliverance from the cup. His anguish is so great that bloody sweat is forced from His pores and falls to the ground, and heaven sends a messenger to console Him. There He enters the closing conflict and severe spiritual trial.
As a human being He faces the consequences of sin and separation without using divine power to escape them. He freely accepts humiliation, suffering, and death to save humanity, surrendering His will completely and submitting to His Father's will though He could have refused. He had come to this place as to a familiar retreat, where fervent prayer had often braced His spirit for trial and duty, sometimes through the whole night. His experience shows He understands human weakness and can help those who are tempted. In His deep woe and grief He longs for His disciples' sympathy, companionship, and some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him.
Disciples' Sleep and Warning
While He prays in great agony through those fearful hours, Peter and the other disciples fail to stay awake and watch with Him, and after hearing His anguished prayer they fall asleep and leave Him to face the powers of darkness alone. At first they are troubled and praying as they hear His cries and do not intend to forsake Him, yet they become paralyzed by a stupor they could have shaken off by continued pleading with God. Satan and his evil angels cause them to fall asleep when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. By failing to heed His repeated warning and request to watch and pray for themselves and for Him, they leave Him without the comfort and strengthening their steadfast faith and prayers for Him and for themselves would have given Him.
Their drowsiness and sleep keep them from hearing His voice and give them only a dim sense of the angels' presence, so they miss evidence that would have strengthened them for the terrible scenes and trials ahead. If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood the sorrow pressing on Him and been fitted to behold His death on Calvary. They would have remembered His many sayings that He would suffer and die and rise again, and rays of hope would have shone amid the gloom and strengthened their faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. He desired them to watch so they would understand He had come not to set up an earthly kingdom and make them chief rulers but to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to set up a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts fitted for heaven. Had they watched and prayed as He asked they would have been ready to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him and would not have left Him alone in His bitter trial.
Their experience contains a lesson for God's people today on the necessity of watchfulness, earnest prayer, and remaining in communion with God in order to withstand temptation and to receive divine help and instruction. The agony awaiting Him forms part of the great trial He foresaw, and while still with them He prepares the disciples so that His betrayal, humiliation, condemnation, and death will not overwhelm them with surprise, since they have already seen followers turn away and have learned not to rest faith on changing opinions of others. The same place where Jesus is prostrated later becomes the place where Peter, after denying Jesus in His hour of humiliation, returns with true contrition, prostrates himself on the very ground stained by the sweat drops of God's Son, remembers his sleep and denial, and weeps penitential tears. He leaves a converted man humbled and fitted to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, caution the presumptuous, and strengthen his brethren.
Jesus and His disciples come at night after the Passover supper to Gethsemane, a secluded garden at the foot of Mount Olivet where He was accustomed to withdraw for meditation and fervent prayer. He directs the main company to sit and remain at the entrance while He goes farther to pray, taking Peter, James and John deeper into the garden to watch and pray with Him. As He nears and enters the garden He is bowed under a strange, deepening sorrow never before seen in Him, groaning under its burden and moving with labored effort. There He stands as sinless yet numbered with transgressors, with the guilt of fallen humanity laid upon Him, feeling shut out from His Father's sustaining presence and exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Prostrate in agony He prays for deliverance from the cup until bloody sweat falls to the ground, while the disciples He asked to watch fail to stay awake and leave Him to face the powers of darkness alone.
Garden Setting and Arrival
They came to Gethsemane at night after the Passover supper, after Jesus had been earnestly talking with and teaching His disciples on the way. The journey was made beneath a broad full Passover moon while the city of tents lay silent. Gethsemane was a secluded garden at the foot of Mount Olivet, a spot He had often visited to commune with His Father in meditation and fervent prayer. It was His familiar retreat where fervent prayer had often braced His spirit for trial and duty, sometimes through the whole night.
Because withdrawing to pray apart while they waited nearby was His accustomed practice, the disciples treated His direction to remain as ordinary and accepted it without remark or suspicion. They were used to watching a little while and then sleeping undisturbed nearby until He woke them in the morning to go out to labor again. As He neared the garden He grew strangely silent in a sadness they had never seen, entering that night in His last agony with a heart fuller of sorrow than ever before. They marked the change in Him and the deepening of His strange sadness, yet dared not question Him about its cause.
His form swayed as if He were about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, and He groaned aloud under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. Upon reaching the garden the disciples looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement, that He might rest. He told the main company to sit and remain at the entrance while He should pray, and took Peter, James, and John farther into the recesses of the garden where they could still see and hear Him. There He told them He was overwhelmed with sorrow and asked them to tarry, watch, and pray for themselves and for Him, then went forward a little, fell to the ground, and prayed about the cup of suffering.
The three taken farther were Peter, James, and John, favored disciples brought into closest relationship with Him and desired for their presence. They had witnessed His transfiguration and beheld Him glorified, and were to be His chief witnesses after His death. James's later death by martyrdom made clearer to him the meaning of sharing Christ's cup and baptism.
Christ's Suffering and Submission
At Gethsemane He is numbered with transgressors and has the iniquity and guilt of fallen humanity and the sins of the whole world laid upon Him who knew no sin. Though sinless He is treated as a sinner so that sinful people might be treated as innocent, and His suffering and death make atonement for human transgression. His anguish comes both from bearing that guilt and from knowing that many would reject the salvation He was making possible at infinite cost to Himself.
Throughout His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, able to say the Father was with Him because He always did what pleased Him, but at Gethsemane He seems shut out from sustaining light. Darkness presses upon His soul, He feels His Father's presence withdrawn and Himself separated from the Father's love. Sin appears so dreadful and its weight of guilt so great that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father's love, and feeling how terrible God's wrath against transgression is, His soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
Prostrating Himself in the solitude of the garden He faces an agony unlike anything He had known, praying for deliverance from the cup. His anguish is so great that bloody sweat is forced from His pores and falls to the ground, and heaven sends a messenger to console Him. There He enters the closing conflict and severe spiritual trial.
As a human being He faces the consequences of sin and separation without using divine power to escape them. He freely accepts humiliation, suffering, and death to save humanity, surrendering His will completely and submitting to His Father's will though He could have refused. He had come to this place as to a familiar retreat, where fervent prayer had often braced His spirit for trial and duty, sometimes through the whole night. His experience shows He understands human weakness and can help those who are tempted. In His deep woe and grief He longs for His disciples' sympathy, companionship, and some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him.
Disciples' Sleep and Warning
While He prays in great agony through those fearful hours, Peter and the other disciples fail to stay awake and watch with Him, and after hearing His anguished prayer they fall asleep and leave Him to face the powers of darkness alone. At first they are troubled and praying as they hear His cries and do not intend to forsake Him, yet they become paralyzed by a stupor they could have shaken off by continued pleading with God. Satan and his evil angels cause them to fall asleep when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. By failing to heed His repeated warning and request to watch and pray for themselves and for Him, they leave Him without the comfort and strengthening their steadfast faith and prayers for Him and for themselves would have given Him.
Their drowsiness and sleep keep them from hearing His voice and give them only a dim sense of the angels' presence, so they miss evidence that would have strengthened them for the terrible scenes and trials ahead. If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood the sorrow pressing on Him and been fitted to behold His death on Calvary. They would have remembered His many sayings that He would suffer and die and rise again, and rays of hope would have shone amid the gloom and strengthened their faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. He desired them to watch so they would understand He had come not to set up an earthly kingdom and make them chief rulers but to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to set up a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts fitted for heaven. Had they watched and prayed as He asked they would have been ready to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him and would not have left Him alone in His bitter trial.
Their experience contains a lesson for God's people today on the necessity of watchfulness, earnest prayer, and remaining in communion with God in order to withstand temptation and to receive divine help and instruction. The agony awaiting Him forms part of the great trial He foresaw, and while still with them He prepares the disciples so that His betrayal, humiliation, condemnation, and death will not overwhelm them with surprise, since they have already seen followers turn away and have learned not to rest faith on changing opinions of others. The same place where Jesus is prostrated later becomes the place where Peter, after denying Jesus in His hour of humiliation, returns with true contrition, prostrates himself on the very ground stained by the sweat drops of God's Son, remembers his sleep and denial, and weeps penitential tears. He leaves a converted man humbled and fitted to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, caution the presumptuous, and strengthen his brethren.