And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
He takes Peter, James and John, His three closest witnesses, farther into the recesses of Gethsemane and then goes only a little farther apart to pray where they can still see and hear Him. To be sore amazed and very heavy is to sink into deep sorrow and anguish unto death, a superhuman wrestling in One usually so calm, with strong cries and sweat forced as drops of blood. The anguish comes because the sins and guilt of the whole world are laid upon sinless Him, and He who had always walked in the light of God's presence now feels shut out from the Father and separated by a broad gulf of sin, facing the wrath against transgression and the powers of darkness. In that agony His human heart longs for sympathy and prayer from those He had blessed, but though troubled at first and not intending to forsake Him, they sleep through the fearful hours under satanic stupor and leave Him to wrestle alone because they did not heed the warning to watch and pray. Had they watched they would have understood His suffering and death for sin, had hope amid gloom and been fitted for Calvary instead of dreaming of an earthly kingdom, so their failure stands as a warning that watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary lest temptation prevail.
Garden Setting and Companions
Jesus took Peter and James and John farther with Him into Gethsemane, into the recesses of the garden, His sorrow and distress deepening as He faced His suffering. He chose the three to remain near Him, though He did not yet fully explain the agony before Him. He then went only a little farther apart from them to pray, where they could still see and hear Him.
It was night, and they approached under the full Passover moon while the city of pilgrims' tents lay quiet. Gethsemane was a place He had often visited for meditation and prayer, a familiar retreat where prayer prepared Him for trial and duty, where He had strengthened Himself through earnest prayer, sometimes spending the whole night there. His disciples were accustomed to waiting nearby, sleeping after watching and praying awhile, and they expected Him to pray and did not question His choice.
Peter, James, and John were the three favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and made His chief witnesses. They had seen the transfiguration of the Saviour and beheld Him glorified, and they had accompanied Him before in this retreat. To take them with Him into the night of His agony and let John witness it was a sign of the confidence and closeness He gave them. He knew the ordeal in Gethsemane awaited Him and His disciples, and He prepared His faithful disciples beforehand for His betrayal, suffering, and death, so that the fickleness of other followers would not take them by surprise or shake their faith.
On the way He became utterly sad and silent as the disciples had never seen Him before, entering a depth of sorrow and distress unlike anything they had seen in Him. The strange sadness deepened as He proceeded, growing at every step made with labored effort. His form swayed as if about to fall, and He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions had to support Him or He would have fallen to the earth. The disciples marked the change, dared not question Him as to the cause, and looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement that He might rest, going with Him into the garden's recesses.
Sorrow and Sin Borne
To be sore amazed and very heavy is deep sorrow, trouble and anguish, a sorrow exceeding sorrowful unto death and intense distress as He faced trial and crucifixion. It was a wrestling with sorrow beyond comprehension in One usually so calm and dignified, now uttering strong cries as the divine-human sufferer in superhuman agony. He was prostrated in great agony, with sweat like drops of blood forced from His pores.
The distress came because He was numbered with transgressors and must bear the penalty, guilt and iniquity of fallen humanity, with the iniquity of all and the sins of the whole world laid upon Him who knew no sin. Darkness pressed upon His soul as He faced the powers of evil. Satan pressed upon Him the rejection and betrayal of those He came to save, and He knew many would refuse the salvation and righteousness made possible at infinite cost to Himself.
Though He had walked all His earthly life in the light of God's presence, He now seemed shut out from that sustaining presence and felt the Father's presence withdrawn. He felt separated from the Father's love by sin as before a broad, black, deep gulf at which His spirit shuddered, with doubts about His oneness with Jehovah and temptation to fear the weight of guilt would shut Him out forever. Feeling how terrible is God's wrath against transgression, His sorrow exceeded even the final struggle with death.
Having taken human nature and lived without sin, He faced the consequences of man's sin as a man without exerting divine power to escape. He submitted completely to God's will, and though sinless was treated as a sinner so sinful people could be treated as innocent, willingly accepting humiliation and death to atone for transgression. As He lay fainting under the burden heaven sent a messenger to comfort Him.
Sleeping Disciples and Watchfulness
In that agony His human heart longed to the depths for sympathy from those He had so often blessed and comforted, asking them to stay and watch with Him and hoping for some word of love and prayer to comfort and strengthen Him in His sorrow. He had taken Peter and James and John farther into Gethsemane and begun to be deeply sorrowful and troubled, and He went only a little farther apart to pray where they could still see and hear Him. To know that they understood His agony and were praying for Him and for themselves would have comforted and strengthened Him against the terrible temptation to let the human race bear its own guilt while He stood innocent before God. He hoped to find them praying, but when He staggered back with painful effort He found them sleeping and lost that comfort.
At first they were troubled by His agonized prayer and they prayed, and they did not intend to forsake Him, yet they heard Him and then slept through the fearful hours and left Him to wrestle alone. They were paralyzed by a stupor they might have shaken off by continued pleading with God, because they had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray. Satan and his evil angels were on the ground and caused the sleep, when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. They were drowsy and spiritually unready, accustomed to waiting nearby in that retreat where He often went to strengthen Himself and to sleep after watching and praying awhile. Peter, who had shortly before promised to follow even to death, slept with the others instead of praying with Him, and that sleeping belongs with his denying the Man of Sorrows in His hour of humiliation.
By sleeping they missed His voice and the strengthening evidence of the scene. Their drowsiness kept them from recognizing its heavenly presence and the angels' presence and from receiving evidence that could have strengthened them for what lay ahead.
If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood the sorrow pressing on Him in Gethsemane and would have been fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. They would have remembered what He had told them many times about His suffering and death and rising again, and rays of hope would have shone amid the gloom and their faith would have been strengthened even when Satan seemed to gain the victory. He desired them to watch that they might understand He had come to suffer and die for the sins of the world to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in men's hearts until they should be fitted for heaven, instead of an earthly kingdom where all nations would bow and they would be chief rulers. So they would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him and not leave Him alone in bitter trial as He neared death on a cross of shame.
After repentance and reconversion with true contrition Peter returned with blinding tears to the same place where he had seen his Saviour prostrated, prostrated himself on the sod stained with the sweat drops, broke in heart over having slept, moistened the ground with penitential tears, and left a converted, humbled man ready to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, caution and warn the presumptuous, and strengthen his brethren. James was among the three closest disciples and witnesses of both His suffering in the garden and His transfiguration, and his later imprisonment and execution brought home the meaning of sharing His cup and baptism, that following Him could mean suffering and death. The experience holds a lesson for the Lord's people today to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation, since watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary to withstand temptation and keep satanic agencies from prevailing.
He takes Peter, James and John, His three closest witnesses, farther into the recesses of Gethsemane and then goes only a little farther apart to pray where they can still see and hear Him. To be sore amazed and very heavy is to sink into deep sorrow and anguish unto death, a superhuman wrestling in One usually so calm, with strong cries and sweat forced as drops of blood. The anguish comes because the sins and guilt of the whole world are laid upon sinless Him, and He who had always walked in the light of God's presence now feels shut out from the Father and separated by a broad gulf of sin, facing the wrath against transgression and the powers of darkness. In that agony His human heart longs for sympathy and prayer from those He had blessed, but though troubled at first and not intending to forsake Him, they sleep through the fearful hours under satanic stupor and leave Him to wrestle alone because they did not heed the warning to watch and pray. Had they watched they would have understood His suffering and death for sin, had hope amid gloom and been fitted for Calvary instead of dreaming of an earthly kingdom, so their failure stands as a warning that watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary lest temptation prevail.
Garden Setting and Companions
Jesus took Peter and James and John farther with Him into Gethsemane, into the recesses of the garden, His sorrow and distress deepening as He faced His suffering. He chose the three to remain near Him, though He did not yet fully explain the agony before Him. He then went only a little farther apart from them to pray, where they could still see and hear Him.
It was night, and they approached under the full Passover moon while the city of pilgrims' tents lay quiet. Gethsemane was a place He had often visited for meditation and prayer, a familiar retreat where prayer prepared Him for trial and duty, where He had strengthened Himself through earnest prayer, sometimes spending the whole night there. His disciples were accustomed to waiting nearby, sleeping after watching and praying awhile, and they expected Him to pray and did not question His choice.
Peter, James, and John were the three favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and made His chief witnesses. They had seen the transfiguration of the Saviour and beheld Him glorified, and they had accompanied Him before in this retreat. To take them with Him into the night of His agony and let John witness it was a sign of the confidence and closeness He gave them. He knew the ordeal in Gethsemane awaited Him and His disciples, and He prepared His faithful disciples beforehand for His betrayal, suffering, and death, so that the fickleness of other followers would not take them by surprise or shake their faith.
On the way He became utterly sad and silent as the disciples had never seen Him before, entering a depth of sorrow and distress unlike anything they had seen in Him. The strange sadness deepened as He proceeded, growing at every step made with labored effort. His form swayed as if about to fall, and He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions had to support Him or He would have fallen to the earth. The disciples marked the change, dared not question Him as to the cause, and looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement that He might rest, going with Him into the garden's recesses.
Sorrow and Sin Borne
To be sore amazed and very heavy is deep sorrow, trouble and anguish, a sorrow exceeding sorrowful unto death and intense distress as He faced trial and crucifixion. It was a wrestling with sorrow beyond comprehension in One usually so calm and dignified, now uttering strong cries as the divine-human sufferer in superhuman agony. He was prostrated in great agony, with sweat like drops of blood forced from His pores.
The distress came because He was numbered with transgressors and must bear the penalty, guilt and iniquity of fallen humanity, with the iniquity of all and the sins of the whole world laid upon Him who knew no sin. Darkness pressed upon His soul as He faced the powers of evil. Satan pressed upon Him the rejection and betrayal of those He came to save, and He knew many would refuse the salvation and righteousness made possible at infinite cost to Himself.
Though He had walked all His earthly life in the light of God's presence, He now seemed shut out from that sustaining presence and felt the Father's presence withdrawn. He felt separated from the Father's love by sin as before a broad, black, deep gulf at which His spirit shuddered, with doubts about His oneness with Jehovah and temptation to fear the weight of guilt would shut Him out forever. Feeling how terrible is God's wrath against transgression, His sorrow exceeded even the final struggle with death.
Having taken human nature and lived without sin, He faced the consequences of man's sin as a man without exerting divine power to escape. He submitted completely to God's will, and though sinless was treated as a sinner so sinful people could be treated as innocent, willingly accepting humiliation and death to atone for transgression. As He lay fainting under the burden heaven sent a messenger to comfort Him.
Sleeping Disciples and Watchfulness
In that agony His human heart longed to the depths for sympathy from those He had so often blessed and comforted, asking them to stay and watch with Him and hoping for some word of love and prayer to comfort and strengthen Him in His sorrow. He had taken Peter and James and John farther into Gethsemane and begun to be deeply sorrowful and troubled, and He went only a little farther apart to pray where they could still see and hear Him. To know that they understood His agony and were praying for Him and for themselves would have comforted and strengthened Him against the terrible temptation to let the human race bear its own guilt while He stood innocent before God. He hoped to find them praying, but when He staggered back with painful effort He found them sleeping and lost that comfort.
At first they were troubled by His agonized prayer and they prayed, and they did not intend to forsake Him, yet they heard Him and then slept through the fearful hours and left Him to wrestle alone. They were paralyzed by a stupor they might have shaken off by continued pleading with God, because they had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray. Satan and his evil angels were on the ground and caused the sleep, when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. They were drowsy and spiritually unready, accustomed to waiting nearby in that retreat where He often went to strengthen Himself and to sleep after watching and praying awhile. Peter, who had shortly before promised to follow even to death, slept with the others instead of praying with Him, and that sleeping belongs with his denying the Man of Sorrows in His hour of humiliation.
By sleeping they missed His voice and the strengthening evidence of the scene. Their drowsiness kept them from recognizing its heavenly presence and the angels' presence and from receiving evidence that could have strengthened them for what lay ahead.
If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood the sorrow pressing on Him in Gethsemane and would have been fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. They would have remembered what He had told them many times about His suffering and death and rising again, and rays of hope would have shone amid the gloom and their faith would have been strengthened even when Satan seemed to gain the victory. He desired them to watch that they might understand He had come to suffer and die for the sins of the world to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in men's hearts until they should be fitted for heaven, instead of an earthly kingdom where all nations would bow and they would be chief rulers. So they would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him and not leave Him alone in bitter trial as He neared death on a cross of shame.
After repentance and reconversion with true contrition Peter returned with blinding tears to the same place where he had seen his Saviour prostrated, prostrated himself on the sod stained with the sweat drops, broke in heart over having slept, moistened the ground with penitential tears, and left a converted, humbled man ready to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, caution and warn the presumptuous, and strengthen his brethren. James was among the three closest disciples and witnesses of both His suffering in the garden and His transfiguration, and his later imprisonment and execution brought home the meaning of sharing His cup and baptism, that following Him could mean suffering and death. The experience holds a lesson for the Lord's people today to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation, since watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary to withstand temptation and keep satanic agencies from prevailing.