And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
On a full-moon Passover night in the garden of Gethsemane He left the other disciples behind and took only Peter, James and John farther with Him into the garden, and there He began to sink under sorrow and crushing heaviness. To be sorrowful and very heavy means He who had always walked in the light of His Father's presence now felt shut out from it as the guilt and iniquity of fallen humanity was laid upon Him though He knew no sin. His anguish came as Satan pressed horror of great darkness upon Him to separate Him from God, while the destiny of the lost world hung on whether He would stand as man's surety and drink the cup in submission to His Father's will. In His humanity He longed for human sympathy and asked the three to watch and pray with Him, but they slept from sorrow and missed the strength the scene would have given them for the trials ahead. In all that distress He gave the pattern of absolute submission to the divine will, the sinless Son treated as a sinner and wounded for transgressions so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent and the unchangeable law be upheld.
Gethsemane Setting and Companions
Jesus made His way slowly with His disciples at night to the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, after crossing the Kedron. It was Passover night under a broad and full moon shining from a cloudless sky, while the city of pilgrims' tents lay hushed in silence. The garden and the Mount had been hallowed and consecrated by His presence in human nature, by His prayers and tears. There He endured deep sorrow and agony, moistening the ground and the sod with His blood.
Gethsemane was His accustomed retreat for bracing His spirit for trial and duty by fervent prayer. He had often spent the entire night there in prayer, while His disciples watched and prayed a little while and then slept undisturbed at a little distance until He woke them in the morning to go forth and labor anew. Because this was His familiar practice when preparing for trial and duty, His taking the three with Him called forth no remark.
On reaching the garden He told His other companions to sit where they were and pray for themselves and for Him. Then He selected only Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to go farther with Him into the recesses and seclusion of the garden to pray. There He began to be sorrowful and very heavy as He faced the cup of suffering.
The three were Peter, James and John, James and John being the sons of Zebedee. They were the favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and His chief witnesses after His death. John was among those permitted to witness the agony in Gethsemane during the night of His suffering.
He chose these three because they had been with Him at the transfiguration and had seen Moses and Elijah talking with Him. They had beheld Him glorified, and the revelation of His divine glory was meant to strengthen them for the hour of His suffering and death. He desired their presence with Him on this occasion also.
After earnest talk on the way He turned strangely silent and became utterly sad, more sorrowful and silent than ever before. Increasing sadness weighed on Him physically, so that His form swayed as if about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, and He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden. Twice His companions had to support Him or He would have fallen to the earth. His disciples were perplexed and anxiously watched His face for explanation and looked for His usual place of retirement that He might rest, yet dared not question Him about the cause.
The sorrow belongs to the future scenes He opened before His disciples and to the ordeal He foresaw of betrayal, agony in Gethsemane, and crucifixion. He prepared His faithful followers beforehand so that fickleness, desertion, turning away and abuse would not take them by surprise, shake their faith, or draw them away from Him. On the way to the garden He gave them lessons for that hour, using the vine as the symbol of the union of His church with Himself and His Father. The last solemn hours before Gethsemane were spent speaking words of comfort and assurance, and then all united in a hymn of praise to the Most High, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude even as He entered the bloodstained path that would lead through abuse and mockery to Calvary.
Sense of Sorrowful and Heavy
To begin to be sorrowful and very heavy means He seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence in which He had walked all His life on earth. Now He was numbered with the transgressors to bear the guilt of fallen humanity though He knew no sin, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him.
The sorrow was a sinking under deep sorrow and crushing weight. The mysterious cup trembled in His hand. Bloody sweat fell from His brow to moisten the ground, great drops coming from the pores of His skin. He prayed three times for the cup to pass as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, and afterward comfort was sent from heaven by an angel.
It marks the beginning of His suffering in Gethsemane. It was the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God to come upon His Son and impossible to exceed because He was bearing the sins of the whole world. His agony was unlike anything He had faced before and exceeded even the bitterness of the final struggle with death.
It shows Him entering profound sorrow and anguish as He faced the coming events. He endured the garden's conflict before the shame of the cross and His victory over death.
Causes of His Anguish
His anguish came as the sins and iniquity of the world were laid upon Him and weighed heavily on His soul, with the weight of the sins of the whole world resting upon Him and causing His agony in Gethsemane just before betrayal and trial. The curse of human transgression shadowed His Father's face and shut Him from the light of sustaining presence, bringing horror at bearing sin's curse and alienation from His beloved Father. By sin He was being separated from His Father across a broad, black, deep gulf that made His spirit shudder, as He bore the sins of the world, drank the bitter cup, and faced separation from His Father in the trial before Him.
The destiny of the lost world hung in the balance on whether He would stand as man's surety or refuse, with everything at stake in His decision to save man at any cost to Himself. The mysterious cup trembled in His hand as that choice pressed upon Him.
Satan surrounded and encircled His humanity with horror of great darkness, pressing darkness upon His soul and oppressing Him while He wrestled with the powers of darkness alone. It was a conflict where impurity fought with purity and the prince of darkness fought with the prince of light, a wrestling under temptation of awful power in conflict with satanic agencies who strove to separate Him from God as the Jews had separated themselves, yet He would not yield. Satan tempted Him to think God had forsaken Him and to let the guilty human race bear the consequences of its own guilt while He remained innocent before God. The conflict was so terrible that great drops of blood came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground, before betrayal by Judas with a kiss and the flight of all His disciples, amid superhuman assaults that preceded abuse, betrayal, trial and death.
The hour of Satan's apparent triumph had come and the storm of wrath was about to beat upon Him. He had been hunted from city to city by priests, rulers and others influenced by Satan, and now Satan pressed upon Him rejection by His own people, betrayal by a disciple, denial by a zealous follower, and forsaking and flight by all. The disciples dear to Him failed to give sympathy and comfort and reproached and forsook Him, and the place itself stood as a reminder of His unrequited love after He had given lessons of union by the vine on the way to the garden.
He would not use His divine power to escape, but as man must suffer the consequences of man's sin and endure God's wrath against transgression. To do this He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on man's behalf and to make atonement on the cross, consenting to take the body of humanity and to suffer humiliation and death when He could have refused.
Sin appeared so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression. The sense of God's wrath against sin was crushing out His life, an agony unlike anything He had faced before that exceeded even the bitterness of the final struggle with death, as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn. He appeared to hesitate to drink the cup and prayed for it to pass, praying three times with sweat falling like drops of blood until heaven sent an angel to comfort Him, yet chose to drink it in submission to His Father's will to become the propitiation for a race that willed to sin.
Longing for Disciples' Sympathy
In that hour His human nature longed for human sympathy and companionship, yearning for words of relief and love that would strengthen and comfort Him. He craved to know that those He had blessed and comforted understood the terrible temptation pressing upon Him and were praying for Him and for themselves, and their understanding would have strengthened Him. That desire for love and sympathy belongs to the heart God gave humanity, and in bearing the guilt of sinful men He felt it with full force.
He asked the three to stay and watch with Him while He prayed, telling them His soul was sorrowful even unto death, but when He returned He found them asleep. Their sleep was sleep from sorrow, brought on by Satan and his evil angels, when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake.
While they slept they missed His voice and had only a dim sense of the angel's presence sent to comfort Him. Through drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive the spiritual evidence and power of the scene that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes and trials ahead. Their failure stands as a warning to be spiritually awake and ready to believe, and to place themselves in communion with heaven lest those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it.
He wanted them to watch so they would better understand the sorrow pressing on Him and be fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. Watching would have led them to remember what He had told them many times about rejection, suffering, death and rising again, and to keep rays of hope and strengthened faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. It would have taught them that He came 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, rather than an earthly kingdom with themselves as rulers, and would have made them ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him without leaving Him alone in His bitter trial.
His grief was also for the disciples themselves, who would soon endure the trial of His betrayal and death and be left without His comforting presence, and knowing their weakness He met them with sympathy rather than rebuke. His own sorrow awakened sympathy for the weak who slept instead of watching and praying. The disciples dear to Him thus failed to give Him the sympathy and comfort He most needed in His humiliation.
Peter afterward remembered that he had slept while Jesus prayed through those fearful hours and that he had seen Him prostrate in agony with bloody sweat moistening the ground. That memory humbled him to penitence and remorse and to renewed commitment. By it he was prepared to pity the tempted, to sympathize with the weak and erring, to warn the presumptuous, and to strengthen his brethren.
Doctrinal Meaning of Suffering
In that distress He gives the pattern of absolute submission to the divine will, surrendering His own will to the Father's will even as He began to bear the sins of the whole world under the most fearful strain ever laid upon a human being. He sought strength from the Father to resist the enemy of righteousness, enduring temptation faithfully and remaining true in poverty and humility. He prayed for the cup to pass yet chose to drink it in submission rather than escape, consenting to take humanity's body and suffer humiliation and death when He could have refused.
The sinless Son was treated as a sinner so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace upon Him bringing healing. He stood in the sinner's place as Mediator and divine-human Substitute, laying off royal robe and kingly crown and clothing divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on man's behalf and make atonement. The whole debt for transgression of the law was demanded from Him, and the extreme penalty fell upon Him without abatement because He was the Son of God.
His agony together with His suffering and death demonstrates the seriousness of sin and the justice of God, showing that the law is unchangeable, holy and immutable. His suffering did not cancel, lessen or abrogate the law, but left it in holy dignity and immutability and showed that God will not excuse transgression. As Surety and Sacrifice He bore humanity's burden so that people could have another trial and be brought into favor with the Father, with full satisfaction of justice.
His sorrow displays the depth of the Father's love in sparing not His own Son but delivering Him up, and reveals God's love in laying down His life in order that sinners might not perish but have eternal life. By that struggle reconciliation with God was obtained and the garden was consecrated, vividly portraying His suffering for humanity.
His sorrow proves He took not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham and was made like His brethren in all things, suffering when tempted so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest to make reconciliation and help those who are tempted. He who was always touched with human woe and always sought by word and deed to relieve human suffering was brought low and appeared as a bruised reed. He is touched with the feeling of human infirmity, so that tried, tempted, weak and broken-hearted souls can spread their case before Him and find deliverance, strength, enlightenment and healing, with divine help nearest in the moment of greatest discouragement.
That agony was watched from the heavenly courts with intense interest, angels seeing every movement of their Commander in the hands of a merciless power stirred by Satan to cut off communication between heaven and earth. No command was given for the angels to break ranks and go to the help of the divine Sufferer. The Gethsemane sorrow stands joined to what followed it: being insulted, mocked, derided, scourged, staggering fainting under the burden of His own cross, and hanging on the cross in shameful humiliation and agony.
Links to Other Scriptures
The sorrow that begins in Gethsemane is not the same as the tears shed over Jerusalem, for those tears and groans came from beholding a doomed city rejecting its Redeemer and refusing the blessing and salvation brought to it. That grief over Jerusalem sprang from blindness and refusal to repent and from seeing judgment drawing near for what the city might have become had it accepted Him, not from fear for Himself or fear of physical suffering and crucifixion. The anguish of Gethsemane still lay ahead when He wept over the city, yet it was not the cause of that weeping.
The garden where this heaviness begins stands as obedience set against the disobedience of the Garden of Eden in eating the forbidden tree. The Lord's Supper calls believers to remember this agony as part of His humiliation and suffering in the sacrifice He offered for the world. The disciples with Him in the garden could not fully enter into the burden He bore.
The three taken with Him that night were Peter, James and John, His favored disciples brought into closest relationship with Him, James and John being the sons of Zebedee. They had seen Him glorified at the transfiguration and were His chief witnesses after His death. James later understood more fully His words about sharing His cup and baptism of suffering when he was imprisoned and put to death by execution.
The verse shows Him preparing for great trial through communion with His Father in prayer, with a night of prayer preceding His agony and the events leading to the cross. Withdrawing from His disciples to pray, He entered agonizing prayer with tears for the people for whom He would give His life, seeking strength from the Father to resist the enemy and enduring temptation faithfully in poverty and humility. His example in deep sorrow and distress teaches believers to wrestle with the Father in prayer for strength and power to make God known in word and action, making His life a pattern of earnest prayer and selfless care for others.
Pattern and Call for Believers
His sorrow in the garden is the pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will cry and agonize with Him day and night for deliverance while facing a death decree for refusing to abandon the seventh-day Sabbath. God will preserve them in that hour, as He sustained Christ pouring out His soul in agony. His agony in bearing the weight of human sin before betrayal and crucifixion was greater than the anguish His people will endure in their final trouble.
His suffering there was endured to show the way through hardship and to bring the divine help needed to overcome. His example calls followers to accept conflict, self-denial and sacrifice for eternal life. It reveals the self-denial of bearing the world's sins and rebukes indifference and love of ease. His soul agony makes His life a pattern of earnest prayer and selfless care for others. That same suffering teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and fitting preparation for holy work.
He became poor that the guilty through His poverty might be made rich, enduring sorrow in the garden when the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him and then a shameful death on the cross to save man. His willingness to suffer so much rebukes those for whom the sacrifice was made who are unwilling to suffer little for truth. It likewise rebukes indifference and love of ease in the face of bearing sin for humanity. His anguish came amid superhuman assaults of Satan and before abuse, betrayal, trial and death with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee beside Him, showing that His followers should not expect popularity but should be meek and lowly like their Master. His last terrible trial was passed through that sinners might not perish but have eternal life, revealing God's love in laying down His life, and it rebukes failure to work in harmony and requires believers to lay down their lives for the brethren in brotherly love and unity.
That sacrifice in Gethsemane together with His death on Calvary measures the great work entrusted to the church. His suffering and death are the price by which people are bought and offered salvation for soul and body, which Christians are to keep in view as they serve others. The sleeping disciples did not hear His voice in His agony, having only a dim sense of the angels' presence and losing the power and glory of the scene. Because of drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, and so those who most need divine instruction still fail to receive it when they do not place themselves in communion with heaven. His betrayal, trial and crucifixion picture how reformers are treated when differences of opinion stir frenzy and hostility. That treatment works through the same satanic spirit moving people through doubt, bitterness, wrath and hatred.
On a full-moon Passover night in the garden of Gethsemane He left the other disciples behind and took only Peter, James and John farther with Him into the garden, and there He began to sink under sorrow and crushing heaviness. To be sorrowful and very heavy means He who had always walked in the light of His Father's presence now felt shut out from it as the guilt and iniquity of fallen humanity was laid upon Him though He knew no sin. His anguish came as Satan pressed horror of great darkness upon Him to separate Him from God, while the destiny of the lost world hung on whether He would stand as man's surety and drink the cup in submission to His Father's will. In His humanity He longed for human sympathy and asked the three to watch and pray with Him, but they slept from sorrow and missed the strength the scene would have given them for the trials ahead. In all that distress He gave the pattern of absolute submission to the divine will, the sinless Son treated as a sinner and wounded for transgressions so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent and the unchangeable law be upheld.
Gethsemane Setting and Companions
Jesus made His way slowly with His disciples at night to the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, after crossing the Kedron. It was Passover night under a broad and full moon shining from a cloudless sky, while the city of pilgrims' tents lay hushed in silence. The garden and the Mount had been hallowed and consecrated by His presence in human nature, by His prayers and tears. There He endured deep sorrow and agony, moistening the ground and the sod with His blood.
Gethsemane was His accustomed retreat for bracing His spirit for trial and duty by fervent prayer. He had often spent the entire night there in prayer, while His disciples watched and prayed a little while and then slept undisturbed at a little distance until He woke them in the morning to go forth and labor anew. Because this was His familiar practice when preparing for trial and duty, His taking the three with Him called forth no remark.
On reaching the garden He told His other companions to sit where they were and pray for themselves and for Him. Then He selected only Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to go farther with Him into the recesses and seclusion of the garden to pray. There He began to be sorrowful and very heavy as He faced the cup of suffering.
The three were Peter, James and John, James and John being the sons of Zebedee. They were the favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and His chief witnesses after His death. John was among those permitted to witness the agony in Gethsemane during the night of His suffering.
He chose these three because they had been with Him at the transfiguration and had seen Moses and Elijah talking with Him. They had beheld Him glorified, and the revelation of His divine glory was meant to strengthen them for the hour of His suffering and death. He desired their presence with Him on this occasion also.
After earnest talk on the way He turned strangely silent and became utterly sad, more sorrowful and silent than ever before. Increasing sadness weighed on Him physically, so that His form swayed as if about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, and He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden. Twice His companions had to support Him or He would have fallen to the earth. His disciples were perplexed and anxiously watched His face for explanation and looked for His usual place of retirement that He might rest, yet dared not question Him about the cause.
The sorrow belongs to the future scenes He opened before His disciples and to the ordeal He foresaw of betrayal, agony in Gethsemane, and crucifixion. He prepared His faithful followers beforehand so that fickleness, desertion, turning away and abuse would not take them by surprise, shake their faith, or draw them away from Him. On the way to the garden He gave them lessons for that hour, using the vine as the symbol of the union of His church with Himself and His Father. The last solemn hours before Gethsemane were spent speaking words of comfort and assurance, and then all united in a hymn of praise to the Most High, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude even as He entered the bloodstained path that would lead through abuse and mockery to Calvary.
Sense of Sorrowful and Heavy
To begin to be sorrowful and very heavy means He seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence in which He had walked all His life on earth. Now He was numbered with the transgressors to bear the guilt of fallen humanity though He knew no sin, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him.
The sorrow was a sinking under deep sorrow and crushing weight. The mysterious cup trembled in His hand. Bloody sweat fell from His brow to moisten the ground, great drops coming from the pores of His skin. He prayed three times for the cup to pass as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, and afterward comfort was sent from heaven by an angel.
It marks the beginning of His suffering in Gethsemane. It was the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God to come upon His Son and impossible to exceed because He was bearing the sins of the whole world. His agony was unlike anything He had faced before and exceeded even the bitterness of the final struggle with death.
It shows Him entering profound sorrow and anguish as He faced the coming events. He endured the garden's conflict before the shame of the cross and His victory over death.
Causes of His Anguish
His anguish came as the sins and iniquity of the world were laid upon Him and weighed heavily on His soul, with the weight of the sins of the whole world resting upon Him and causing His agony in Gethsemane just before betrayal and trial. The curse of human transgression shadowed His Father's face and shut Him from the light of sustaining presence, bringing horror at bearing sin's curse and alienation from His beloved Father. By sin He was being separated from His Father across a broad, black, deep gulf that made His spirit shudder, as He bore the sins of the world, drank the bitter cup, and faced separation from His Father in the trial before Him.
The destiny of the lost world hung in the balance on whether He would stand as man's surety or refuse, with everything at stake in His decision to save man at any cost to Himself. The mysterious cup trembled in His hand as that choice pressed upon Him.
Satan surrounded and encircled His humanity with horror of great darkness, pressing darkness upon His soul and oppressing Him while He wrestled with the powers of darkness alone. It was a conflict where impurity fought with purity and the prince of darkness fought with the prince of light, a wrestling under temptation of awful power in conflict with satanic agencies who strove to separate Him from God as the Jews had separated themselves, yet He would not yield. Satan tempted Him to think God had forsaken Him and to let the guilty human race bear the consequences of its own guilt while He remained innocent before God. The conflict was so terrible that great drops of blood came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground, before betrayal by Judas with a kiss and the flight of all His disciples, amid superhuman assaults that preceded abuse, betrayal, trial and death.
The hour of Satan's apparent triumph had come and the storm of wrath was about to beat upon Him. He had been hunted from city to city by priests, rulers and others influenced by Satan, and now Satan pressed upon Him rejection by His own people, betrayal by a disciple, denial by a zealous follower, and forsaking and flight by all. The disciples dear to Him failed to give sympathy and comfort and reproached and forsook Him, and the place itself stood as a reminder of His unrequited love after He had given lessons of union by the vine on the way to the garden.
He would not use His divine power to escape, but as man must suffer the consequences of man's sin and endure God's wrath against transgression. To do this He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on man's behalf and to make atonement on the cross, consenting to take the body of humanity and to suffer humiliation and death when He could have refused.
Sin appeared so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression. The sense of God's wrath against sin was crushing out His life, an agony unlike anything He had faced before that exceeded even the bitterness of the final struggle with death, as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn. He appeared to hesitate to drink the cup and prayed for it to pass, praying three times with sweat falling like drops of blood until heaven sent an angel to comfort Him, yet chose to drink it in submission to His Father's will to become the propitiation for a race that willed to sin.
Longing for Disciples' Sympathy
In that hour His human nature longed for human sympathy and companionship, yearning for words of relief and love that would strengthen and comfort Him. He craved to know that those He had blessed and comforted understood the terrible temptation pressing upon Him and were praying for Him and for themselves, and their understanding would have strengthened Him. That desire for love and sympathy belongs to the heart God gave humanity, and in bearing the guilt of sinful men He felt it with full force.
He asked the three to stay and watch with Him while He prayed, telling them His soul was sorrowful even unto death, but when He returned He found them asleep. Their sleep was sleep from sorrow, brought on by Satan and his evil angels, when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake.
While they slept they missed His voice and had only a dim sense of the angel's presence sent to comfort Him. Through drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive the spiritual evidence and power of the scene that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes and trials ahead. Their failure stands as a warning to be spiritually awake and ready to believe, and to place themselves in communion with heaven lest those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it.
He wanted them to watch so they would better understand the sorrow pressing on Him and be fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. Watching would have led them to remember what He had told them many times about rejection, suffering, death and rising again, and to keep rays of hope and strengthened faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. It would have taught them that He came 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, rather than an earthly kingdom with themselves as rulers, and would have made them ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery falling on Him without leaving Him alone in His bitter trial.
His grief was also for the disciples themselves, who would soon endure the trial of His betrayal and death and be left without His comforting presence, and knowing their weakness He met them with sympathy rather than rebuke. His own sorrow awakened sympathy for the weak who slept instead of watching and praying. The disciples dear to Him thus failed to give Him the sympathy and comfort He most needed in His humiliation.
Peter afterward remembered that he had slept while Jesus prayed through those fearful hours and that he had seen Him prostrate in agony with bloody sweat moistening the ground. That memory humbled him to penitence and remorse and to renewed commitment. By it he was prepared to pity the tempted, to sympathize with the weak and erring, to warn the presumptuous, and to strengthen his brethren.
Doctrinal Meaning of Suffering
In that distress He gives the pattern of absolute submission to the divine will, surrendering His own will to the Father's will even as He began to bear the sins of the whole world under the most fearful strain ever laid upon a human being. He sought strength from the Father to resist the enemy of righteousness, enduring temptation faithfully and remaining true in poverty and humility. He prayed for the cup to pass yet chose to drink it in submission rather than escape, consenting to take humanity's body and suffer humiliation and death when He could have refused.
The sinless Son was treated as a sinner so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace upon Him bringing healing. He stood in the sinner's place as Mediator and divine-human Substitute, laying off royal robe and kingly crown and clothing divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on man's behalf and make atonement. The whole debt for transgression of the law was demanded from Him, and the extreme penalty fell upon Him without abatement because He was the Son of God.
His agony together with His suffering and death demonstrates the seriousness of sin and the justice of God, showing that the law is unchangeable, holy and immutable. His suffering did not cancel, lessen or abrogate the law, but left it in holy dignity and immutability and showed that God will not excuse transgression. As Surety and Sacrifice He bore humanity's burden so that people could have another trial and be brought into favor with the Father, with full satisfaction of justice.
His sorrow displays the depth of the Father's love in sparing not His own Son but delivering Him up, and reveals God's love in laying down His life in order that sinners might not perish but have eternal life. By that struggle reconciliation with God was obtained and the garden was consecrated, vividly portraying His suffering for humanity.
His sorrow proves He took not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham and was made like His brethren in all things, suffering when tempted so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest to make reconciliation and help those who are tempted. He who was always touched with human woe and always sought by word and deed to relieve human suffering was brought low and appeared as a bruised reed. He is touched with the feeling of human infirmity, so that tried, tempted, weak and broken-hearted souls can spread their case before Him and find deliverance, strength, enlightenment and healing, with divine help nearest in the moment of greatest discouragement.
That agony was watched from the heavenly courts with intense interest, angels seeing every movement of their Commander in the hands of a merciless power stirred by Satan to cut off communication between heaven and earth. No command was given for the angels to break ranks and go to the help of the divine Sufferer. The Gethsemane sorrow stands joined to what followed it: being insulted, mocked, derided, scourged, staggering fainting under the burden of His own cross, and hanging on the cross in shameful humiliation and agony.
Links to Other Scriptures
The sorrow that begins in Gethsemane is not the same as the tears shed over Jerusalem, for those tears and groans came from beholding a doomed city rejecting its Redeemer and refusing the blessing and salvation brought to it. That grief over Jerusalem sprang from blindness and refusal to repent and from seeing judgment drawing near for what the city might have become had it accepted Him, not from fear for Himself or fear of physical suffering and crucifixion. The anguish of Gethsemane still lay ahead when He wept over the city, yet it was not the cause of that weeping.
The garden where this heaviness begins stands as obedience set against the disobedience of the Garden of Eden in eating the forbidden tree. The Lord's Supper calls believers to remember this agony as part of His humiliation and suffering in the sacrifice He offered for the world. The disciples with Him in the garden could not fully enter into the burden He bore.
The three taken with Him that night were Peter, James and John, His favored disciples brought into closest relationship with Him, James and John being the sons of Zebedee. They had seen Him glorified at the transfiguration and were His chief witnesses after His death. James later understood more fully His words about sharing His cup and baptism of suffering when he was imprisoned and put to death by execution.
The verse shows Him preparing for great trial through communion with His Father in prayer, with a night of prayer preceding His agony and the events leading to the cross. Withdrawing from His disciples to pray, He entered agonizing prayer with tears for the people for whom He would give His life, seeking strength from the Father to resist the enemy and enduring temptation faithfully in poverty and humility. His example in deep sorrow and distress teaches believers to wrestle with the Father in prayer for strength and power to make God known in word and action, making His life a pattern of earnest prayer and selfless care for others.
Pattern and Call for Believers
His sorrow in the garden is the pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will cry and agonize with Him day and night for deliverance while facing a death decree for refusing to abandon the seventh-day Sabbath. God will preserve them in that hour, as He sustained Christ pouring out His soul in agony. His agony in bearing the weight of human sin before betrayal and crucifixion was greater than the anguish His people will endure in their final trouble.
His suffering there was endured to show the way through hardship and to bring the divine help needed to overcome. His example calls followers to accept conflict, self-denial and sacrifice for eternal life. It reveals the self-denial of bearing the world's sins and rebukes indifference and love of ease. His soul agony makes His life a pattern of earnest prayer and selfless care for others. That same suffering teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and fitting preparation for holy work.
He became poor that the guilty through His poverty might be made rich, enduring sorrow in the garden when the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him and then a shameful death on the cross to save man. His willingness to suffer so much rebukes those for whom the sacrifice was made who are unwilling to suffer little for truth. It likewise rebukes indifference and love of ease in the face of bearing sin for humanity. His anguish came amid superhuman assaults of Satan and before abuse, betrayal, trial and death with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee beside Him, showing that His followers should not expect popularity but should be meek and lowly like their Master. His last terrible trial was passed through that sinners might not perish but have eternal life, revealing God's love in laying down His life, and it rebukes failure to work in harmony and requires believers to lay down their lives for the brethren in brotherly love and unity.
That sacrifice in Gethsemane together with His death on Calvary measures the great work entrusted to the church. His suffering and death are the price by which people are bought and offered salvation for soul and body, which Christians are to keep in view as they serve others. The sleeping disciples did not hear His voice in His agony, having only a dim sense of the angels' presence and losing the power and glory of the scene. Because of drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, and so those who most need divine instruction still fail to receive it when they do not place themselves in communion with heaven. His betrayal, trial and crucifixion picture how reformers are treated when differences of opinion stir frenzy and hostility. That treatment works through the same satanic spirit moving people through doubt, bitterness, wrath and hatred.