Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
In Gethsemane on the night after the supper He told Peter, James and John that His soul was crushed by sorrow to the point of death and asked them to remain there and watch and pray with Him. That anguish was not fear of nails, insults or bodily pain, but bearing the guilt, curse and penalty of the sins of the whole world laid upon Him in humanity's place. He who had always lived in the light of His Father's presence now felt shut out from Him by the gulf of sin, under divine wrath against transgression and tempted to fear He was forsaken forever. In that superhuman conflict with Satan the destiny of a lost world hung on His willingness to drink the bitter cup as man's surety without calling His divinity to His aid. He longed for human sympathy and prayerful watchfulness to withstand temptation, but His chosen companions slept from sorrow and under satanic stupor and missed the heavenly strengthening He received, leaving Him to wrestle alone. By that sorrow unto death His soul was bruised as an offering for sin and the debt of the broken law was fully demanded of Him as Mediator, and His night of solitary prayer in preparation for trial stands as the pattern for believers in self-denial, missionary sacrifice and agonizing prayer in the time of trouble.
Setting in Gethsemane
The words were spoken on Passover night after the Last Supper, as Jesus slowly made His way with His disciples to Gethsemane after earnestly instructing them on the way. A broad and full Passover moon shone from a cloudless sky while the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. He was seeking His usual place of retirement to brace His spirit for trial and duty by fervent prayer.
On the way He became strangely silent and visibly overcome by utter sadness deeper than the disciples had ever seen. The change perplexed them, so they anxiously watched His countenance yet dared not question Him about its cause. The sorrow weighed on His body as a terrible burden, making every step labored effort and drawing aloud groans from Him. His form swayed as if about to fall, twice requiring His companions to support Him to keep Him from falling to the earth.
Gethsemane was a quiet, dark, wooded garden of dense leafy trees and trunks with a low rustic stone wall. It lay at the foot of the Mount of Olives, hallowed and consecrated by His presence in human nature and by His prayers and tears.
He left the main company to sit while He prayed and led Peter, James and John farther into the seclusion near the gate. He was alone with those three because they were His most earnest followers and closest companions and were favored with the closest relationship. They had been with Him at the transfiguration and had seen Moses and Elijah talking with Him, and He wanted their presence with Him in this hour. John was among the three permitted to witness the agony, and James was thus with Him both at the transfiguration and in this suffering.
Taking the three apart was His accustomed practice from nights spent in prayer while the disciples watched a little season and then slept nearby until morning, so it called forth no remark. On this night the request to remain and watch was more urgent than usual. Yet He could not bear that even they should witness the full suffering He was about to endure, so He asked them to tarry there while He went still farther alone to fall down weeping and praying.
Words of Sorrow
His soul was overwhelmed with a sorrow so profound that He described it as reaching even unto death, feeling near death with a heart fuller of sorrow than ever before on the night of His last agony. He asked His disciples to remain and watch with Him while the burden and curse of the world's sins weighed upon Him and shadowed His Father's face from His sight. His anguish came as He faced the cup of suffering and the choice whether to stand as humanity's surety, with the destiny of a lost world hanging in the balance while He was tempted with fear that God had forsaken Him. In His hour of humiliation when He most needed their sympathy and comfort they reproached and forsook Him, yet He longed for human sympathy from Peter, James and John while He prayed.
His appearance expressed sorrow past all description in tones they had never heard, with labored steps and groans under a terrible burden, twice kept by His companions from falling, His frame convulsed with anguish and His pale face and countenance showing that sorrow. His face was pale with deep sorrow yet never more beautiful, expressing pity for those who knew not what they were doing and a desire to help them if He could. That exceeding sorrow unto death was not dread of the physical suffering soon to come but enduring the penalty of man's transgression.
The agony forced bloody sweat from His pores to fall in drops upon the ground and sod, marring His visage and form beyond that of men until He fainted as in death. Its bitterness exceeded that of the last great struggle with death, for He was fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world with horror and darkness as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn and prayed three times for deliverance, for the cup if possible to pass. Heaven could no longer endure the sight and sent a messenger with a cup of consolation to comfort and strengthen Him for the conflict. His suffering was greater than that of martyrs, whose physical suffering was accompanied by the divine presence, while the Father's face was hidden from His Son.
This was His hour of keenest agony and most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God upon His Son and impossible to exceed because He was bearing the sins of the whole world. It was distinct from His later suffering before His enemies when His face was not marred with agony, when the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. He entered the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane to the abuse and mockery of the judgment hall and the awful scenes of Calvary, a scene more trying than any other, declaring how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world, including the bloody sweat that now makes it possible for humanity to take hold of divine power and become overcomers.
Cause of Anguish
The exceeding sorrow unto death was not dread of having hands and feet nailed to the cross nor fear of bodily suffering, human persecution, insults or false accusations, but enduring the penalty of man's transgression and bearing the guilt, burden and curse of the sins of the whole world laid upon Him in humanity's place, with the cup of suffering that belonged to guilty humanity falling on Him while He offered humanity the cup of blessing. His agony came from bearing that penalty for a guilty world, which troubled Him far more than Satan or human opposition had done, and He felt near death under its weight. The sins of the world pressed upon His soul and bowed Him to the earth as He moved with labored effort and groaned aloud under the terrible burden.
Sin appeared so dreadful and the weight of guilt so great and so hateful to His Father that He who had always walked in the light of God's presence now seemed shut out from God's sustaining presence. He felt separated by a broad, black, deep gulf of sin, His unity with the Father broken up, the Father's face shadowed and hidden, the Father's frown and awful displeasure and wrath against transgression crushing out His life. Numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin, He was tempted to fear God had forsaken Him, was withdrawing His presence, would no longer love Him, and would shut Him out forever from His Father's love. Darkness like the pall of death shut Him in with horror and grief, as if left alone among fallen men and evil angels.
The mysterious cup trembled in His hand and the destiny of a lost world hung in the balance on whether He would stand as man's surety and drink the bitter portion to save a lost world or forbear and let it perish and let the human race bear its own guilt. To drink meant opening His breast to the griefs and woes and sins of humanity, and His suffering almost extinguished His life. As a man He must not call His divinity to His aid but bear man's sin and the Creator's displeasure, and He feared His human nature would be unable to endure the coming conflict with the prince of darkness, in which case humanity would be irrecoverably lost, Satan would be victor and the earth would be his kingdom.
He was assaulted in superhuman conflict with Satan and satanic agencies who strove to divorce Him from God, encircling His humanity with a horror of great darkness He had never before experienced, with terrible amazement and shuddering dread. Darkness was pressed upon His soul by the enemy, impurity fought with purity and the prince of light with the prince of darkness, and He was left to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone. The same satanic spirit working through hearts opened to doubt, bitterness, wrath and hatred is revealed in His betrayal, trial and crucifixion and in opposition to God's messengers, before which He would not yield though He must then face abuse, reproach, mockery, betrayal and death.
The holy Son of God had no sins or griefs of His own but was bearing the griefs of others, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. Out of pity He had laid aside His glory and royal robe and kingly crown, clothed His divinity with humanity and become a man to represent the fallen race, willing to be treated as a sinner that sinners might be treated as sinless. Looking into the gulf of woe between man and God and by sinless life and painful death bridging the chasm, He bore a burden so heavy human nature could not have borne it, since sin is the transgression or breaking of God's holy law.
The grief over Jerusalem described near this time was distinct from this agony: it was not fear of physical suffering or death in Gethsemane but selfless sorrow born of love because the city had rejected its Redeemer and the salvation He offered. Its blindness and impenitence kept it from blessing, facing destruction though it might have been saved and might have become what He intended had it accepted Him. While the approaching agony in Gethsemane is acknowledged as a great darkness overshadowing Him and making His soul an offering for sin, His tears in that scene arise from seeing Jerusalem's guilt and the tragedy of its doom.
Plea for Companionship
In supreme superhuman agony His human nature longed for sympathy, for the desire for love and sympathy is implanted by God, and He asked for sympathizing hearts and words of consolation and comfort and steadfast faith. He yearned for words of relief from those He had often blessed and comforted, longing to know that they understood His terrible temptation to let the human race bear its own guilt and perish while He stood innocent before God. Had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God He would have been relieved and comforted and strengthened by their steadfast faith. He hoped they would stay awake and offer Him sympathy, longing for some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him in deep woe and grief, but their sleep left Him without the companionship and comfort He longed for.
The call to tarry and watch was a call to stay with Him and to pray for themselves and for Him. It was a repeated warning to watch and pray, given because watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary to withstand temptation and that satanic agencies might not prevail over them. The request was more urgent than His usual practice of praying while they slept at a distance, for He chose them to be with Him in this hour and asked them to remain nearby and keep watch.
They failed to do what He asked and fell asleep, though love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. At first they were much troubled to see their usually calm and dignified Master suffering, and they prayed as they heard His strong cries and agonized prayer from pale and quivering lips, with no intent to forsake Him. But they became paralyzed by a stupor they might have shaken off if they had continued pleading with God, pressed into sleep by Satan and his evil angels, and asleep from sorrow, though He was praying for strength for them to endure.
By sleeping they did not hear His voice but had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. They missed witnessing the scene and the angel's message of love from the Father that soothed and calmed Christ. Their drowsiness kept them from receiving the heavenly evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, showing that those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it when they do not remain in communion with Heaven through continual listening and unbroken prayer. In His humiliation, when He most needed their sympathy and comfort, they reproached and forsook Him and left their suffering Master to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone.
He desired them to watch with Him in His hour of pain so they would better understand the sorrow that pressed upon Him and be fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. He desired them to remember what He had told them many times, that the people would turn against Him and put Him to death and that He would rise again from the grave, so they would have rays of hope amid the gloom and strengthened faith even when Satan seemed to be gaining the victory. He wanted them to understand that He had come not to set up an earthly kingdom where nations would bow and they would be chief rulers, but to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in the hearts of men to fit them for heaven. Had they watched and prayed as He asked, they would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Him and would not have left Him alone in the hour of His bitter trial. His presence with them and His preparation of them was meant to strengthen His true followers for the ordeal of betrayal and condemnation and desertion, so that the fickleness of the crowd would not take them by surprise or cause their faith to collapse, meeting their weakness and danger of falling into temptation with sympathy and love rather than harshness to protect them from suffering and unbelief.
Peter was asleep while Jesus prayed through those fearful hours of agony when sweat was forced from His pores. Remembering this failure later filled him with remorse, and his repentance humbled and changed him. That experience made him more able to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, warn the presumptuous, and strengthen his fellow believers.
Atonement Accomplished
The sorrow unto death was the bruising by which His soul was made an offering for sin, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace bringing healing. Having taken the sinner's place and been made sin, the whole debt for transgression of God's holy law was demanded from Him as Mediator, and a full atonement was required. Without abatement the extreme penalty of the law fell upon Him as the divine-human Substitute, for justice did not spare Him because He was the Son of God and the Fellow of the Almighty, but the sword of justice awoke against Him and the vials of wrath were not withheld. His death bears the penalty yet does not abolish the law or permit continued breaking of it, but testifies that the law stands in holy dignity and immutability while revealing the measureless love of the Father who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for all. Bearing humanity's sin and sensing His Father's love withdrawn pressed His soul with that sorrow, and His plea for the cup to pass expresses the anguish while His submission shows complete obedience.
He proves He took not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, in all things made like His brethren. Out of pity He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on human behalf and to make atonement, consenting to take a human body with a will capable of refusing the humiliation, yet choosing to suffer humiliation and death and surrendering His will in absolute submission to the divine will. Brought to the condition of a bruised reed though ever touched with human woe and ever seeking by word and deed to relieve suffering, suffering Himself being tempted, He became a merciful and faithful high priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people and to be able to succor them that are tempted. His obedience in Gethsemane is set against Adam's disobedience in Eden, showing that God's law can be obeyed in human life as a reproach to disobedience and an example for those called to follow God's will rather than their own.
There He bore the sins of the world, and His sorrowful struggle unto death obtained reconciliation with God and consecrated the garden. Those who celebrate the ordinances as commanded spiritually pass through that garden and witness that struggle by which reconciliation was obtained. He endured that conflict, the shame of the cross, and death, and gained victory over death and the tomb. It was the closing scenes of the conflict with Satan, watched with intense interest by all Heaven and the unfallen worlds, vindicating God's character in banishing Satan.
His soul was bowed down by a horror of darkness He had never before experienced, with overmastering agony, terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world with a bitterness exceeding that of the last great struggle with death. The agony forced bloody sweat from His pores in drops upon the ground and wrung from Him thrice the prayer for deliverance, for the cup if possible to pass, until Heaven sent a messenger of consolation to Him. Angels from the heavenly courts watched every movement with intense interest, seeing the agony of the Commander of the angels in whom God beheld the reflection of His own image, yet received no command to break their ranks to help the divine Sufferer in the hands of a merciless power confederate with the priests and rulers to destroy the champion of God and cut off communication between the world and heaven. That agony stands joined to what followed, being insulted, mocked, derided, scourged, staggering faint and dying under the burden of His own cross, and hanging on the cross in shameful humiliation and agony. His anguish as Redeemer, including the bloody sweat, felt almost unbearable in facing the bitter cup and the separation from His Father during crucifixion, bearing the sins of the whole world, and makes it possible for humanity to take hold of divine power and become overcomers through the Lamb's blood and the testimony of faith.
Pattern for Believers
His resort to solitude and spending the night in prayer to prepare for great trial makes this night of prayer that preceded the judgment hall and the cross and the resurrection glory an example for believers. As before the ordination of the apostles and the Sermon on the Mount and before the transfiguration, He sought the solitude of the mountains for night prayer before important work or great trial. His example teaches believers to seek strength from God so they can make Him known through words and actions, rather than resist His will. Wrestling in prayer to the Father in deep sorrow for the people He came to give His life for, He shows the cost of resisting the enemy of righteousness, sustained by God through temptation while accepting poverty and humility to build a people for God. Spending the night praying on the damp ground, He shows the depth of His sorrow and an example of prayerful self-sacrifice for human salvation.
His pouring out His soul in agony in the garden is a pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will likewise cry and agonize day and night with Him for deliverance. They will cry earnestly day and night for deliverance though threatened with death for refusing to disregard the Sabbath and honor the first day, facing a decree that they must dishonor the Sabbath or lose their lives, yet they will remain faithful to the Sabbath. His agony was greater than the anguish they will endure in their final conflict because He was bearing the weight of their sins, while they suffer on their own account. His suffering in the garden, together with His trials in the wilderness and death at Calvary, shows the way of self-denial and brings the divine help needed to overcome. His profound suffering in Gethsemane as part of the self-denying path He endured to save humanity and show the way through trial is presented as part of His sacrifice for humanity and as a motive for service.
His agony when the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him and His shameful death on the cross were endured to save guilty man, becoming poor for their sakes so that through His poverty they might be made rich. The greatness of that sorrow rebukes how little those He died to save are willing to suffer for the truth, and His self-denial and sacrifice in bearing the weight of the world's sins rebukes indifference and teaches self-denial. That great sorrow, together with the cross at Calvary, set the measure for the church's missionary work, yet the church's efforts remain far behind in comparison with that sacrifice. His love in laying down life for others sets the measure for humble united service in laying down lives for the brethren instead of seeking to command, with the work for others still far behind that sacrifice. Though the apostles were heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear after hearing Him foretell His sufferings and death, there were no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief as He entered the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane to abuse and mockery and the awful scenes of Calvary, a scene more trying than any other.
He gives a lesson of courage and fortitude, spending those last solemn, momentous hours before the agony in speaking words of comfort and assurance to His disciples and then uniting with them all in a hymn of praise to the Most High. His asking the disciples to stay and watch with Him while He faced the cup of separation from the Father while bearing sin, yet finding them asleep, is applied as a warning against spiritual sleep and a call to wakefulness and faithful belief. His enduring Satan's superhuman assaults before facing abuse, reproach, mockery, betrayal, and death shows that His followers should not expect popularity or worldly honor, but should be meek and willing to share in His sufferings. His profound sorrow and plea for companions to remain watchful echoes in Luther's anguish and prayer before his final answer. James, who was with Him with John and Peter during the night of agony, later understood His words about drinking His cup and sharing His baptism more fully when imprisoned and facing execution as involving suffering and death.
In Gethsemane on the night after the supper He told Peter, James and John that His soul was crushed by sorrow to the point of death and asked them to remain there and watch and pray with Him. That anguish was not fear of nails, insults or bodily pain, but bearing the guilt, curse and penalty of the sins of the whole world laid upon Him in humanity's place. He who had always lived in the light of His Father's presence now felt shut out from Him by the gulf of sin, under divine wrath against transgression and tempted to fear He was forsaken forever. In that superhuman conflict with Satan the destiny of a lost world hung on His willingness to drink the bitter cup as man's surety without calling His divinity to His aid. He longed for human sympathy and prayerful watchfulness to withstand temptation, but His chosen companions slept from sorrow and under satanic stupor and missed the heavenly strengthening He received, leaving Him to wrestle alone. By that sorrow unto death His soul was bruised as an offering for sin and the debt of the broken law was fully demanded of Him as Mediator, and His night of solitary prayer in preparation for trial stands as the pattern for believers in self-denial, missionary sacrifice and agonizing prayer in the time of trouble.
Setting in Gethsemane
The words were spoken on Passover night after the Last Supper, as Jesus slowly made His way with His disciples to Gethsemane after earnestly instructing them on the way. A broad and full Passover moon shone from a cloudless sky while the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. He was seeking His usual place of retirement to brace His spirit for trial and duty by fervent prayer.
On the way He became strangely silent and visibly overcome by utter sadness deeper than the disciples had ever seen. The change perplexed them, so they anxiously watched His countenance yet dared not question Him about its cause. The sorrow weighed on His body as a terrible burden, making every step labored effort and drawing aloud groans from Him. His form swayed as if about to fall, twice requiring His companions to support Him to keep Him from falling to the earth.
Gethsemane was a quiet, dark, wooded garden of dense leafy trees and trunks with a low rustic stone wall. It lay at the foot of the Mount of Olives, hallowed and consecrated by His presence in human nature and by His prayers and tears.
He left the main company to sit while He prayed and led Peter, James and John farther into the seclusion near the gate. He was alone with those three because they were His most earnest followers and closest companions and were favored with the closest relationship. They had been with Him at the transfiguration and had seen Moses and Elijah talking with Him, and He wanted their presence with Him in this hour. John was among the three permitted to witness the agony, and James was thus with Him both at the transfiguration and in this suffering.
Taking the three apart was His accustomed practice from nights spent in prayer while the disciples watched a little season and then slept nearby until morning, so it called forth no remark. On this night the request to remain and watch was more urgent than usual. Yet He could not bear that even they should witness the full suffering He was about to endure, so He asked them to tarry there while He went still farther alone to fall down weeping and praying.
Words of Sorrow
His soul was overwhelmed with a sorrow so profound that He described it as reaching even unto death, feeling near death with a heart fuller of sorrow than ever before on the night of His last agony. He asked His disciples to remain and watch with Him while the burden and curse of the world's sins weighed upon Him and shadowed His Father's face from His sight. His anguish came as He faced the cup of suffering and the choice whether to stand as humanity's surety, with the destiny of a lost world hanging in the balance while He was tempted with fear that God had forsaken Him. In His hour of humiliation when He most needed their sympathy and comfort they reproached and forsook Him, yet He longed for human sympathy from Peter, James and John while He prayed.
His appearance expressed sorrow past all description in tones they had never heard, with labored steps and groans under a terrible burden, twice kept by His companions from falling, His frame convulsed with anguish and His pale face and countenance showing that sorrow. His face was pale with deep sorrow yet never more beautiful, expressing pity for those who knew not what they were doing and a desire to help them if He could. That exceeding sorrow unto death was not dread of the physical suffering soon to come but enduring the penalty of man's transgression.
The agony forced bloody sweat from His pores to fall in drops upon the ground and sod, marring His visage and form beyond that of men until He fainted as in death. Its bitterness exceeded that of the last great struggle with death, for He was fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world with horror and darkness as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn and prayed three times for deliverance, for the cup if possible to pass. Heaven could no longer endure the sight and sent a messenger with a cup of consolation to comfort and strengthen Him for the conflict. His suffering was greater than that of martyrs, whose physical suffering was accompanied by the divine presence, while the Father's face was hidden from His Son.
This was His hour of keenest agony and most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God upon His Son and impossible to exceed because He was bearing the sins of the whole world. It was distinct from His later suffering before His enemies when His face was not marred with agony, when the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. He entered the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane to the abuse and mockery of the judgment hall and the awful scenes of Calvary, a scene more trying than any other, declaring how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world, including the bloody sweat that now makes it possible for humanity to take hold of divine power and become overcomers.
Cause of Anguish
The exceeding sorrow unto death was not dread of having hands and feet nailed to the cross nor fear of bodily suffering, human persecution, insults or false accusations, but enduring the penalty of man's transgression and bearing the guilt, burden and curse of the sins of the whole world laid upon Him in humanity's place, with the cup of suffering that belonged to guilty humanity falling on Him while He offered humanity the cup of blessing. His agony came from bearing that penalty for a guilty world, which troubled Him far more than Satan or human opposition had done, and He felt near death under its weight. The sins of the world pressed upon His soul and bowed Him to the earth as He moved with labored effort and groaned aloud under the terrible burden.
Sin appeared so dreadful and the weight of guilt so great and so hateful to His Father that He who had always walked in the light of God's presence now seemed shut out from God's sustaining presence. He felt separated by a broad, black, deep gulf of sin, His unity with the Father broken up, the Father's face shadowed and hidden, the Father's frown and awful displeasure and wrath against transgression crushing out His life. Numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin, He was tempted to fear God had forsaken Him, was withdrawing His presence, would no longer love Him, and would shut Him out forever from His Father's love. Darkness like the pall of death shut Him in with horror and grief, as if left alone among fallen men and evil angels.
The mysterious cup trembled in His hand and the destiny of a lost world hung in the balance on whether He would stand as man's surety and drink the bitter portion to save a lost world or forbear and let it perish and let the human race bear its own guilt. To drink meant opening His breast to the griefs and woes and sins of humanity, and His suffering almost extinguished His life. As a man He must not call His divinity to His aid but bear man's sin and the Creator's displeasure, and He feared His human nature would be unable to endure the coming conflict with the prince of darkness, in which case humanity would be irrecoverably lost, Satan would be victor and the earth would be his kingdom.
He was assaulted in superhuman conflict with Satan and satanic agencies who strove to divorce Him from God, encircling His humanity with a horror of great darkness He had never before experienced, with terrible amazement and shuddering dread. Darkness was pressed upon His soul by the enemy, impurity fought with purity and the prince of light with the prince of darkness, and He was left to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone. The same satanic spirit working through hearts opened to doubt, bitterness, wrath and hatred is revealed in His betrayal, trial and crucifixion and in opposition to God's messengers, before which He would not yield though He must then face abuse, reproach, mockery, betrayal and death.
The holy Son of God had no sins or griefs of His own but was bearing the griefs of others, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. Out of pity He had laid aside His glory and royal robe and kingly crown, clothed His divinity with humanity and become a man to represent the fallen race, willing to be treated as a sinner that sinners might be treated as sinless. Looking into the gulf of woe between man and God and by sinless life and painful death bridging the chasm, He bore a burden so heavy human nature could not have borne it, since sin is the transgression or breaking of God's holy law.
The grief over Jerusalem described near this time was distinct from this agony: it was not fear of physical suffering or death in Gethsemane but selfless sorrow born of love because the city had rejected its Redeemer and the salvation He offered. Its blindness and impenitence kept it from blessing, facing destruction though it might have been saved and might have become what He intended had it accepted Him. While the approaching agony in Gethsemane is acknowledged as a great darkness overshadowing Him and making His soul an offering for sin, His tears in that scene arise from seeing Jerusalem's guilt and the tragedy of its doom.
Plea for Companionship
In supreme superhuman agony His human nature longed for sympathy, for the desire for love and sympathy is implanted by God, and He asked for sympathizing hearts and words of consolation and comfort and steadfast faith. He yearned for words of relief from those He had often blessed and comforted, longing to know that they understood His terrible temptation to let the human race bear its own guilt and perish while He stood innocent before God. Had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God He would have been relieved and comforted and strengthened by their steadfast faith. He hoped they would stay awake and offer Him sympathy, longing for some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him in deep woe and grief, but their sleep left Him without the companionship and comfort He longed for.
The call to tarry and watch was a call to stay with Him and to pray for themselves and for Him. It was a repeated warning to watch and pray, given because watchfulness and earnest prayer are necessary to withstand temptation and that satanic agencies might not prevail over them. The request was more urgent than His usual practice of praying while they slept at a distance, for He chose them to be with Him in this hour and asked them to remain nearby and keep watch.
They failed to do what He asked and fell asleep, though love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake. At first they were much troubled to see their usually calm and dignified Master suffering, and they prayed as they heard His strong cries and agonized prayer from pale and quivering lips, with no intent to forsake Him. But they became paralyzed by a stupor they might have shaken off if they had continued pleading with God, pressed into sleep by Satan and his evil angels, and asleep from sorrow, though He was praying for strength for them to endure.
By sleeping they did not hear His voice but had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. They missed witnessing the scene and the angel's message of love from the Father that soothed and calmed Christ. Their drowsiness kept them from receiving the heavenly evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, showing that those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it when they do not remain in communion with Heaven through continual listening and unbroken prayer. In His humiliation, when He most needed their sympathy and comfort, they reproached and forsook Him and left their suffering Master to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone.
He desired them to watch with Him in His hour of pain so they would better understand the sorrow that pressed upon Him and be fitted to behold His death on Calvary's cross. He desired them to remember what He had told them many times, that the people would turn against Him and put Him to death and that He would rise again from the grave, so they would have rays of hope amid the gloom and strengthened faith even when Satan seemed to be gaining the victory. He wanted them to understand that He had come not to set up an earthly kingdom where nations would bow and they would be chief rulers, but to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in the hearts of men to fit them for heaven. Had they watched and prayed as He asked, they would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Him and would not have left Him alone in the hour of His bitter trial. His presence with them and His preparation of them was meant to strengthen His true followers for the ordeal of betrayal and condemnation and desertion, so that the fickleness of the crowd would not take them by surprise or cause their faith to collapse, meeting their weakness and danger of falling into temptation with sympathy and love rather than harshness to protect them from suffering and unbelief.
Peter was asleep while Jesus prayed through those fearful hours of agony when sweat was forced from His pores. Remembering this failure later filled him with remorse, and his repentance humbled and changed him. That experience made him more able to pity the tempted, sympathize with the weak and erring, warn the presumptuous, and strengthen his fellow believers.
Atonement Accomplished
The sorrow unto death was the bruising by which His soul was made an offering for sin, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace bringing healing. Having taken the sinner's place and been made sin, the whole debt for transgression of God's holy law was demanded from Him as Mediator, and a full atonement was required. Without abatement the extreme penalty of the law fell upon Him as the divine-human Substitute, for justice did not spare Him because He was the Son of God and the Fellow of the Almighty, but the sword of justice awoke against Him and the vials of wrath were not withheld. His death bears the penalty yet does not abolish the law or permit continued breaking of it, but testifies that the law stands in holy dignity and immutability while revealing the measureless love of the Father who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for all. Bearing humanity's sin and sensing His Father's love withdrawn pressed His soul with that sorrow, and His plea for the cup to pass expresses the anguish while His submission shows complete obedience.
He proves He took not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, in all things made like His brethren. Out of pity He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on human behalf and to make atonement, consenting to take a human body with a will capable of refusing the humiliation, yet choosing to suffer humiliation and death and surrendering His will in absolute submission to the divine will. Brought to the condition of a bruised reed though ever touched with human woe and ever seeking by word and deed to relieve suffering, suffering Himself being tempted, He became a merciful and faithful high priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people and to be able to succor them that are tempted. His obedience in Gethsemane is set against Adam's disobedience in Eden, showing that God's law can be obeyed in human life as a reproach to disobedience and an example for those called to follow God's will rather than their own.
There He bore the sins of the world, and His sorrowful struggle unto death obtained reconciliation with God and consecrated the garden. Those who celebrate the ordinances as commanded spiritually pass through that garden and witness that struggle by which reconciliation was obtained. He endured that conflict, the shame of the cross, and death, and gained victory over death and the tomb. It was the closing scenes of the conflict with Satan, watched with intense interest by all Heaven and the unfallen worlds, vindicating God's character in banishing Satan.
His soul was bowed down by a horror of darkness He had never before experienced, with overmastering agony, terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world with a bitterness exceeding that of the last great struggle with death. The agony forced bloody sweat from His pores in drops upon the ground and wrung from Him thrice the prayer for deliverance, for the cup if possible to pass, until Heaven sent a messenger of consolation to Him. Angels from the heavenly courts watched every movement with intense interest, seeing the agony of the Commander of the angels in whom God beheld the reflection of His own image, yet received no command to break their ranks to help the divine Sufferer in the hands of a merciless power confederate with the priests and rulers to destroy the champion of God and cut off communication between the world and heaven. That agony stands joined to what followed, being insulted, mocked, derided, scourged, staggering faint and dying under the burden of His own cross, and hanging on the cross in shameful humiliation and agony. His anguish as Redeemer, including the bloody sweat, felt almost unbearable in facing the bitter cup and the separation from His Father during crucifixion, bearing the sins of the whole world, and makes it possible for humanity to take hold of divine power and become overcomers through the Lamb's blood and the testimony of faith.
Pattern for Believers
His resort to solitude and spending the night in prayer to prepare for great trial makes this night of prayer that preceded the judgment hall and the cross and the resurrection glory an example for believers. As before the ordination of the apostles and the Sermon on the Mount and before the transfiguration, He sought the solitude of the mountains for night prayer before important work or great trial. His example teaches believers to seek strength from God so they can make Him known through words and actions, rather than resist His will. Wrestling in prayer to the Father in deep sorrow for the people He came to give His life for, He shows the cost of resisting the enemy of righteousness, sustained by God through temptation while accepting poverty and humility to build a people for God. Spending the night praying on the damp ground, He shows the depth of His sorrow and an example of prayerful self-sacrifice for human salvation.
His pouring out His soul in agony in the garden is a pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will likewise cry and agonize day and night with Him for deliverance. They will cry earnestly day and night for deliverance though threatened with death for refusing to disregard the Sabbath and honor the first day, facing a decree that they must dishonor the Sabbath or lose their lives, yet they will remain faithful to the Sabbath. His agony was greater than the anguish they will endure in their final conflict because He was bearing the weight of their sins, while they suffer on their own account. His suffering in the garden, together with His trials in the wilderness and death at Calvary, shows the way of self-denial and brings the divine help needed to overcome. His profound suffering in Gethsemane as part of the self-denying path He endured to save humanity and show the way through trial is presented as part of His sacrifice for humanity and as a motive for service.
His agony when the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him and His shameful death on the cross were endured to save guilty man, becoming poor for their sakes so that through His poverty they might be made rich. The greatness of that sorrow rebukes how little those He died to save are willing to suffer for the truth, and His self-denial and sacrifice in bearing the weight of the world's sins rebukes indifference and teaches self-denial. That great sorrow, together with the cross at Calvary, set the measure for the church's missionary work, yet the church's efforts remain far behind in comparison with that sacrifice. His love in laying down life for others sets the measure for humble united service in laying down lives for the brethren instead of seeking to command, with the work for others still far behind that sacrifice. Though the apostles were heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear after hearing Him foretell His sufferings and death, there were no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief as He entered the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane to abuse and mockery and the awful scenes of Calvary, a scene more trying than any other.
He gives a lesson of courage and fortitude, spending those last solemn, momentous hours before the agony in speaking words of comfort and assurance to His disciples and then uniting with them all in a hymn of praise to the Most High. His asking the disciples to stay and watch with Him while He faced the cup of separation from the Father while bearing sin, yet finding them asleep, is applied as a warning against spiritual sleep and a call to wakefulness and faithful belief. His enduring Satan's superhuman assaults before facing abuse, reproach, mockery, betrayal, and death shows that His followers should not expect popularity or worldly honor, but should be meek and willing to share in His sufferings. His profound sorrow and plea for companions to remain watchful echoes in Luther's anguish and prayer before his final answer. James, who was with Him with John and Peter during the night of agony, later understood His words about drinking His cup and sharing His baptism more fully when imprisoned and facing execution as involving suffering and death.