And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.
On Passover night in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed in agony and returning a second time found Peter, James and John asleep again because their eyes were heavy with drowsiness and weariness. He longed for human companionship and some word of love and prayer to strengthen and comfort Him in His anguish, but three times He came seeking sympathy and found them sleeping, leaving Him to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone. Their sleep came because they did not heed His warning to watch and pray against temptation, yielding to a stupor pressed upon them by Satan that they could have shaken off by pleading with God, so they lost the strengthening heaven would have given them for the trial ahead. The hour belongs to His bearing the guilt and crushing weight of the sins of the whole world, feeling shut out from His Father's light under the wrath against transgression while choosing in submission to drink the cup rather than let redemption fail. Their failure warns believers against spiritual sleep and calls them to wake, watch, pray, and follow His pattern of self-denying wrestling prayer when preparing for great trial.
Night and Place in Gethsemane
The verse belongs to Passover night, when Jesus went slowly in company with His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane under the broad full Passover moon shining from a cloudless sky while the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. That garden lay at the foot of the Mount of Olives, a spot He had often visited for meditation and prayer but never with a heart so full of sorrow as on this night. There He agonized alone while His disciples slept, consecrating the place with His prayers and tears and moistening the ground with His blood.
As He neared the garden on the night of His last agony a change came over Him such as the disciples had never before seen, for He was so utterly sad and silent and this strange sadness deepened as He proceeded though they dared not question Him about its cause. His form swayed as if He were about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden, and twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. Meanwhile the disciples looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement, that He might rest. The verse comes after His last interview with the apostles before separation, when they had heard Him foretell His sufferings and death and their hearts were heavy with sorrow and their minds distracted with doubt and fear. Yet there were no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief, for those last solemn, momentous hours were spent by Him speaking words of comfort and assurance to His disciples and then uniting with them all in a hymn of praise to the Most High, a prelude to the agony in Gethsemane, the abuse and mockery of the judgment hall, and the awful scenes of Calvary.
Gethsemane lay ahead on the path to crucifixion, and the events of the verse stand in the garden just before His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion, when He suffered deep agony as He faced bearing humanity's sin and separation from His Father. At an earlier moment on that path His sorrow was not for His coming suffering but for Jerusalem's doomed people and their blindness and impenitence.
Second Return and Heavy Eyes
After praying a second time in Gethsemane Jesus came back to Peter, James and John and found them asleep again because their eyes were heavy with drowsiness, revealing physical weariness and weakness in the crisis before His betrayal and death. He longed for human companionship and expected their help, hoping for some word from them that would bring relief to His anguish and break the spell of darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him, but they could give Him no support and had nothing to answer Him while He endured superhuman and increasing agony. At first they had been troubled to see their usually calm Master wrestling with incomprehensible sorrow and had prayed as they heard His strong cries, with no intent to forsake Him, yet they fell into a paralyzing stupor they could have shaken off had they continued pleading with God, for they had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray. His voice reached them not in triumph but in human anguish as a broken reed, praying that if the cup could not pass without His drinking it then the Father's will be done, and their first impulse was to go to Him, but they stayed where they were because He had told them to tarry there watching in prayer so they would not enter into temptation. Even in His own agony He excused their weakness, while His need awakened His sympathy and His fear that they could not endure the test of His betrayal and death, for had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God against satanic agencies He would have been relieved and comforted by their steadfast faith.
They were asleep for sorrow on the damp ground while He spent the night in agonizing prayer, and His devotion and self-sacrifice there stand as a pattern for His followers. When they looked on Him they saw His face marked by agony and sorrow and bloody sweat, with His visage marred more than any man, and were filled with sorrow, yet they did not know what to say or answer Him. Darkness pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony as He came to them that second time.
After finding them sleeping He left them and prayed the third time with the same words, O My Father if it be possible let this cup pass, always adding Not My will but Thine be done, praying more earnestly until His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. He prayed three times for deliverance, and heaven sent a messenger to console Him as He fainted under the guilt of the world. That thrice-repeated prayer is the crisis whether the cup will pass from the Sufferer, whether the sacrifice ordained before the foundation of the world and symbolized in every sacrifice offered since Adam's transgression will be given up, whether the glorious purpose of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son to save a perishing world will come to nothing. It decides whether that which angels eagerly desired to look into and understand, which had been the burden of prophecy and lay at the foundation of types and shadows, will fail and leave Satan and his apostate forces and confederacy of evil triumphant, for Christ had already suffered much as the Son of Man to redeem men and much as their substitute, and now the time had come when all the types and symbols pointing to His suffering and death were to be fulfilled. The issue is whether He will fail and come short in His work of redemption, whether the prince of darkness will triumph and his proud boast become truth, whether the prey will be left helpless in the hands of the mighty or the captives will be delivered, Satan overcome, and it be demonstrated that obedience to the law is possible, for all have been made more than conquerors through Christ.
Between the sleeps they were suddenly awakened by the light surrounding Him, and in that brief waking they saw the angel bending over their prostrate Master, lifting His head upon his bosom and pointing toward heaven, and heard his voice like sweetest music speaking words of comfort and hope. The sight recalled to them the scene upon the mount of transfiguration and the glory that had encircled Jesus in the temple and the voice of God that spoke from the cloud, and with that same glory now revealed they had no further fear for their Master because He was under the care of God and a mighty angel had been sent to protect Him. Then in their weariness they yielded again to the strange stupor that overpowered them, and Jesus found them sleeping.
In that awful crisis everything was at stake while the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. The heavens opened and light shone forth amid the stormy darkness, and the mighty angel in God's presence, occupying the position from which Satan fell, came to Christ's side, not to take the cup from His hand but to strengthen Him to drink it with assurance of the Father's love and to give power to the divine-human suppliant. He came to tell Him that His three prayers had been heard, pointing Him to the open heavens and the souls that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He assured Him that His Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that His sacrifice would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan and that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High, and told Him that He would see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied in a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved.
Christ's Longing for Sympathy
In Gethsemane He longed for human companionship and expected help, craving the support His human nature needed while He endured superhuman agony. Coming back to Peter, James and John a second time, He longed for companionship and some word from them that would bring relief to His anguish. He hoped in deep woe and grief that they would speak some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him in His sorrow. What He desired was words that would bring relief and break the spell of darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him as darkness pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony. Yet He found them asleep again because their eyes were heavy, with nothing to answer Him, and His desire for companionship was left unmet.
He had asked them to watch and pray with Him because He needed their human sympathy and prayers. He was looking to see whether they understood His agony. He went to them three times, and each time they were asleep, unable to keep watch with Him. So while He endured superhuman and increasing agony, His desire remained unmet.
His need shows that love and sympathy are God-given human needs. The disciples heard the agony of prayer from His pale and quivering lips, but they allowed sleep to overcome them. Too overcome by sleep to give Him the sympathy and comfort He needed, they failed Him, and their forsaking was a painful reminder of unrequited love. That failure was part of the reproach, forsaking, and humiliation He endured in His hour of trial, leaving their suffering Master to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone.
Even in His own superhuman and increasing agony He excused their weakness. He bent over His sleeping disciples in pitying tenderness. Their weakness awakened His sympathy and His fear that they could not endure the test of His betrayal and death. Had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God against satanic agencies He would have been relieved and comforted by their steadfast faith.
Disciples' Sleep and Failure
They had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation. At first they had been troubled to see their usually calm Master wrestling with incomprehensible sorrow, and had prayed as they heard His strong cries, and they did not intend to forsake Him. But they fell into a paralyzing stupor they could have shaken off had they continued pleading with God.
Their sleep was where love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake, and it was caused by Satan and his evil angels present on the ground. His voice reached them not in triumph but in human anguish as a broken reed. Their first impulse was to go to Him, but they stayed where they were because He had told them to tarry there watching in prayer so they would not enter into temptation.
Because of drowsiness and stupor they did not hear the voice of Jesus. They had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. Because of that drowsiness they failed to receive the heavenly evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The same drowsiness today keeps even those who most need divine instruction from receiving it because they do not place themselves in communion with heaven.
Peter was among those asleep while Jesus prayed prostrated in agony in Gethsemane. James was also with Him that night, for James, John, and Peter were among His closest disciples and witnesses. Peter later remembered his failure to stay awake as he saw Jesus prostrated there in anguish. Remembering this failure later helped break Peter's pride and deepen his repentance, conversion, humility, and sympathy for the weak and tempted, so that humbled by his own weakness he became able to pity the tempted, caution the presumptuous, and strengthen his fellow believers. James's later imprisonment and execution brought him to understand more fully sharing His cup and baptism.
Loss from Not Watching
Sleeping again when He needed their sympathy and prayers cost the disciples the spiritual strength they would need for the test ahead. Prayer could have prepared them to witness His agony, to remember His predictions of His suffering and death and resurrection, and to hold on to hope. Peter's neglect to watch and pray left him relying on his own weakness and led to his denial.
If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood His sorrow in Gethsemane and would have been fitted to behold His death on Calvary. They would have remembered what He had told them many times about His suffering and death and rising again, and would have had rays of hope amid gloom with strengthened faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. They would have understood that He came to suffer and die for the sins of the world to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in hearts, fitting men for heaven, rather than an earthly kingdom with chief rulers and officers. They would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Him instead of leaving Him alone in bitter trial.
Peter was asleep while Jesus prayed prostrated in agony, and he later remembered that failure as he suffered in anguish at the sight. That memory helped humble him and deepen his sympathy for the weak and tempted. Remembering it helped break his pride and deepen his repentance and conversion and humility. Humbled by his own weakness, he became able to pity and sympathize with the tempted, to caution the presumptuous, and to strengthen his fellow believers.
The trial in Gethsemane was a severe test for the disciples through His agony and betrayal and crucifixion. He knew it would test them and He prepared and strengthened His faithful followers for that ordeal. He did so that the fickleness of others would not take them by surprise or shake their faith.
Suffering Obedience and Atonement
Matthew 26:43 belongs to Christ's suffering as He bore the guilt of fallen humanity, numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. The crushing weight was the sins of the whole world laid upon Him, the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, suffered just before His crucifixion while forsaken by His best-loved disciples. So dreadful did sin appear to Him that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, feeling the terrible wrath of God against transgression with soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Throughout His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, always doing what pleased the Father, but now He seemed shut out from that sustaining light while facing bearing sin and separation from His Father.
In Gethsemane He agonized in overwhelming conflict with satanic agencies who strove to divorce Him from God, with darkness pressed upon His soul by the enemy as He wrestled with the powers of darkness alone. It was temptation of awful power where impurity fought with purity and the prince of light fought with the prince of darkness. The conflict was so terrible that great drops of blood came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground of Gethsemane, where He was betrayed by a kiss while all forsook Him and fled, yet He would not yield.
His human nature recoiled from the final sacrifice, yet He chose in absolute submission to drink the cup and suffer the consequences of sin so that guilty humanity could be saved. Though His will was capable of asserting itself and He could have refused such humiliation, He consented to suffer humiliation and death as the purpose for which He came, surrendering His will to the will of God. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life in man's behalf and to make atonement for transgressions on the cross, the sinless Son treated as sinner so that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent.
The thrice-repeated prayer is the crisis whether the cup will pass from the Sufferer, whether the sacrifice ordained before the foundation of the world and symbolized in every sacrifice since Adam's transgression will be given up. At stake is whether the glorious purpose to save a perishing world will come to nothing, whether that which angels desired to look into, the burden of prophecy and foundation of types and shadows, will fail and leave Satan and his confederacy triumphant. The issue is whether He will fail and come short in redemption, whether the prince of darkness will triumph, whether the prey will be left helpless or the captives delivered, Satan overcome, and obedience to the law demonstrated as possible, for all are made more than conquerors through Christ. That awful, mysterious agony declares how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world, revealing God's love in laying down His life so sinners might not perish but have eternal life, the work through which reconciliation with God was obtained.
His obedience there stands against the disobedience in Eden, showing He chose obedience to God where humanity had chosen disobedience. His agony was a sight for the heavenly universe, watched with intense interest by angels from the heavenly courts who saw their Commander suffering in the hands of a merciless power, yet received no command to break ranks to help the divine Sufferer. His suffering was endured to show the way of self-denial and to bring the divine help needed for salvation, a self-denying sacrifice whose example calls followers not to shrink from hardship or sacrifice. The garden scene showed His humility and forbearance as He faced betrayal, trial, and execution, and showed Him wrestling with the Father in prayer seeking strength from God.
Pattern and Call to Watchfulness
His pouring out of soul in agony in the garden is the pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will cry and agonize day and night for deliverance as He did. That future trouble will come under a decree threatening their lives unless they disregard the Sabbath and honor the first day. The detail of the disciples sleeping belongs to that same account but is not explained in that connection.
The disciples asleep when He returned, unable to stay awake while He faced bearing sin and separation from His Father, warns of spiritual sleep, calling believers to wake up and live as watchful, believing Christians. On that night of agony they did not hear His voice, had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. Because of drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The same is true today, when the very ones who most need divine instruction fail to receive it because they do not place themselves in communion with heaven.
The scene reveals God's love in laying down His life so sinners might not perish but have eternal life, and it requires believers to lay down their lives for the brethren. Forgetting it means losing hold on Jesus, desiring to command rather than serve, failing to work in harmony, and greatly dishonoring God while delighting the enemy by working at cross-purposes. Remembering it calls for repentance, cultivating brotherly love and tenderness of heart, sweeping away malice, envy, evil surmising and discord, and blending in unity with heart, soul, mind and strength devoted to holy work.
His devotion and self-sacrifice in spending the night in agonizing prayer on the damp ground while their eyes were heavy stand as a pattern for His followers. That soul agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Its atmosphere of suffering is to accompany missionary work. It is called to mind in the Lord's Supper as remembrance of His suffering before death, and it is named alongside Calvary as part of His great sacrifice.
The garden conflict before His death, endured through the shame of the cross unto victory over death and the tomb, was a central subject of the disciples' preaching and conversation about Christ and showed His humility and forbearance as He faced betrayal, trial, and execution. That account of betrayal, trial, and crucifixion is recalled as a vivid parallel to the way opposition and hostility took hold of people's hearts. It serves as a parallel to hostile treatment of reformers, when doubt and bitterness stirred people into a mob spirit.
The garden shows Him resorting to solitude and spending the night in prayer to His Father when preparing for a great trial and important work, namely the agony of the judgment hall and the cross. That agony in Gethsemane belongs to His suffering for humanity.
On Passover night in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed in agony and returning a second time found Peter, James and John asleep again because their eyes were heavy with drowsiness and weariness. He longed for human companionship and some word of love and prayer to strengthen and comfort Him in His anguish, but three times He came seeking sympathy and found them sleeping, leaving Him to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone. Their sleep came because they did not heed His warning to watch and pray against temptation, yielding to a stupor pressed upon them by Satan that they could have shaken off by pleading with God, so they lost the strengthening heaven would have given them for the trial ahead. The hour belongs to His bearing the guilt and crushing weight of the sins of the whole world, feeling shut out from His Father's light under the wrath against transgression while choosing in submission to drink the cup rather than let redemption fail. Their failure warns believers against spiritual sleep and calls them to wake, watch, pray, and follow His pattern of self-denying wrestling prayer when preparing for great trial.
Night and Place in Gethsemane
The verse belongs to Passover night, when Jesus went slowly in company with His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane under the broad full Passover moon shining from a cloudless sky while the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. That garden lay at the foot of the Mount of Olives, a spot He had often visited for meditation and prayer but never with a heart so full of sorrow as on this night. There He agonized alone while His disciples slept, consecrating the place with His prayers and tears and moistening the ground with His blood.
As He neared the garden on the night of His last agony a change came over Him such as the disciples had never before seen, for He was so utterly sad and silent and this strange sadness deepened as He proceeded though they dared not question Him about its cause. His form swayed as if He were about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort, He groaned aloud as if suffering under the pressure of a terrible burden, and twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. Meanwhile the disciples looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement, that He might rest. The verse comes after His last interview with the apostles before separation, when they had heard Him foretell His sufferings and death and their hearts were heavy with sorrow and their minds distracted with doubt and fear. Yet there were no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief, for those last solemn, momentous hours were spent by Him speaking words of comfort and assurance to His disciples and then uniting with them all in a hymn of praise to the Most High, a prelude to the agony in Gethsemane, the abuse and mockery of the judgment hall, and the awful scenes of Calvary.
Gethsemane lay ahead on the path to crucifixion, and the events of the verse stand in the garden just before His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion, when He suffered deep agony as He faced bearing humanity's sin and separation from His Father. At an earlier moment on that path His sorrow was not for His coming suffering but for Jerusalem's doomed people and their blindness and impenitence.
Second Return and Heavy Eyes
After praying a second time in Gethsemane Jesus came back to Peter, James and John and found them asleep again because their eyes were heavy with drowsiness, revealing physical weariness and weakness in the crisis before His betrayal and death. He longed for human companionship and expected their help, hoping for some word from them that would bring relief to His anguish and break the spell of darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him, but they could give Him no support and had nothing to answer Him while He endured superhuman and increasing agony. At first they had been troubled to see their usually calm Master wrestling with incomprehensible sorrow and had prayed as they heard His strong cries, with no intent to forsake Him, yet they fell into a paralyzing stupor they could have shaken off had they continued pleading with God, for they had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray. His voice reached them not in triumph but in human anguish as a broken reed, praying that if the cup could not pass without His drinking it then the Father's will be done, and their first impulse was to go to Him, but they stayed where they were because He had told them to tarry there watching in prayer so they would not enter into temptation. Even in His own agony He excused their weakness, while His need awakened His sympathy and His fear that they could not endure the test of His betrayal and death, for had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God against satanic agencies He would have been relieved and comforted by their steadfast faith.
They were asleep for sorrow on the damp ground while He spent the night in agonizing prayer, and His devotion and self-sacrifice there stand as a pattern for His followers. When they looked on Him they saw His face marked by agony and sorrow and bloody sweat, with His visage marred more than any man, and were filled with sorrow, yet they did not know what to say or answer Him. Darkness pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony as He came to them that second time.
After finding them sleeping He left them and prayed the third time with the same words, O My Father if it be possible let this cup pass, always adding Not My will but Thine be done, praying more earnestly until His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. He prayed three times for deliverance, and heaven sent a messenger to console Him as He fainted under the guilt of the world. That thrice-repeated prayer is the crisis whether the cup will pass from the Sufferer, whether the sacrifice ordained before the foundation of the world and symbolized in every sacrifice offered since Adam's transgression will be given up, whether the glorious purpose of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son to save a perishing world will come to nothing. It decides whether that which angels eagerly desired to look into and understand, which had been the burden of prophecy and lay at the foundation of types and shadows, will fail and leave Satan and his apostate forces and confederacy of evil triumphant, for Christ had already suffered much as the Son of Man to redeem men and much as their substitute, and now the time had come when all the types and symbols pointing to His suffering and death were to be fulfilled. The issue is whether He will fail and come short in His work of redemption, whether the prince of darkness will triumph and his proud boast become truth, whether the prey will be left helpless in the hands of the mighty or the captives will be delivered, Satan overcome, and it be demonstrated that obedience to the law is possible, for all have been made more than conquerors through Christ.
Between the sleeps they were suddenly awakened by the light surrounding Him, and in that brief waking they saw the angel bending over their prostrate Master, lifting His head upon his bosom and pointing toward heaven, and heard his voice like sweetest music speaking words of comfort and hope. The sight recalled to them the scene upon the mount of transfiguration and the glory that had encircled Jesus in the temple and the voice of God that spoke from the cloud, and with that same glory now revealed they had no further fear for their Master because He was under the care of God and a mighty angel had been sent to protect Him. Then in their weariness they yielded again to the strange stupor that overpowered them, and Jesus found them sleeping.
In that awful crisis everything was at stake while the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. The heavens opened and light shone forth amid the stormy darkness, and the mighty angel in God's presence, occupying the position from which Satan fell, came to Christ's side, not to take the cup from His hand but to strengthen Him to drink it with assurance of the Father's love and to give power to the divine-human suppliant. He came to tell Him that His three prayers had been heard, pointing Him to the open heavens and the souls that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He assured Him that His Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that His sacrifice would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan and that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High, and told Him that He would see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied in a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved.
Christ's Longing for Sympathy
In Gethsemane He longed for human companionship and expected help, craving the support His human nature needed while He endured superhuman agony. Coming back to Peter, James and John a second time, He longed for companionship and some word from them that would bring relief to His anguish. He hoped in deep woe and grief that they would speak some word of love to strengthen and comfort Him in His sorrow. What He desired was words that would bring relief and break the spell of darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him as darkness pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony. Yet He found them asleep again because their eyes were heavy, with nothing to answer Him, and His desire for companionship was left unmet.
He had asked them to watch and pray with Him because He needed their human sympathy and prayers. He was looking to see whether they understood His agony. He went to them three times, and each time they were asleep, unable to keep watch with Him. So while He endured superhuman and increasing agony, His desire remained unmet.
His need shows that love and sympathy are God-given human needs. The disciples heard the agony of prayer from His pale and quivering lips, but they allowed sleep to overcome them. Too overcome by sleep to give Him the sympathy and comfort He needed, they failed Him, and their forsaking was a painful reminder of unrequited love. That failure was part of the reproach, forsaking, and humiliation He endured in His hour of trial, leaving their suffering Master to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone.
Even in His own superhuman and increasing agony He excused their weakness. He bent over His sleeping disciples in pitying tenderness. Their weakness awakened His sympathy and His fear that they could not endure the test of His betrayal and death. Had He found them praying and seeking refuge in God against satanic agencies He would have been relieved and comforted by their steadfast faith.
Disciples' Sleep and Failure
They had not heeded the repeated warning to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation. At first they had been troubled to see their usually calm Master wrestling with incomprehensible sorrow, and had prayed as they heard His strong cries, and they did not intend to forsake Him. But they fell into a paralyzing stupor they could have shaken off had they continued pleading with God.
Their sleep was where love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake, and it was caused by Satan and his evil angels present on the ground. His voice reached them not in triumph but in human anguish as a broken reed. Their first impulse was to go to Him, but they stayed where they were because He had told them to tarry there watching in prayer so they would not enter into temptation.
Because of drowsiness and stupor they did not hear the voice of Jesus. They had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. Because of that drowsiness they failed to receive the heavenly evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The same drowsiness today keeps even those who most need divine instruction from receiving it because they do not place themselves in communion with heaven.
Peter was among those asleep while Jesus prayed prostrated in agony in Gethsemane. James was also with Him that night, for James, John, and Peter were among His closest disciples and witnesses. Peter later remembered his failure to stay awake as he saw Jesus prostrated there in anguish. Remembering this failure later helped break Peter's pride and deepen his repentance, conversion, humility, and sympathy for the weak and tempted, so that humbled by his own weakness he became able to pity the tempted, caution the presumptuous, and strengthen his fellow believers. James's later imprisonment and execution brought him to understand more fully sharing His cup and baptism.
Loss from Not Watching
Sleeping again when He needed their sympathy and prayers cost the disciples the spiritual strength they would need for the test ahead. Prayer could have prepared them to witness His agony, to remember His predictions of His suffering and death and resurrection, and to hold on to hope. Peter's neglect to watch and pray left him relying on his own weakness and led to his denial.
If they had watched with Him in His hour of pain they would have better understood His sorrow in Gethsemane and would have been fitted to behold His death on Calvary. They would have remembered what He had told them many times about His suffering and death and rising again, and would have had rays of hope amid gloom with strengthened faith when Satan seemed to gain the victory. They would have understood that He came to suffer and die for the sins of the world to set up a kingdom of love and peace and purity in hearts, fitting men for heaven, rather than an earthly kingdom with chief rulers and officers. They would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Him instead of leaving Him alone in bitter trial.
Peter was asleep while Jesus prayed prostrated in agony, and he later remembered that failure as he suffered in anguish at the sight. That memory helped humble him and deepen his sympathy for the weak and tempted. Remembering it helped break his pride and deepen his repentance and conversion and humility. Humbled by his own weakness, he became able to pity and sympathize with the tempted, to caution the presumptuous, and to strengthen his fellow believers.
The trial in Gethsemane was a severe test for the disciples through His agony and betrayal and crucifixion. He knew it would test them and He prepared and strengthened His faithful followers for that ordeal. He did so that the fickleness of others would not take them by surprise or shake their faith.
Suffering Obedience and Atonement
Matthew 26:43 belongs to Christ's suffering as He bore the guilt of fallen humanity, numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. The crushing weight was the sins of the whole world laid upon Him, the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, suffered just before His crucifixion while forsaken by His best-loved disciples. So dreadful did sin appear to Him that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, feeling the terrible wrath of God against transgression with soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Throughout His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, always doing what pleased the Father, but now He seemed shut out from that sustaining light while facing bearing sin and separation from His Father.
In Gethsemane He agonized in overwhelming conflict with satanic agencies who strove to divorce Him from God, with darkness pressed upon His soul by the enemy as He wrestled with the powers of darkness alone. It was temptation of awful power where impurity fought with purity and the prince of light fought with the prince of darkness. The conflict was so terrible that great drops of blood came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground of Gethsemane, where He was betrayed by a kiss while all forsook Him and fled, yet He would not yield.
His human nature recoiled from the final sacrifice, yet He chose in absolute submission to drink the cup and suffer the consequences of sin so that guilty humanity could be saved. Though His will was capable of asserting itself and He could have refused such humiliation, He consented to suffer humiliation and death as the purpose for which He came, surrendering His will to the will of God. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life in man's behalf and to make atonement for transgressions on the cross, the sinless Son treated as sinner so that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent.
The thrice-repeated prayer is the crisis whether the cup will pass from the Sufferer, whether the sacrifice ordained before the foundation of the world and symbolized in every sacrifice since Adam's transgression will be given up. At stake is whether the glorious purpose to save a perishing world will come to nothing, whether that which angels desired to look into, the burden of prophecy and foundation of types and shadows, will fail and leave Satan and his confederacy triumphant. The issue is whether He will fail and come short in redemption, whether the prince of darkness will triumph, whether the prey will be left helpless or the captives delivered, Satan overcome, and obedience to the law demonstrated as possible, for all are made more than conquerors through Christ. That awful, mysterious agony declares how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world, revealing God's love in laying down His life so sinners might not perish but have eternal life, the work through which reconciliation with God was obtained.
His obedience there stands against the disobedience in Eden, showing He chose obedience to God where humanity had chosen disobedience. His agony was a sight for the heavenly universe, watched with intense interest by angels from the heavenly courts who saw their Commander suffering in the hands of a merciless power, yet received no command to break ranks to help the divine Sufferer. His suffering was endured to show the way of self-denial and to bring the divine help needed for salvation, a self-denying sacrifice whose example calls followers not to shrink from hardship or sacrifice. The garden scene showed His humility and forbearance as He faced betrayal, trial, and execution, and showed Him wrestling with the Father in prayer seeking strength from God.
Pattern and Call to Watchfulness
His pouring out of soul in agony in the garden is the pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, when they will cry and agonize day and night for deliverance as He did. That future trouble will come under a decree threatening their lives unless they disregard the Sabbath and honor the first day. The detail of the disciples sleeping belongs to that same account but is not explained in that connection.
The disciples asleep when He returned, unable to stay awake while He faced bearing sin and separation from His Father, warns of spiritual sleep, calling believers to wake up and live as watchful, believing Christians. On that night of agony they did not hear His voice, had only a dim sense of the angels' presence, and lost the power and glory of the scene. Because of drowsiness and stupor they failed to receive evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The same is true today, when the very ones who most need divine instruction fail to receive it because they do not place themselves in communion with heaven.
The scene reveals God's love in laying down His life so sinners might not perish but have eternal life, and it requires believers to lay down their lives for the brethren. Forgetting it means losing hold on Jesus, desiring to command rather than serve, failing to work in harmony, and greatly dishonoring God while delighting the enemy by working at cross-purposes. Remembering it calls for repentance, cultivating brotherly love and tenderness of heart, sweeping away malice, envy, evil surmising and discord, and blending in unity with heart, soul, mind and strength devoted to holy work.
His devotion and self-sacrifice in spending the night in agonizing prayer on the damp ground while their eyes were heavy stand as a pattern for His followers. That soul agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Its atmosphere of suffering is to accompany missionary work. It is called to mind in the Lord's Supper as remembrance of His suffering before death, and it is named alongside Calvary as part of His great sacrifice.
The garden conflict before His death, endured through the shame of the cross unto victory over death and the tomb, was a central subject of the disciples' preaching and conversation about Christ and showed His humility and forbearance as He faced betrayal, trial, and execution. That account of betrayal, trial, and crucifixion is recalled as a vivid parallel to the way opposition and hostility took hold of people's hearts. It serves as a parallel to hostile treatment of reformers, when doubt and bitterness stirred people into a mob spirit.
The garden shows Him resorting to solitude and spending the night in prayer to His Father when preparing for a great trial and important work, namely the agony of the judgment hall and the cross. That agony in Gethsemane belongs to His suffering for humanity.