Matthew 26:45, commentary and pictures

Coming the third time after victory in prayer and acceptance of the cup, He found the disciples fast asleep again and told them in sorrowful pity to sleep on and take their rest, for the appointed hour had arrived when the Son of man would be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Even while He spoke He heard the footsteps of the searching mob with Judas leading, and at once called them to rise and go to meet the betrayer. The hour is the moment when He who knew no sin is numbered with transgressors, bearing the guilt and wrath laid upon Him for fallen humanity with a weight so great He fears separation from the Father's love. Their sleep from weariness and sorrow left them without strength for the trial ahead, unprepared for temptation and unfitted to share His suffering or behold His death with sustaining hope. His betrayal into the hands of sinners becomes the pattern for His followers, who will likewise be persecuted and falsely accused, and warns against spiritual sleep by calling them to watch, pray, and follow His self-denying path.

Gethsemane Night Setting

Matthew 26:45 belongs to Jesus going in company with His disciples slowly to the garden of Gethsemane at night under a broad, full Passover moon shining from a cloudless sky, while the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. He approached the garden utterly sad and silent with a strange, deepening sorrow that His disciples marked but dared not question. His form swayed as if about to fall, every step was taken with labored effort while He groaned aloud under a terrible burden so that twice His companions had to support Him to keep Him from falling to the earth, while the disciples looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement that He might rest. On that night of great agony He crossed the Kedron and approached Gethsemane while giving His disciples lessons on the way, with the vine picturing the union of His church with Himself and His Father.

In His hour of humiliation, when He most needed their sympathy and comfort, the disciples who were dear to His heart reproached and forsook Him, leaving His love unrequited. Peter, James, and John were the three disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him that night. James was among the disciples with Him in the garden on the night of agony, and John was one of the three permitted to witness that agony.

After the Passover supper with His disciples He had neither food nor drink, and agonized in conflict with satanic agencies who strove to divorce Him from God, and He would not yield. The horror of the burden He bore and the felt withdrawal of His Father's presence brought Him to pray three times for deliverance. The conflict was so terrible that great drops of blood came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground of Gethsemane, His sweat falling like blood. Heaven sent a messenger to strengthen Him. The hour brought betrayal by Judas with expressions of love, with a kiss, and all His disciples forsook Him and fled.

The wrestling in Gethsemane was with temptation of awful power that few realize. The struggle was impurity fighting against purity, the prince of darkness fighting against the prince of light. He was left to face betrayal and suffering without heavenly intervention. The angels watched their Commander suffer close to death, but God gave them no command to rescue Him.

Christ's Words and Demeanor

Coming the third time after victory in the struggle, having accepted the cup to drain it to the dregs, He found the disciples fast asleep again from weariness. He looked sorrowfully upon them with pity and told them to sleep on now and take their rest. His words fully aroused them, ending His repeated efforts to rouse them, and His sacrifice was ready to be faced without their support. The appointed hour has arrived and the Son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. This announces the nearness of the crisis and introduces the coming scenes of betrayal and suffering.

Even while He was speaking He heard the footsteps of the searching mob coming to seize Him in search of Him. Judas was leading it and the high priest was closely following behind. At once He called the disciples to rise and go to meet the betrayer, because the betrayer was at hand. He went forth to meet His enemies and His betrayer calm and peaceful and serene, with calm dignity. No trace of His recent agony was visible, and peace was now seen in His pale, bloodstained face. He walked as one conscious that He is the Son of God, without fear of what men would do to Him, and though He had power to deliver Himself He submitted to be taken.

His depression and discouragement had left Him and He came calm and serene, though His agony did not cease and the storm of suffering had not abated in fury. He had been strengthened by the angel with the assurance of the Father's love to drink the bitter cup, and by drinking it He fulfilled the demands of the divine law and glorified the Father. He still carried the load of guilt and continued to bear humanity's guilt. He bore what no human being can ever bear, having tasted the sufferings of death for every man and every person. Three times He had prayed for the cup to pass while the destiny of a lost world trembled in the balance between eternal ruin if He refused to drink and salvation if He drank, until strengthened from heaven to accept the cup and drink its bitter woe.

Disciples' Sleep and Failure

Their failure to stay awake and pray as told left them without strength for the trial ahead and unprepared for the temptation of seeing Him die. The watching and prayer were meant to fortify them for the severe test of faith ahead and to give Christ sympathy and heartfelt prayer when He most needed it. That failure cost them the chance to share in His suffering. As He spoke the hour of betrayal was at hand and He heard the approaching mob and knew His betrayer was near.

If they had watched with Him through that mournful period in noble mental struggle and prayer, they would have better understood His anguish in Gethsemane and the nature of His overpowering anguish. They would have been fitted to behold His death on the cross and on Calvary. They would have remembered His words about His suffering, death, and resurrection, about the people turning against Him and putting Him to death and His rising again. Rays of hope would have shone amid the gloom to sustain faith even when Satan and his angels seemed to gain the victory. He had told them beforehand that these things would take place, knowing the power the prince of darkness would use to paralyze their senses when they should be watching and praying.

Their drowsiness and stupor kept them from hearing His voice and from fully recognizing the angels' presence. Though they had a dim sense of it and had seen the glory of the ministering angel, they lost the power and glory of the scene. Because of this they failed to receive evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. Those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it when they do not place themselves in communion with heaven.

Their sleep came from weariness and from sorrow. It prevailed when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake, and was pressed upon them by Satan and evil angels on the ground. Earthly hopes for a kingdom on earth with themselves as chief rulers blinded them to His coming to suffer and die for the sins of the world to set up a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts fitting them for heaven. They had lost fear for their Master because they thought God had taken Him in charge. Had they watched and prayed as asked they would have been ready and able to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Christ and would not have left Him alone.

He came hoping for some word of love that would strengthen and comfort Him in sorrow, longing for sympathy and companionship in His agony while bearing the guilt of sinful people. He most needed it in humiliation, yet they reproached and forsook Him then. He knew they faced a fearful trial and would be left without His presence to comfort and strengthen them, yet He met their weakness with sympathy rather than harsh rebuke. Though they heard the agony of prayer from His pale and quivering lips, they soon allowed sleep to overcome them while darkness was pressed upon His soul and angels watched the conflict. So they left their suffering Master to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone in the hour of His bitter trial.

Sleep was Peter's first mistake, leaving him to his own feeble strength so that he later denied his Lord. Remembering his failure in Gethsemane and Jesus' suffering and agony and humiliation later brought him to deep repentance and humility. Remorse helped break his pride, and he repented and was converted. That made him more able to sympathize with the weak and tempted, to warn the presumptuous, and to strengthen his brethren and fellow believers.

Bearing Sin to Save

The hour has come because He is now numbered with the transgressors, bearing the guilt of fallen humanity with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. Through His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, but in Gethsemane He seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence. Sin appears so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father's love, and feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression His soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.

The suffering in the garden is the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted upon Him because He was bearing the sins of the whole world, and it cannot be exceeded. The burden of humanity's sin separated Him from His Father and brought such anguish that bloody sweat fell from Him, revealing how deep and intense His suffering was. That agony led to shameful death on the cross to save guilty people.

Though clothed in humanity with a will capable of asserting itself and refusing humiliation, He surrendered His will absolutely to the will of God. He chose to give Himself up as a criminal for the sins of all humanity so that people could be saved, with the cup in His hand representing His bearing the sins of the whole world and the separation from His Father that sin would bring. By drinking the bitter cup He fulfilled the demands of the divine law and glorified the Father, and by that struggle reconciliation with God was obtained.

Substitution is shown in that the sinless Son of God is treated as a sinner that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, with the chastisement of peace upon Him bringing healing by His stripes. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed divinity with humanity to live a sinless life in man's behalf and make atonement on the cross for transgressions, consenting to humiliation and death as the purpose for which He came into the world.

Gethsemane sets Christ's obedience against Adam's disobedience in Eden, for humanity's disobedience begins when people follow their own will and standard instead of God's. Having endured that conflict, He went on to suffer the shame of the cross and gain victory over death and the tomb.

His soul was to be made an offering for sin, yet His sorrow for Jerusalem was not caused by forebodings of His own anguish or fear of physical suffering. He wept for people doomed because of their blindness and impenitence in rejecting their Redeemer.

Pattern for God's People

The betrayal into the hands of sinners became a pattern for followers, many of whom would likewise be persecuted, falsely accused, and treated cruelly by people acting under Satan's influence. As Satan tempted Christ, so he will tempt Christians, and many for Christ's sake will undergo a similar experience of betrayal and persecution through men working in partnership with Satan. Priests and rulers will stir up false testimony against those who love and fear God. In that suffering God's people, taught by the Holy Spirit, will learn more of the terrible character of sin as they feel the cruelty of those controlled by it. All cruelty shown to them is charged against those who do it as done to Christ Himself, who redeemed them with His own blood and called them by His name.

The agony in the garden is the pattern for God's people in the time of trouble, who like Jesus will cry and agonize day and night for deliverance. Like Jesus in the garden, they will face a seemingly inescapable trial. God will preserve them, and their captivity will be turned when His voice announces their deliverance. In the final time of trouble this includes facing a death decree for refusing to disregard the Sabbath.

The betrayal, trial, and crucifixion show how doubt and bitterness can stir hatred and mob violence against those who bring a message from God. The setting illustrates how a hostile, satanic spirit can move people to betray and condemn the innocent, as it did in the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. His falling again into the hands of sinners applies to a later crisis for evangelical Christians, when imperial efforts to revoke liberty of conscience brought them under hostile religious and political power like Caiaphas and Pilate.

Call to Watchful Service

He had prepared the disciples beforehand for the betrayal, the suffering in Gethsemane, and death, because He knew the coming trial would expose weak and undecided faith. That preparation was given so condemnation, humiliation, and crucifixion would not overwhelm them when the fickle crowd turned and professed followers deserted Him. It was given while He was still with them, so their faith could be strengthened and the rejection would not take them by surprise or shake them.

The sleep of the disciples when He returned as the hour of betrayal approached illustrates spiritual sleep and the call to wake up and become believing Christians. They slept when they should have watched and prayed, did not hear His voice, and though they had a dim sense of the angels' presence they 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. Those who most need divine instruction fail to receive it when they do not place themselves in communion with heaven. Even as He faced the cup of separation from the Father in bearing sin to be crucified as a sinner, He chose to submit to the Father's will and drink it.

His suffering in Gethsemane belongs to the hard, self-denying path He endured to save humanity. It shows the hardship and trial endured to show the way, and it brings the divine help people need to be saved and to overcome. It is an example of self-denial in the struggle against sin that His followers must be willing to take.

Even at the most trying point on entering the bloodstained path to Calvary, after foretelling His sufferings and death had left the apostles heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear before separation, there were no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief in facing the agony in Gethsemane, the abuse and mockery of the judgment hall, and the awful scenes of Calvary. The last solemn momentous hours were spent in speaking words of comfort and assurance to the disciples and then uniting with them in a hymn of praise to the Most High as a prelude to suffering. That gives a lesson of courage and fortitude. His soul agony there teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work.

His preparing for the great trial of the judgment hall and the cross by resorting to the solitude of the mountains and spending the night in prayer to the Father teaches believers to resort to solitude and night prayer. Having wrestled with the Father in prayer before the hour of betrayal, His example teaches believers to seek strength from God so they can make Him known in words and actions.

His sacrifice in Gethsemane, together with His death on Calvary, shows the depth of sacrifice that the church's missionary work should answer. The Gethsemane scene of suffering before Calvary is held up as the atmosphere of sacrifice and suffering that should surround missionary work. His agony in the garden, betrayal, trial, and execution were central to the disciples' preaching and conversation about Christ.

The Lord's Supper recalls His betrayal and suffering as an offered sacrifice for the world and brings that sacrifice before each participant personally, with His whole history of agony and the abuse and suffering inflicted on Him to be remembered. The garden was consecrated by His suffering as bearer of the sins of the world, and the struggle by which reconciliation with God was obtained. When the ordinances are celebrated as commanded, the Holy Spirit quickens believers and turns their thoughts into spiritual channels, so they seem to pass through that garden and witness that struggle. He passed through His last terrible trial in love in order that sinners might not perish but have eternal life. Forgetting it leaves church members without hold on Jesus, desiring to command and not to serve, divided and without love for one another and for perishing souls, while remembering it rebukes failure to work in harmony and requires laying down lives for the brethren.

Being betrayed into the hands of sinners also means He is wounded through unjust, selfish conduct among those who are supposed to be His friends. Continuing in such wrongdoing rather than repenting adds to the betrayal.