Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.
He wakes His sleeping disciples to rise and go forward with Him to meet His betrayer at the very moment the mob is heard coming for Him. He speaks after praying thrice and accepting the cup, knowing arrest and suffering are now to begin, and steps forth with calm dignity with no visible trace of His recent agony, willingly meeting His enemies rather than fleeing though He has power to escape. That agony He now leaves was borne because He was carrying the sins of the whole world, treated as a sinner that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, fearing separation from His Father under the weight of guilt even to bloody sweat. The disciples had slept instead of watching and praying with Him, and missed the heavenly strength they needed, leaving them unready for the trial before them. His hard, self-denying path to save humanity shows the way His followers must tread, seeking strength from God in submission to His will rather than shrinking from conflict, self-denial and sacrifice.
Gethsemane Night Setting
The saying belongs to the slow walk in company with the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane on the Passover night when the broad full moon shone from a cloudless sky and the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. It was on the way across the Kedron to Gethsemane on the night of the great agony that lessons were given to the disciples, using the vine as the symbol of the union of the church with Christ and with the Father. In that humiliation, when He most needed their sympathy and comfort, the disciples dear to His heart reproached and forsook Him, leaving reminders of unrequited love around Gethsemane, which He later revisited to bring those lessons back to their memory.
As He neared the garden He had often visited for meditation and prayer, He had never come with a heart so full of sorrow, but was utterly sad and silent as the disciples had never seen Him. A strange sadness deepened as He proceeded, His form swaying as if about to fall, every step taken with labored effort while groaning aloud under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. The disciples dared not question Him about the cause, but looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement that He might rest. Throughout His life on earth He had walked in the light of God's presence, but now He seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence, numbered with the transgressors to bear the guilt of fallen humanity, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. Sin appeared so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, and feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression His soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
It was spoken after the Passover supper, having had neither food nor drink since, in conflict with satanic agencies that strove to divorce Him from God, which He would not yield. He had gone to the sleeping disciples three times and each time found them asleep, and after telling them the Son of man was betrayed into the hands of sinners, even while those words were still upon His lips the footsteps of the mob in search of Him were heard. Judas took the lead, closely followed by the high priest and a murderous throng, and turning to His disciples as His enemies approached He told them to rise and go forward because His betrayer was at hand. Then He was betrayed by Judas with expressions of love, with a kiss, and all His disciples forsook Him and fled.
The betrayal came because priests and rulers were on His track, hunting His steps from city to city, misrepresenting His mission and labor, and refusing to receive Him though He came unto His own. They acted under the influence of Satan, who had fallen from being second to Christ in power and glory. In the garden He was left to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone, a conflict in which impurity fought with purity and the prince of darkness fought with the prince of light, while Satan pressed darkness upon His soul as the betrayer drew near. Angels watched the conflict at every step with amazement at Satan's devices against the divine Son of God, and the heavenly courts watched with intense interest as Satan with his band of evil angels, confederated with the priests and rulers, made a fierce determined effort to destroy Christ and by one desperate act cut off all communication between heaven and earth. Yet God gave them no command to break their ranks to go to the help of the divine Sufferer, though they saw their Commander in the hands of merciless power, insulted, mocked, derided and scourged, staggering under His cross, and hanging in shameful humiliation and agony.
The saying closes a night spent in solitude in prayer to the Father in preparation for a great trial, before the agony that led to the judgment hall and the cross. It closes the closing scenes of the conflict between Christ and Satan, watched with intense interest by all heaven and the unfallen worlds. The Saviour entered the garden with His soul bowed by a horror of darkness He had never before experienced, sorrowful with a bitterness exceeding the last struggle with death, filled with terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn. In overmastering agony He prayed thrice for the cup to pass if possible, with sweat of blood forced from His pores falling in drops upon the ground, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world, until heaven sent a messenger of consolation to the prostrate Son of God. It marks the moment when the garden trial gives way to betrayal and the events leading to death, and identifies Him as the one who endured that garden conflict, then the shame of the cross, and won victory over death and the tomb.
It stands at the end of the agony just before the crucifixion, when the cup of suffering trembled in His hands as He faced the burden of sin and its separation from the Father, with bloody sweat from His anguish. After praying about the cup and finding His disciples asleep for sorrow, He rose and went to meet what was coming, showing readiness to face betrayal and suffering rather than turn away. It places Him at the point when betrayal is at hand within His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion, as He rose, about to be separated from His apostles, to enter the bloodstained path leading to Calvary through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross, the most trying scene ever faced. The same betrayal and arrest is told also in Mark, Luke, and John, and supplies the image of Christ handed over to Caiaphas and Pilate.
Summons to Meet Betrayer
The words are a call to the sleeping disciples to get up and go with Him to face Judas and the arresting crowd, telling them to rise and move forward because the one betraying Him is close at hand. They are spoken in the very moment the footsteps of the mob searching for Him are heard, after He has come to the disciples for the third time and found them asleep. They follow His sorrowful announcement that the hour has come and that the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners, with those words still on His lips when the sound approaches. Judas is taking the lead, closely followed by a murderous throng with the high priest close behind, and Jesus Himself steps forth to meet His betrayer rather than flee.
He speaks after accepting the cup and overcoming temptation, knowing the betrayer is near and that arrest and suffering are about to begin. Having accepted the suffering ahead, He wakes the sleeping disciples as the betrayer and the arresting crowd approach, calm and composed. He knowingly goes forward to face His enemies and arrest without fear, going out to meet Judas rather than trying to escape or turn away. The moment marks the turn when the garden trial gives way to betrayal and the events leading to His death, for He knows the suffering awaiting Him and the disciples' coming trial.
The announcement is one of the future scenes He opened before them, by which He prepared His faithful followers while still with them for His betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and death. He knew the ordeal ahead, including betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and crucifixion, and prepared them so it would not take them by surprise or cause them to lose faith. When betrayal and coming death put the disciples through a severe test, His personal presence could strengthen the faith of His true followers for this final trial. He had prepared them through an earlier crisis as well, so that the fickleness of other followers turning against Him would not take them by surprise or cause them to lose faith.
Calm Courage Facing Arrest
Though He had just endured great anguish in Gethsemane, He steps forth to meet the betrayer with calm dignity and composure. He tells the disciples to rise and go forward because the betrayer is near, having heard the footsteps of the approaching mob with Judas leading and the high priest close behind. His countenance wears calm dignity with no trace of His recent agony visible, without fear or distress. Having accepted the suffering ahead and overcome temptation, He awakens His sleeping disciples as the arresting crowd approaches, calm and composed.
He does not flee but goes out to meet Judas rather than trying to escape. Even though He has power to escape, He willingly lets His enemies take Him and knowingly goes forward to face arrest and suffering without fear.
About to be separated from His apostles to enter the most trying scene ever faced on the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross to Calvary, there are no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief. Though the apostles are heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear after hearing His foretelling of suffering and death, He spends those last solemn momentous hours speaking comfort and assurance to them. He unites with them in a hymn of praise to the Most High, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude under affliction.
In His hour of agony and humiliation, when He bore the guilt of sinful people, He longed for sympathy, companionship, and comfort from the disciples dear to His heart. On that night of great agony on the way across the Kedron to Gethsemane He had given them lessons, using the vine as a symbol of the union of His church with Himself and the Father. When He most needed their sympathy and comfort they reproached and forsook Him, leaving reminders of His unrequited love all around Gethsemane, which He later revisited to bring those truths back to their memory.
Sleeping Unready Disciples
The call to rise and go was spoken to men who had slept instead of staying awake to watch and pray with Him for help, and their sleep left them with no strength for the trial before them. Their drowsiness kept them from receiving the spiritual strength and heavenly evidence that could have prepared them for the terrible events ahead. Their failure to stay alert and in communion with heaven left them unprepared for what followed.
Because of drowsiness and stupor they did not hear Him, hearing Him only dimly, and they had only a dim sense of the angel's presence. They lost the power and glory of the scene and missed the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The very men who most needed divine instruction failed to receive it because they did not place themselves in communion with heaven.
Their failure to watch left them unready to understand His suffering and death, while watching and praying would have strengthened their faith and helped them face His trial. He had come to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to establish a kingdom of love and peace and purity in people's hearts, yet they were not ready to comprehend it.
Peter had slept while Jesus prayed in agony, but he later returned to the garden, remembered his failure, and wept in repentance. The experience humbled him and prepared him to sympathize with the weak and strengthen others.
John and James were among the three favored disciples permitted to witness the agony. James was present with Jesus in the garden on that night. He later understood more fully the words about sharing Christ's cup and baptism when he was imprisoned and summoned to execution and faced imprisonment and death.
Bearing Sin to Save
The agony closed by the call to rise and meet the betrayer was the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God to come upon His Son because He was bearing the sins of the whole world, and it declares how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world. That suffering in Gethsemane with its shameful death on the cross was endured to save guilty man, for He became poor that through His poverty they might be made rich. The cup of suffering trembled in His hands as He faced the burden of sin and its separation from the Father.
He showed absolute submission, surrendering a will capable of asserting itself and refusing humiliation to the will of God, choosing to drink the cup of suffering and separation in obedience where humanity in Eden had entered disobedience. The sinless Son was treated as a sinner so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, with the chastisement of peace upon Him bringing healing by His stripes, and His struggle obtained reconciliation with God. He was numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin.
He who had walked in the light of God's presence now seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence, feeling the wrath of God against transgression so dreadful and the weight of guilt so great that He feared being shut out forever from His Father's love, exceeding sorrowful even unto death. He entered the garden with His soul bowed by a horror of darkness never before experienced, with terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, in bitterness exceeding the last struggle with death. In overmastering agony He prayed thrice with sweat of blood forced from His pores falling in drops upon the ground and moistening the sods, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world until heaven sent a messenger of consolation.
The conflict came after the Passover supper, having had neither food nor drink since, as satanic agencies strove to divorce Him from God, yet He would not yield, and then He was betrayed by Judas with expressions of love, with a kiss, while all His disciples forsook Him and fled. He had laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on behalf of humanity and to make atonement on the cross for transgressions, having come into the world for the purpose of suffering humiliation and death. His sorrow at this time was for doomed Jerusalem and its rejection of its Redeemer, not for fear of physical suffering for Himself.
The same sacrifice was continued on the cross for three terrible hours of agony, enduring the penalty for breaking the law so that repentant, believing ones may have eternal life. In the darkest hour the Father hid from Him His face of love, comfort, and pity, while He endured the greatest suffering Satan could bring to torture His humanity, and His heart broke in that trial.
Example for Believers Today
Christ's suffering in Gethsemane that closes with rising to meet the betrayer is part of the hard, self-denying, humble path He trod to save humanity, endured to show the way and to bring the divine help people must have or perish. His soul agony there teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Followers therefore must not refuse to go where He led, must not follow their own inclinations, and must not complain of hardship and trial in the work of overcoming. They must not shrink from conflict, self-denial, privation, weariness, toil, anxiety or any sacrifice to obtain eternal life, which costs everything. His wrestling with the Father before meeting the betrayer teaches believers to seek strength from God and to submit their will to His, so they can make Him known in word and action. His disciples slept when He sought their sympathy and sent messages to those listening for His voice, hearing Him only dimly with only a dim sense of the angel's presence, missing the power and glory of the scene and the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, warning believers to wake from spiritual sleep and place themselves in communion with heaven, since those most needing divine instruction fail to receive it when inattentive and disconnected.
His anguish at the end of the agony, ready to meet His betrayer, parallels the earnest cries and day-and-night agony of God's people during the final time of trouble. As He poured out His soul in agony, they will cry and agonize with Him day and night for deliverance when they face a death decree for refusing to abandon the Sabbath, and God will preserve them. The Gethsemane scene named alongside Calvary shows His great sacrifice, whose atmosphere of suffering and surrender is to shape missionary work and going forth to serve others in its light. That sacrifice together with Calvary sets the measure of the work given to mortals, yet the church's progress remains far behind what that sacrifice calls for.
He endured that last terrible trial in order that sinners might not perish but have eternal life, having come to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to establish a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts. That love shows believers ought to lay down their lives for the brethren and to stop dishonoring God by disunity and working at cross-purposes, cultivating instead brotherly love, tenderness of heart, harmony and unity. Watching and praying would have strengthened the disciples' faith to understand His suffering and death and to face His trial, but their failure to watch left them unready. Remembering this painful communion with the disciples and agony before betrayal and suffering belongs to understanding the sacrifice represented in the Lord's Supper, for the garden was consecrated by His bearing the sins of the world and His struggle there obtained reconciliation with God. When the ordinances are celebrated as commanded, believers pass through that garden in thought and witness the struggle by which reconciliation was obtained.
He is the one who endured the garden conflict, then the shame of the cross, and won victory over death and the tomb. About to be separated from His apostles to enter through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross the most trying scene ever faced on the bloodstained path to Calvary, He spent those last solemn momentous hours with no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief, speaking comfort and assurance and uniting with them in a hymn of praise, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude under affliction though they were heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear. His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion now at hand became a vivid example of how a satanic spirit can move people stirred by doubt, bitterness, wrath, and hatred. The garden where the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him, suffered with His shameful death on the cross to save guilty man, for He became poor that they through His poverty might be made rich, rebukes how little those for whom this sacrifice was made are willing to suffer for the truth.
He wakes His sleeping disciples to rise and go forward with Him to meet His betrayer at the very moment the mob is heard coming for Him. He speaks after praying thrice and accepting the cup, knowing arrest and suffering are now to begin, and steps forth with calm dignity with no visible trace of His recent agony, willingly meeting His enemies rather than fleeing though He has power to escape. That agony He now leaves was borne because He was carrying the sins of the whole world, treated as a sinner that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, fearing separation from His Father under the weight of guilt even to bloody sweat. The disciples had slept instead of watching and praying with Him, and missed the heavenly strength they needed, leaving them unready for the trial before them. His hard, self-denying path to save humanity shows the way His followers must tread, seeking strength from God in submission to His will rather than shrinking from conflict, self-denial and sacrifice.
Gethsemane Night Setting
The saying belongs to the slow walk in company with the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane on the Passover night when the broad full moon shone from a cloudless sky and the city of pilgrims' tents was hushed into silence. It was on the way across the Kedron to Gethsemane on the night of the great agony that lessons were given to the disciples, using the vine as the symbol of the union of the church with Christ and with the Father. In that humiliation, when He most needed their sympathy and comfort, the disciples dear to His heart reproached and forsook Him, leaving reminders of unrequited love around Gethsemane, which He later revisited to bring those lessons back to their memory.
As He neared the garden He had often visited for meditation and prayer, He had never come with a heart so full of sorrow, but was utterly sad and silent as the disciples had never seen Him. A strange sadness deepened as He proceeded, His form swaying as if about to fall, every step taken with labored effort while groaning aloud under the pressure of a terrible burden, so that twice His companions supported Him or He would have fallen to the earth. The disciples dared not question Him about the cause, but looked anxiously for His usual place of retirement that He might rest. Throughout His life on earth He had walked in the light of God's presence, but now He seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence, numbered with the transgressors to bear the guilt of fallen humanity, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin. Sin appeared so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, and feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression His soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
It was spoken after the Passover supper, having had neither food nor drink since, in conflict with satanic agencies that strove to divorce Him from God, which He would not yield. He had gone to the sleeping disciples three times and each time found them asleep, and after telling them the Son of man was betrayed into the hands of sinners, even while those words were still upon His lips the footsteps of the mob in search of Him were heard. Judas took the lead, closely followed by the high priest and a murderous throng, and turning to His disciples as His enemies approached He told them to rise and go forward because His betrayer was at hand. Then He was betrayed by Judas with expressions of love, with a kiss, and all His disciples forsook Him and fled.
The betrayal came because priests and rulers were on His track, hunting His steps from city to city, misrepresenting His mission and labor, and refusing to receive Him though He came unto His own. They acted under the influence of Satan, who had fallen from being second to Christ in power and glory. In the garden He was left to wrestle with the powers of darkness alone, a conflict in which impurity fought with purity and the prince of darkness fought with the prince of light, while Satan pressed darkness upon His soul as the betrayer drew near. Angels watched the conflict at every step with amazement at Satan's devices against the divine Son of God, and the heavenly courts watched with intense interest as Satan with his band of evil angels, confederated with the priests and rulers, made a fierce determined effort to destroy Christ and by one desperate act cut off all communication between heaven and earth. Yet God gave them no command to break their ranks to go to the help of the divine Sufferer, though they saw their Commander in the hands of merciless power, insulted, mocked, derided and scourged, staggering under His cross, and hanging in shameful humiliation and agony.
The saying closes a night spent in solitude in prayer to the Father in preparation for a great trial, before the agony that led to the judgment hall and the cross. It closes the closing scenes of the conflict between Christ and Satan, watched with intense interest by all heaven and the unfallen worlds. The Saviour entered the garden with His soul bowed by a horror of darkness He had never before experienced, sorrowful with a bitterness exceeding the last struggle with death, filled with terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn. In overmastering agony He prayed thrice for the cup to pass if possible, with sweat of blood forced from His pores falling in drops upon the ground, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world, until heaven sent a messenger of consolation to the prostrate Son of God. It marks the moment when the garden trial gives way to betrayal and the events leading to death, and identifies Him as the one who endured that garden conflict, then the shame of the cross, and won victory over death and the tomb.
It stands at the end of the agony just before the crucifixion, when the cup of suffering trembled in His hands as He faced the burden of sin and its separation from the Father, with bloody sweat from His anguish. After praying about the cup and finding His disciples asleep for sorrow, He rose and went to meet what was coming, showing readiness to face betrayal and suffering rather than turn away. It places Him at the point when betrayal is at hand within His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion, as He rose, about to be separated from His apostles, to enter the bloodstained path leading to Calvary through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross, the most trying scene ever faced. The same betrayal and arrest is told also in Mark, Luke, and John, and supplies the image of Christ handed over to Caiaphas and Pilate.
Summons to Meet Betrayer
The words are a call to the sleeping disciples to get up and go with Him to face Judas and the arresting crowd, telling them to rise and move forward because the one betraying Him is close at hand. They are spoken in the very moment the footsteps of the mob searching for Him are heard, after He has come to the disciples for the third time and found them asleep. They follow His sorrowful announcement that the hour has come and that the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners, with those words still on His lips when the sound approaches. Judas is taking the lead, closely followed by a murderous throng with the high priest close behind, and Jesus Himself steps forth to meet His betrayer rather than flee.
He speaks after accepting the cup and overcoming temptation, knowing the betrayer is near and that arrest and suffering are about to begin. Having accepted the suffering ahead, He wakes the sleeping disciples as the betrayer and the arresting crowd approach, calm and composed. He knowingly goes forward to face His enemies and arrest without fear, going out to meet Judas rather than trying to escape or turn away. The moment marks the turn when the garden trial gives way to betrayal and the events leading to His death, for He knows the suffering awaiting Him and the disciples' coming trial.
The announcement is one of the future scenes He opened before them, by which He prepared His faithful followers while still with them for His betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and death. He knew the ordeal ahead, including betrayal, condemnation, humiliation, and crucifixion, and prepared them so it would not take them by surprise or cause them to lose faith. When betrayal and coming death put the disciples through a severe test, His personal presence could strengthen the faith of His true followers for this final trial. He had prepared them through an earlier crisis as well, so that the fickleness of other followers turning against Him would not take them by surprise or cause them to lose faith.
Calm Courage Facing Arrest
Though He had just endured great anguish in Gethsemane, He steps forth to meet the betrayer with calm dignity and composure. He tells the disciples to rise and go forward because the betrayer is near, having heard the footsteps of the approaching mob with Judas leading and the high priest close behind. His countenance wears calm dignity with no trace of His recent agony visible, without fear or distress. Having accepted the suffering ahead and overcome temptation, He awakens His sleeping disciples as the arresting crowd approaches, calm and composed.
He does not flee but goes out to meet Judas rather than trying to escape. Even though He has power to escape, He willingly lets His enemies take Him and knowingly goes forward to face arrest and suffering without fear.
About to be separated from His apostles to enter the most trying scene ever faced on the bloodstained path leading through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross to Calvary, there are no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief. Though the apostles are heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear after hearing His foretelling of suffering and death, He spends those last solemn momentous hours speaking comfort and assurance to them. He unites with them in a hymn of praise to the Most High, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude under affliction.
In His hour of agony and humiliation, when He bore the guilt of sinful people, He longed for sympathy, companionship, and comfort from the disciples dear to His heart. On that night of great agony on the way across the Kedron to Gethsemane He had given them lessons, using the vine as a symbol of the union of His church with Himself and the Father. When He most needed their sympathy and comfort they reproached and forsook Him, leaving reminders of His unrequited love all around Gethsemane, which He later revisited to bring those truths back to their memory.
Sleeping Unready Disciples
The call to rise and go was spoken to men who had slept instead of staying awake to watch and pray with Him for help, and their sleep left them with no strength for the trial before them. Their drowsiness kept them from receiving the spiritual strength and heavenly evidence that could have prepared them for the terrible events ahead. Their failure to stay alert and in communion with heaven left them unprepared for what followed.
Because of drowsiness and stupor they did not hear Him, hearing Him only dimly, and they had only a dim sense of the angel's presence. They lost the power and glory of the scene and missed the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them. The very men who most needed divine instruction failed to receive it because they did not place themselves in communion with heaven.
Their failure to watch left them unready to understand His suffering and death, while watching and praying would have strengthened their faith and helped them face His trial. He had come to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to establish a kingdom of love and peace and purity in people's hearts, yet they were not ready to comprehend it.
Peter had slept while Jesus prayed in agony, but he later returned to the garden, remembered his failure, and wept in repentance. The experience humbled him and prepared him to sympathize with the weak and strengthen others.
John and James were among the three favored disciples permitted to witness the agony. James was present with Jesus in the garden on that night. He later understood more fully the words about sharing Christ's cup and baptism when he was imprisoned and summoned to execution and faced imprisonment and death.
Bearing Sin to Save
The agony closed by the call to rise and meet the betrayer was the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being, permitted by God to come upon His Son because He was bearing the sins of the whole world, and it declares how deep and intense were the sufferings of the Son for the sins of the world. That suffering in Gethsemane with its shameful death on the cross was endured to save guilty man, for He became poor that through His poverty they might be made rich. The cup of suffering trembled in His hands as He faced the burden of sin and its separation from the Father.
He showed absolute submission, surrendering a will capable of asserting itself and refusing humiliation to the will of God, choosing to drink the cup of suffering and separation in obedience where humanity in Eden had entered disobedience. The sinless Son was treated as a sinner so that sinful beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, with the chastisement of peace upon Him bringing healing by His stripes, and His struggle obtained reconciliation with God. He was numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin.
He who had walked in the light of God's presence now seemed shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence, feeling the wrath of God against transgression so dreadful and the weight of guilt so great that He feared being shut out forever from His Father's love, exceeding sorrowful even unto death. He entered the garden with His soul bowed by a horror of darkness never before experienced, with terrible amazement and shuddering dread as He felt His Father's presence withdrawn, in bitterness exceeding the last struggle with death. In overmastering agony He prayed thrice with sweat of blood forced from His pores falling in drops upon the ground and moistening the sods, fainting and dying under the accumulated guilt of the world until heaven sent a messenger of consolation.
The conflict came after the Passover supper, having had neither food nor drink since, as satanic agencies strove to divorce Him from God, yet He would not yield, and then He was betrayed by Judas with expressions of love, with a kiss, while all His disciples forsook Him and fled. He had laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed divinity with humanity to live a sinless life on behalf of humanity and to make atonement on the cross for transgressions, having come into the world for the purpose of suffering humiliation and death. His sorrow at this time was for doomed Jerusalem and its rejection of its Redeemer, not for fear of physical suffering for Himself.
The same sacrifice was continued on the cross for three terrible hours of agony, enduring the penalty for breaking the law so that repentant, believing ones may have eternal life. In the darkest hour the Father hid from Him His face of love, comfort, and pity, while He endured the greatest suffering Satan could bring to torture His humanity, and His heart broke in that trial.
Example for Believers Today
Christ's suffering in Gethsemane that closes with rising to meet the betrayer is part of the hard, self-denying, humble path He trod to save humanity, endured to show the way and to bring the divine help people must have or perish. His soul agony there teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Followers therefore must not refuse to go where He led, must not follow their own inclinations, and must not complain of hardship and trial in the work of overcoming. They must not shrink from conflict, self-denial, privation, weariness, toil, anxiety or any sacrifice to obtain eternal life, which costs everything. His wrestling with the Father before meeting the betrayer teaches believers to seek strength from God and to submit their will to His, so they can make Him known in word and action. His disciples slept when He sought their sympathy and sent messages to those listening for His voice, hearing Him only dimly with only a dim sense of the angel's presence, missing the power and glory of the scene and the evidence that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them, warning believers to wake from spiritual sleep and place themselves in communion with heaven, since those most needing divine instruction fail to receive it when inattentive and disconnected.
His anguish at the end of the agony, ready to meet His betrayer, parallels the earnest cries and day-and-night agony of God's people during the final time of trouble. As He poured out His soul in agony, they will cry and agonize with Him day and night for deliverance when they face a death decree for refusing to abandon the Sabbath, and God will preserve them. The Gethsemane scene named alongside Calvary shows His great sacrifice, whose atmosphere of suffering and surrender is to shape missionary work and going forth to serve others in its light. That sacrifice together with Calvary sets the measure of the work given to mortals, yet the church's progress remains far behind what that sacrifice calls for.
He endured that last terrible trial in order that sinners might not perish but have eternal life, having come to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to establish a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts. That love shows believers ought to lay down their lives for the brethren and to stop dishonoring God by disunity and working at cross-purposes, cultivating instead brotherly love, tenderness of heart, harmony and unity. Watching and praying would have strengthened the disciples' faith to understand His suffering and death and to face His trial, but their failure to watch left them unready. Remembering this painful communion with the disciples and agony before betrayal and suffering belongs to understanding the sacrifice represented in the Lord's Supper, for the garden was consecrated by His bearing the sins of the world and His struggle there obtained reconciliation with God. When the ordinances are celebrated as commanded, believers pass through that garden in thought and witness the struggle by which reconciliation was obtained.
He is the one who endured the garden conflict, then the shame of the cross, and won victory over death and the tomb. About to be separated from His apostles to enter through Gethsemane, the judgment hall, and the cross the most trying scene ever faced on the bloodstained path to Calvary, He spent those last solemn momentous hours with no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief, speaking comfort and assurance and uniting with them in a hymn of praise, giving a lesson of courage and fortitude under affliction though they were heavy with sorrow and distracted with doubt and fear. His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion now at hand became a vivid example of how a satanic spirit can move people stirred by doubt, bitterness, wrath, and hatred. The garden where the sins of the whole world were laid upon Him, suffered with His shameful death on the cross to save guilty man, for He became poor that they through His poverty might be made rich, rebukes how little those for whom this sacrifice was made are willing to suffer for the truth.