GETHSEMANE!

Matt 26:38 Then He *said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

Only a few minutes before the prayer in the garden, Our Lord had offered His High- Priestly prayer: but what a striking difference that is between the two! How explain the serenity of the one and the agonizing of the other? The first was intercessory; this was personal- the prelude the Calvary.

He had partaken the Lord supper and sung a hymn with His disciples before entering the garden.

The place of His prayer was most appropriately named GETHSEMANE, the oil press, for did not our saviour under the pressure of a great agony yield precious oil that has been the balm of many a wounded soul? Leaving His disciples, Jesus penetrated a little further into the garden” and began to be sorrowful and very heavy”

THE POIGNANCY OF HIS SUFFERING:

The writer of the gospel presents six clauses, each of which presents a different facet of our Savior’s suffering, and each is worthy of reverent examination, although we do not presume to understand or explain their full import.

• Matt 26:38 Then He *said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

He began to be “exceedingly sorrowful” or “pressed upon”. He had ever been a ‘man of sorrows’, but now He enters upon sorrow of such degree that everything that He had endured in the past paled into insignificance, as mere ripples to the swelling billows which now engulfed Him.

• Mark 14:33 And He *took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled.

“………. He began to be struck with terror and amazement and deeply troubled and depressed” (AMP)

He began to be “very heavy”, “deeply troubled”. Lightfoot suggests that this word points to a confused, restless, half –distracted state, while another commentator suggests the root idea is that of being “away from home”, and so “beside oneself” And was it not the fact that in a very real sense He was away from home, which made His suffering the more poignant.

• He began to be struck with terror and amazement, “stunned with amazement” or “utterly surprised”

H.B Swete said, “The Lord’s first feeling was one of terrified surprise. Long as He had foreseen the Passion, when it came closely in view, its terrors exceeded His

anticipations. His human soul received a new experience and the last lesson of obedience began with a sensation of inconceivable awe” As He saw the ingredients of the terrible cup, which was being mixed for Him, He was startled and stunned.

• Mark 14:34 And He *said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch."

It points to an unfathomable depth of anguish and sorrow. He who after the wilderness temptation had left our Lord for a season (Luke 4:3 And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.") had now returned and tempted Him with “all painful things, as before with all pleasurable, hoping to terrify, if it might be, from His allegiance to the truth, Him who manifestly he could not allure”- R.C.Trench.

“Point of death” or “Unto death”- The sorrow and agony were so tremendous that He was likely to collapse under the weight.

• Luke 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

He was “in agony” or “conflict” as the word is rendered in Col 2:1 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,”

The Hebrew epistle tells us that He prayed with “Heb 5:7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” As the power of darkness closed in on Him, in a final endeavor to prevent His going to the cross. He was engaged in conflict the like of which he had never before experienced.

• His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. (Luke 22:44)]

Remember it was a cold night, but as He prayed in agony the course of nature was reversed and the blood, instead of rushing to the aid of the overcharged and breaking heart, was forced through the pores, to fall in great drops on the ground. My soul, stands in awe, and magnify His matchless love.

THE INGREDIENTS OF THE CUP

What were the ingredients of the cup of which He was to drink?

1. The renewed attack of Satan: Luke 22:53 "While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours." Foiled in every previous attempt to deflect the Lord from the way of the cross, the power of darkness launched a terrific onslaught, in one final attempt to overthrow Him. No mock battle this, but a struggle to the death between Light and darkness.

2. The loss of the light of His Father’s countenance. Why hast thou forsaken me? It was bad enough that He should be in an alien country, deserted by His followers, betrayed by His friend, denied by one of His inmates- but to be forsaken by God! This was an utterly new and bewildered experience, the anticipation of which produced this blood letting agony.

3. The assumption of the guilt of the world. “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” Nothing less than penal suffering for our sin can explain His agony. Bishop Ryle writes , “I believe that this view is the only reasonable soloution of our Lord’s agony………….. The experience in the garden is a knot which nothing can unite but the old doctrine of our sin being imputed to Christ, and Christ being made sin and a curse for us.” He drank “a cup of wrath without mercy in order that we might drink a cup of mercy without wrath.”