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36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." 40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. ~ Matthew 26:36-43
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 26 where the Lord Jesus has just told His disciples that after His crucifixion, they will all abandon Him. In fact, they will be pursued and caught and confronted regarding their association with the Lord Jesus. All of them will deny their association with Him. The Lord Jesus knew in advance of their failure to remain faithful to Him. He knows us better than we do ourselves, and yet, He is still committed to us. By now, it was early Friday morning.
In v.36-37 of today's passage we read, "36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, 'Sit here while I go and pray over there.' 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed."
"Gethsemane" comes from two Hebrew words meaning "the olive press." In those days, olive oil was made by taking two stones, an upper stone which would revolve around the lower stone. Anything between the two stones was crushed. When the olives were crushed, the oil that came forth was gathered and collected and sold. The real value of the olive comes when it's crushed. This is yet again another picture of the culture of God. The Lord Jesus came to this earth to be crushed for the forgiveness of our sin. The first Adam rebelled against God in the garden of Eden and brought sin and death into this world. The Last Adam, the Lord Jesus, submitted Himself to God in the garden of Gethsemane and brought life and salvation for all who would believe in Him.
Before going into the garden, the Lord Jesus gave His disciples the weapon against temptation: PRAYER. According to Mark 14, eight of His disciples stayed at the entrance to the garden. Three of them, Peter, James and John, went into the Garden with Him a little further, but only the Lord Jesus went all the way in, alone. A sign that only He could accomplish the impossible for humans. This is why He earlier said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."
Interestingly, there were two other occasions when this inner circle of Peter, James, and John joined the Lord Jesus exclusively: The first was at the house of Jairus when the Lord raised the daughter of Jarius from the dead. The second was on the Mount of Transfiguration when the Lord Jesus was transfigured before Moses and Elijah. There, the Lord Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah about His departure. All three of these instances have something in common, and, it is His death. And, here in today's passage, the Lord Jesus presented Himself to the Father for death. I also find it interesting that the very first Christian martyr was James. The last to die was John. The middle one was Peter who would be crucified upside down in Rome.
In v.38-39 of today's passage we read, "38 Then He said to them, 'My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.' 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 'O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.'"
Even though the Lord Jesus was omniscient, death was an experience that He never knew. Being totally holy, He was perfectly alienated to sin. As a result, He was engulfed in His grief to the point of death. His plea to avoid the cross was absolutely consistent with His nature as God. His anguish was caused by the cup of God's wrath which He knew awaited Him on the cross, and He struggled with the idea of being alienated from the Father. He had never known such. It disturbed Him so much that He asked the Father for a way out of it.
The Lord Jesus referred to the Father as "Abba" which is a very intimate word meaning "Daddy." No Jew would ever even consider calling God, Father. But, the Lord Jesus referred to Him as such, pleading for His intimate love to rescue Him. It was then that the Lord Jesus prayed to His Daddy and then He rested in His will. This is the way we should pray, to make our request and then to rest in God's will. The Lord Jesus submitted to the will of His Daddy. In His human nature the Lord Jesus felt anxiety, but, in the end He said, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." The Lord Jesus submitted Himself to whatever the Father wanted because He knew the character and the nature of his Daddy, that He could be completely trusted with the outcome, even though there would be an intense amount of agony for Him.
In v.40-41 of today's passage we read, "40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, 'What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'"
Though we have been forgiven, and though we have been made new in Christ, we are still sinful. We are citizens of heaven yet we are trapped in unredeemed bodies. And we are seduced by the remnants of our fallenness. The temptation is to hold onto sin and not invest in His righteousness. The power of evil is still strong in us, even though we have been born again and the Holy Spirit dwells within. We struggle because sin still dwells within us and we are most familiar with it.
The Lord Jesus struggled with temptation in exactly the opposite way as we do. He struggled because He was and is holy. We struggle with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life because we are sinful. He was being tempted to NOT embrace being the sin bearer while we are tempted because we are so attracted to our sin.
In v.42 of today's passage we read, "Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, 'O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.'"
To "drink the cup" was an analogy informing us that the perfect Son of God would take the wrath of God on our behalf. In so doing, He conquered sin and death for us. His prayer in that garden overlooking Jerusalem was full of agony. There will always be a certain measure of agony found in legitimate prayer. The only way we can overcome the flesh is by yielding ourselves to the will of the Father.
In v.43 of today's passage we read, "And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy."
The sleepiness of the disciples was an argument from God to the Lord Jesus that only He could endure the cross for man's salvation. And so, the agony of the Lord Jesus increased. He would be truly alone during those six hours as He hung on the cross. The sleepiness of the disciples was undoubtedly a reminder to Him that His followers would not endure the cross like He. Satan had given his best shot, he tried to divert the Lord Jesus from the will of God, but the Lord Jesus prevailed.
The disciples yielded to temptation because they could not endure in prayer. In addition, they were exhausted by the sorrow. It was after this that the Lord Jesus set out to go to the cross where He crushed the head of the serpent. At His cross, He did what we could never do, He was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was now Friday morning and the darkness did not prevail.
