Jesus and His disciples now came to Gethsemane, a grove of
thick olive trees. This was located at the foot of Mount Olives. Gethsemane means
“Oil press.” It was probably owned by a rich friend of Jesus. The Lord then told
the rest of His disciples to wait outside to pray, while He took His inner
circle of three, Peter, James and John with Him, for a unique experience. They
accompanied Jesus further into the garden.
Peter, James and John literally saw the Lord in deep anguish.
He was deeply distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply
grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” Why did the Lord ask them to stay awake? The
Lord mentioned these words three times here in this short passage. And three
times they failed to do so. They failed to keep watch with Him. They failed in
their loyalty to Him in the most critical moment of His agony. He wanted them
to accompany Him to pray, standing or kneeling in Hs time of distress and grief.
After telling them to keep watch with Him,
He went deeper into the grove and fell prostrate and began to pray, asking for the
cup or the hour to pass by Him.
Notice how intimately He addressed God: Abba! Father! The
very thought that this intimacy would be broken for a moment was so unbearable
to the Lord. Why was the Lord so grieved? He called it a cup and even begged
for it to be removed. It was the cup of sin as well as the cup of wrath. He saw
the horror of sin and the destruction it brought to a human soul. He must have
seen the menacing ill of evil and its final destruction, and He recoiled. And
being the sin-bearer, He felt the weight of sin and the Holy wrath of the
Father against sin. So horrific was hell and the wrath that God had against sin
that Luke 22:44 said it this way: And being in agony He was praying very
fervently; and sweat became drops of blood, falling upon the ground.” But for
the sake of lost humanity, He resolutely said, ‘yet not what I will but Your
will be done.’
Meanwhile the three disciples who accompanied Him were asleep.
After a period of praying He came to them. Addressing Peter, He asked, “Could you
not keep watch for one hour?” He knew that the spirit may be willing but the flesh
is weak, so prayer would be the best means by which one finds strength to
overcome the temptation. With that instruction, He went and prayed a second
period and again He came back finding the three asleep and probably with embarrassment
they didn’t know how to answer the Lord. After the third time, realizing the
hour had approached, meaning Judas’ transaction with the priest was done, and His
enemies with their army would soon arrive, He ordered them to get up and to
join Him as they get out to meet them.
If there is a critical lesson, this one must be it. In life
we all must come to our own Gethsemane moment. But we still have the
availability of prayer to help us through our moment. Of course we can pray for
God to have it removed but we know that more often, He will give us strength to
go through them rather than removing them. The Father heard the cries of the
Lord and answered His prayer by sending angels to strengthen Him, but He still
went to Calvary. The key is still this: every one of us must be devoted to
prayer and live a life depending on the Father for strength that is received
through our prayer. If prayer is not a regular part of life we will find ourselves
failing at the moment that counts! So keep watch and pray!
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