Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Introduction
Introduction
As we’ve been considering the events in the buildup to the crucifixion of Jesus, one of the things that we’ve noted is that Jesus is continuously focused on teaching and training His disciples and those around Him. We’ve seen it repeatedly, that although the cross is coming, Christ cares for others.
This morning in the passage before us, we suddenly get a glimpse of the weightiness of what is about to unfold on Jesus. Although He was concerned for His disciples, and was resolute in heading towards the cross, this does not mean that what was approaching had no effect on Him. In this text, we see the intensity of the struggle that he had as He had to face what was going to take place.
Now, in the midst of that, Jesus was still thinking about His disciples, and He still gave them instruction. It’s not as if completely forgot about or ignored them. But this would really be an event where he suffered under a heavy burden…
What is important to note as an over-arching theme from the passage is the place of prayer in the midst of the struggle. Keep in mind that prayer has already come to the fore in what we considered last week. Jesus had been praying for His disciples as they would face the time of testing.
In today’s passage, Christ both tells His disciples to pray… and He prays for Himself. As we would face times of trial and temptation, prayer is a critical component of our spiritual walk with the Lord. There is much we can learn from this account.
1 The Place of Prayer (v.39)
1 The Place of Prayer (v.39)
Jesus has just participated in the Passover Meal with His disciples. He had taught them, and even prepared them for the events that were about to unfold.
Keep in mind, also, that Judas Iscariot has already gone out from the group. He is no longer with them in the upper room where they had enjoyed the Passover Meal together.
But the rest of the disciples are with Jesus, and having eaten and been satisfied, they now arise together and go out to the Mount of Olives.
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
The Mount of Olives was the mountain just opposite (to the East) of Mount Zion where Jerusalem was situated. Between the two mounts lay the Kidron Valley. The distance between Jerusalem and the Garden of Gethsemane was a couple of kilometers - not very far by foot.
Although Luke doesn’t record it, Jesus actually went to a Garden that was called Gethsemane, which was situated somewhere on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.
We should keep in mind that this was a regular practice of Jesus during this Passover week. If your Bibles are open, just flip back to Luke 21:37...
37 Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives,
So, certainly during the course of this week building up to the Passover, this was where they would go and spend the night. This was the place where they would sleep, in fact.
What’s important for the context of what is about to unfold is that Judas would have participated in this regular going out to the Garden of Gethsemane with the others disciples and Jesus.
Judas’ knowledge of where the disciples were going each night was going to be the very bit of information that was needed in order to have Jesus betrayed. He would convey that information to the Chief Priests, and they would then arrange for the arrest of Jesus, with Judas leading them to the very place that Jesus and the disciples were spending their nights.
Notice, secondly…
2 The Instruction to Pray (v.40)
2 The Instruction to Pray (v.40)
As Jesus and the disciples arrive in the Garden, he immediately gives them an instruction to pray. This instruction would have come to them at a time where there was a particular urgent need. Knowing what He knew, his instruction to them was to pray!
40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”
The essence of the instruction is one to prayer. Jesus is telling His disciples that they need to be spending time in prayer. They know that a time of testing is approaching. Jesus has just told them that Satan has demanded to sift them as wheat.
His instruction, then, in such a time, is that they should pray that they would not fall into temptation.
Already, when Christ was teaching His disciples to pray previously, He had told them to pray that they would not be led into temptation. At this point, the particular trial that is approaching is inevitable. Jesus tells them that they need to pray, so that they will not fall into temptation.
They are to be taking their petitions to God in heaven.
There are some points that are worth highlighting in this regard.
Firstly, we need to recognise Christ’s gracious act of warning them that peculiar temptation is coming. This is not to say that temptation is not an ever-present reality. Certainly their are temptations all around, and they are regular and frequent in our lives.
But in this particular time of need, there is opportunity to be more intentional about prayer, and to pray more specifically. Jesus is instructing His disciples in this manner.
As we look back in the Scriptures, think about the account of Cain. God came to him and spoke to him.
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
There was a particular time of testing, and God warned Cain. However, Cain failed to take heed of the warning. There is certainly no record of Him praying!!
In terms of applying this to our own lives, we have these general commands and instructions to pray without ceasing. We need to recognise the importance of these instructions, and we need to heed them as a general principle of the Christian life. There is a spiritual battle on the go. Prayer is an essential component in the context of this war being waged.
But we need to recognise further that when particular times of temptation and trying come along our paths, a fervent devotion to prayer is critical. We need to keep it clear in our minds and hearts that prayer, expressing our utter dependence upon God, is essential for our spiritual wellbeing.
The question is, are we prepared, and are we preparing ourselves for those times of temptation. Is prayer a regular habit for us? Is this something that we are not only practicing regularly, but that we recognise is an essential part of our lives spiritually, and it simply cannot be neglected.
Having given the instruction to His disciples to pray, Christ now will proceed to give them the example.
3 The Act of Prayer (v.41-42)
3 The Act of Prayer (v.41-42)
Christ was always not only a great teacher, but the exemplary example. And so, here too, he sets an example for them.
Now, we must keep in mind that Christ, aware of what was approaching and how difficult the time would be, withdrew himself from his disciples in order to offer up petitions to His Father. He knew that He needed strength and power from His Father in order to endure the approaching temptation.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Why was it that Jesus was able to endure temptation - all kinds of temptation - without sinning? At least one of the reasons is that He prayed regularly and fervently.
It’s easy for us to think that Jesus was God the Flesh, and so what he faced were not real temptations. We think of the “temptations” as things that were placed before Him that had no appeal to Him somehow. As if the “temptation” is something entirely external to Him.
This was not the case, and it is particularly seen through the prayer that Jesus makes now to His Father. He was really was tempted - there was a pull - within His being to not walk on a path of obedience, but to actually go a different route.
Now, that temptation itself was not sin. And ultimately we’ll see that Jesus surrendered to the Father’s will, even in the midst of the temptation. But I do want us to see the extent and the gravity of the temptation that Jesus faced, and that when Scriptures say that we have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, we really do. He understands what it is to be tempted and tried and tested!
With that in mind, note what happens as Jesus has just told His disciples to pray.
41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,
He withdrew...
The first thing that He did was to withdraw a little way away from his disciples. From the other Gospel accounts, we know that there were three disciples taken with him to a further point, and then Jesus went on even just a little further alone.
So the three disciples (Peter, James and John) went a stone’s throw away from the other 8 disciples. Jesus told the three to wait at that point, and then he went on just a little way further himself. Probably He remained within ear shot of the three. That’s probably how we have the record of the words that were prayed by Jesus to God.
He Knelt Down…
This is a picture for us of “God the Son” bowing down to “God the Father.” As much as a posture is not always critical in prayer (remember, it is the heart that God considers) we must still see that Jesus’ actions were a reflection of His heart.
As He considers the weight of what is about to take place, His heart is moved and He is, in a sense, overcome with sorrow. We’ll see more of this in a moment, but for now, recognise that Christ’s humility here as He bows before the Father is important.
There are other examples of this posture of humility before God.
60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.
5 But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.
Kneeling in prayer in these accounts were an expression of a heart that was humbled before God. The posture must reflect the condition of the heart, and what the heart truly believes concerning God, and the dependence that one has upon God.
He Prayed…
Let us then consider the prayer that He offered up at this point in time. His prayer is recorded for us in verse 42…
42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Firstly, we see once again that Jesus addresses God as His Father. The word in the Aramaic is “Abba...” This is the way that Jesus had taught His disciples to pray to God.
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“ ‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Christ called upon God as Father - the one who loves His child.
Notice that, as Luke records the prayer, Jesus begins with the words, “If you are willing.” This differs slightly from the other Gospel accounts. All of them record very clearly that Christ prayed for the Father’s will to be done, so we don’t want to make too much of a big deal of this. However, what we must recognise is that Christ’s pure heart desire was always to do the will of the Father. Throughout, His goal and His ambition was to do the will of His Father.
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
This was Christ’s ambition and goal. It was not an after-thought, but the driving motivation of His life.
But notice the point of temptation now before Jesus. Although He truly and ultimately desires to honour His Father, to do His Father’s will, there is a sense in which He had this desire to not have to endure the bitter cup that was about to be poured out on Him.
His prayer is, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me...”
Now, I want to begin here by considering what this cup was of which Jesus was speaking. We probably know that it was the cup of suffering that Jesus would endure on the cross. But what did that all entail? What would have been going through the mind of Christ at this particular point on His journey in this world. Why was this such an intense moment in the life of Christ (the intensity will be touched on in just a moment under point 5, from verse 44).
I want to emphasize here that what Jesus was focused upon here was the intense anger and wrath of God directed against sinners. And we sometimes lose sight of the impact of this, just how serious and weighty this is. And because that is our tendency, I want to just point out a few key aspects related to God’s wrath and anger against sin.
We need to recognise that the picture of the “cup of God’s wrath” is one that the Old Testament had spoken of, and this is what Christ refers to here…
22 This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will never drink again.
15 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
19 The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
This is the clear picture of the cup. This is what Christ was referring to - the cup of the divine wrath of God that would be poured out upon sinners in rebellion against Him.
With that in mind, how serious a thing is this cup of God’s wrath? Is God not the loving and kind God? After all, the Bible teaches that “God is love!”
Yes, but He is also a God who is filled with wrath against sin and unrighteousness. He is filled with anger against rebellion against HIm. Let me give you some examples of this from Scripture.
11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who expresses his wrath every day.
11 Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
God’s wrath burned against His people Israel, because they failed to walk in obedience to Him.
40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his people
and abhorred his inheritance.
The extent of this would become so great, that they would be left, in a sense, with no remedy against the just wrath of God being poured out…
16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.
31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Concerning the coming Day of the Wrath of God, the Scriptures make clear that this wrath is fierce and powerful.
2 before the appointed time arrives
and that day sweeps on like chaff,
before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you.
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
We read of this Day of the Wrath of God as being one of cruel anger.
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming
—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.
Verse 13 of the same chapter says....
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger.
Now, as we consider this, we must recognise that Jesus, in all His perfection, in full obedience to the Father in heaven, was looking at enduring, and taking upon Himself, the full force and weight of the wrath of Almighty God against Him. His own Father in heaven would unleash His wrath, this wrath that was due to sinners, against Him.
This was going to be a profound experience of the most fierce wrath imaginable. This is what Christ was asking to have taken away from Him. If it be possible, says Jesus, take this cup from me.
This is the temptation. That the cup would not need to be endured, that there would be another way.
God would have been justified in annihilating all of humanity and everything in existence!! Perhaps there was another path entirely.
There’s no clarity on what other potential ways forward could have gone through Christ’s mind. But whatever thought there may have been, Jesus refused to entertain such thoughts. He refused to allow any other thoughts to drive His thinking.
The very simple phrase that He uses is this: Not my will, but yours be done.”
Having lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father, obeying His every command to the smallest detail, not only in outward conformance, but with a genuine heart to bring praise, glory and honour to His Father. Having done that, He would now endure the wrath of the Father?
Such is unthinkable to our minds. But the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man, is it not.
And So, Jesus simply reiterates, yet not my will but yours be done!! In the face of the most agonizing of trials, Jesus rejects the temptation for another path, a route outside of the will of God, and says that He will simply trust and obey the will of the Father!
This was the place where Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden. The will of God had been clearly communicated. They were lied to, and chose to follow the will of the heart under temptation. In doing so, they lead humanity into a state of rebellion.
The natural state of every one of us is the same. We are by nature those who would follow our own heart’s desires.
Through enduring in obedience, Christ would lead a new people, a people whose hearts would be marked in increasing measure for doing the will of God, rather than obeying the temptations that would be brought their way.
That really is the promise of the New Covenant as it is outlined in Scripture in Jeremiah 31:31-34. We will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. We will know His ways.
So, Christ was praying for this cup of the wrath of God to be taken away from Him. Yet, He said, not my will, but yours be done, Father!
That leads us to the next main point…
4 The Messenger in Prayer (v.43)
4 The Messenger in Prayer (v.43)
We read in verse 43, that as Jesus is wrestling in prayer before His Father, that a messenger, an angel, comes to Him and ministers to Him.
43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
We may wonder what the significance of this verse is. I think there are a couple of interesting and important points to note from this.
We should note that this is the second time that we find an angel ministering to Jesus. The first was in the Wilderness where He was tempted by Satan for 40 days. That was a particular time of temptation, a particular time of need. This messenger ministered to Him there.
We recall from that time that Satan left Jesus until an opportune time. I would suggest that here was an opportune time, where Satan would afflict Jesus, seeking to cast doubt in Jesus’ mind concerning God’s promises. Certainly this was an hour of great temptation.
Think further, that Jesus, the Son of God, has need of an angel to minister to Him as a man. It just adds to the weightiness of His humility.
Hebrews 1 clearly outlines Christ’s superiority to the angels. And yet, in His humanity, he felt the frailty of the flesh. This was a real experience for Him. It would have been a humbling experience as God’s Son, equal with God, to have an angel minister to Him. He who was exalted far above the angels, has need of an angel to minister to Him during this time of suffering and temptation.
Beyond this, however, I want to point out the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, the mighty creator of all things… in His humanity, he needed strengthening and encouragement during this time of trial and temptation. A messenger was sent for this purpose. Now, some have thought it impossible that Christ would need encouragement or strengthening in his soul, and that this ministry by the angel was merely to his physical needs. I don’t believe that this is the case. Here was a man whose soul, his spirit was in torment. Yes He was God… but he suffered as a man. I believe that He suffered this torment of spirit that was encouraged and strengthened by the angel.
Bring that to our own context… if Christ was in need of a comforter, a messenger to help Him in His time of need, do we not much more need a comforter in our times of trial and temptation. We are not greater than Christ was. We certainly do not have the power that He had. And yet, he had need of a comforter, in the form of a messenger - an angel.
We, too, need this support and help in our weakness. How does this come to us? How do we receive such help and comfort?
I would begin by saying that Jesus promised to send a Comforter, -a Counselor. Someone to strengthen and encourage our hearts during our times of weakness and distress. Now, the work of the Comforter - the Holy Spirit - is not limited to encouragement in a time of need. But certainly that will be an important component of the work of God’s Spirit.
If the work of the Spirit is to remind us, to show us the truth of God’s word, to remind us of the promises of God to us, then certainly the Spirit comes as a helper in such times of weakness.
Beyond this, our Brothers and Sisters in the faith are those who God would use to bring encouragement.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
Where does this comfort come from? The Promises of God. The character of God. The Gospel truth that encourages and strengthens us in our walk!
Let us consider next…
5 The Anguish in Prayer (v.44)
5 The Anguish in Prayer (v.44)
Although Christ has already been wrestling in prayer, and very clearly burdened by the cup of the wrath of God that is to be poured out upon Him, we see that there is an intensification of this troubled spirit in Jesus…
44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Keep in mind that Luke is a physician, and this detail about Jesus would have been of particular interest to him. He records this occurrence of what is termed Hematidrosis…
This is a real medical condition, extremely rare - as in a few handfuls of cases recorded in the 20th century. But it certainly occurs and is documented.
It can occur under cases of severe distress or trauma.
What happens is that under these intense situations, tiny blood vessels in the skin break open. The blood inside them may get squeezed out through sweat glands, or there might be unusual little pockets within the structure of your skin. These could collect the blood and let it leak into follicles (where the hair grows) or on to the skin's surface.
This observation of Jesus enduring this just goes to demonstrate the extent of the suffering of Jesus at this moment. He was intensely afflicted in this moment.
In Hebrews 5:7, we read something of the agony that Jesus faced in His prayers.
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Whether or not that is a specific reference to this prayer of Jesus cannot be certain. But the fact is that Jesus would offer up prayers with loud cries and tears. No doubt, that’s precisely what was happening here in this moment, the most intense moment really of the ministry of Jesus
We’ve already considered something of what Jesus was facing in this moment in the sense that He was going to be confronted with the full wrath of God at His crucifixion. We need to recognise that as He considers this cup of the wrath of God, He was no doubt experiencing a foretaste of what was to come. In other words, in this moment, He was looking at what was coming - with the full wrath of God going to be poured out upon Him!
Furthermore, if we look to Psalm 22, we something of the spiritual battle that was unfolding over this period of time.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
While this was to be true of the enemies of Jesus that would come and have Him arrested in a moment, was it not equally as true as Satan sought to tare Jesus down and destroy Him!?
The intensity of Christ’s suffering came about as He recognised the extent and the fury of the wrath of God, and as He was more fully confronted with the reality that this was now to come upon Him. And He was in anguish.
Notice importantly from this verse, that as this anguish afflicted Him, it led Him to more fervent prayer. He persevered in prayer!
6 The Urgency of Prayer (vv.45-46)
6 The Urgency of Prayer (vv.45-46)
As Christ has finished praying, even to the point of sweating drops of blood, he returns to his disciples.
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.
While Jesus had been agonizing over the events that were about to unfold, the disciples are exhausted. Luke doesn’t dwell on their weakness, but he does state that the reason for the their sleep was that of sorrow. This is the only Gospel account that brings this out.
But here we see the frailty and weakness of man. The disciples, even those closest to Jesus, were unable to keep themselves awake in this time of critical importance. They were unable to pray for Jesus.
But consider it from this perspective. Christ had been praying for them. Although they were weak and frail, Christ had prayed for them. He was concerned for them. Although they failed Him, He did everything perfectly for them.
But He does exhort them at this point…
46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
There is an urgency in prayer. In the other accounts, this instruction is given three times.
Christ calls upon His disciples to pray… keep watch… be on the alert! This is the repeated call.
Application / Conclusion
Application / Conclusion
Just briefly by way of application…
Keep in mind that Jesus drank the cup of suffering. He endured the wrath of God on our behalf. Through this passage we get a sense of that. What are the implications of that for our lives?
Puritan William Cooper comments about this in this way...
The Lord by afflicting prevents and purges sin. Do we not thank the surgeon who removes a damaged limb? Yes, we thank him, and take our bitter pills too. The cross God lays upon us is far below what we deserve. What is a drop of sweetened wormwood to the gall of bitterness? What is a little suffering to the lake of fire? Jesus drank the full cup of suffering for us. He drank it fully— we cannot, we need not. O thank God you have so little a share of it! In affliction we learn what we could not otherwise. Wax unheated will not receive the impression of the seal. Man in affliction will receive the imprint of divine wisdom. It prepares us for glory. The potter beats the clay to make it well-tempered, moulds it on the wheel, and then bakes it in the oven before use. A wooden vessel is turned and cut before it is fit. Gold is heated and pounded before it is complete. So every vessel of mercy must be treated before it is fit for glory. The cross sharpens our faith and sets a sharp edge and lustre upon it. The stone is hewed, cut, carved, and polished. So suffering saints are prepared for the highest degrees of glory.
Richard Rushing. Voices from the Past (Kindle Locations 3235-3243). The Banner of Truth Trust.
Let us be thankful for Christ’s enduring the wrath of God, and let us endure the light and momentary afflictions of this life in humility and trust.
Then, let us be praying. Prayer is essential to our spiritual well-being Prayer is essential to standing firm in the day of trial. We must be praying. We must be a praying people!! The day of trial is today… the day to prepare for the day of trial is today!!
Let us be praying, that we would not fall into temptation.