Entering the garden of Gethsemane, Christ asks very little of the disciples: sympathy, some easing of His ultimate pre-death loneliness. He, who warned us of the need to be ready to bear the cross, does not...
Entering the garden of Gethsemane, Christ asks very little of the disciples: sympathy, some easing of His ultimate pre-death loneliness. He, who warned us of the need to be ready to bear the cross, does not force it on us at all, since He has already taken the main weight upon Himself. But precisely for this reason He has the right to ask us not even for help, since we have nothing with which to help Him, but for a small yet real compassion. After all, even a drop wears away a stone, and a little mouse can help pull out a huge turnip.
But the disciples dozed off from exhaustion and distress. This is the kind of small thing we understand so well and would easily forgive in ourselves. And as a result the Teacher was left in hopeless darkness. Three times the disciples fell asleep, and one of them was Peter, for whom the threefold drowsiness became a prelude to the threefold denial. Already in Gethsemane he had an opportunity to understand that he should not overestimate his strength at that time. But then he did not yet understand this.
And after all, the Lord does not often demand anything excessive from us; usually what He asks is within our strength. But we ourselves allow the circumstances that have fallen on us, which we ourselves call "excusable," to weaken us. And so we refuse to help Him resist the evil of the world.
Without question, He can manage without us. But will it be easy for us to stand before Him if we did not want to do even the smallest thing He asked of us?
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26:36 Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane - That is, the valley of fatness. The garden probably had its name from its soil and situation, laying in some little valley between two of those many hills, the range of which constitutes the mount of Olives. Mar 14:32; Luk 22:40.
26:37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee - To be witnesses of all; he began to be sorrowful and in deep anguish - Probably from feeling the arrows of the Almighty stick fast inhis soul, while God laid on him the iniquities of us all. Who can tell what painful and dreadful sensations were then impressed on him by the immediate hand of God? The former word in the original properly signifies, to be penetrated with the most exquisite sorrow; the latter to be quite depressed, and almost overwhelmed with the load.
26:39 And going a little farther - About a stone's cast, Luk 22:41- So that the apostles could both see and hear himstill. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me - And it did pass from him quickly. When he cried unto God with strong cries and tears, he was heard in that which he feared. God did take away the terror and severity of that inward conflict.
26:41 The spirit - Your spirit: ye yourselves. The flesh - Your nature. How gentle a rebuke was this, and how kind an apology!especially at a time when our Lord's own mind was so weighed down with sorrow.
26:45 Sleep on now, if you can, and take your rest - For any farther service you can be of to me.