Gethsemane

Our Lord left the table of happy fellowship, and passed over the brook Kedron, so associated with the sorrows of David. 2 Samuel 15:23.

He then entered into the garden, named Gethsemane, not to hide himself from death, but to prepare for it by a season of special prayer.

Gethsemane was our Lord’s place of secret prayer. John 18:1, 2.

If he resorted to his closet in the hour of trial, we need to do so far more.

In his solitary supplication he was oppressed with a great grief, and overwhelmed with a terrible anguish.

It was a killing change from the cheerful communion of the Supper to the lone agony of the garden.

Let us think with great solemnity of the olive garden where the Savior sweat as it were great drops of blood.

I. THE CHOICE OF THE SPOT—

1. Showed his serenity of mind, and his courage.

   • He goes to his usual place of secret prayer.
   • He goes there though Judas knew the place.

2. Manifested his wisdom.

   • Holy memories there aided his faith.
   • Deep solitude was suitable for his prayers and cries.
   • Congenial gloom fitted his exceeding sorrow.

3. Bequeathed us lessons.

   • In a garden, Paradise was lost and won.
   • In Gethsemane, the olive-press, our Lord himself was crushed.
   • In our griefs, let us retreat to our God in secret.
   • In our special prayers, let us not be ashamed to let them be known to our choicer friends, for Jesus took his disciples with him to his secret devotions in Gethsemane.

II. THE EXERCISE UPON THE SPOT.

Every item is worthy of attention and imitation.

1. He took all due precautions for others.

   • He would not have his disciples surprised, and therefore bade them watch. So should we care for others in our own extremity. The intensity of his fellowship with God did not cause him to forget one of his companions.

2. He solicited the sympathy of friends.

   • We may not despise this; though, like our Lord, we shall prove the feebleness of it, and cry, “Could you not watch with me?”

3. He prayed and wrestled with God.

   • In lowliest posture and manner. See verse 35.
   • In piteous repetition of his cry. See verses 36 and 39.
   • In awful agony of spirit even to a bloody sweat. Luke 22:44.
   • In full and true submission. Matthew 26:42, 44.

4. He again and again sought human sympathy, but made excuse for his friends when they failed him. See verse 38. We ought not to be soured in spirit even when we are bitterly disappointed.

5. He returned to his God, and poured out his soul in strong crying and tears, until he was heard in that he feared. Hebrews 5:7.

III. THE TRIUMPH UPON THE SPOT.

1. Behold his perfect resignation. He struggles with “if it be possible,” but conquers with “not what I will, but what you will.” He is our example of patience.

2. Rejoice in his strong resolve. He had undertaken, and would go through with it. Luke 9:51; 12:50.

3. Mark the angelic service rendered. The blood-bestained Sufferer has still all Heaven at his call. Matthew 26:53.

4. Remember his majestic bearing towards his enemies.

   • He meets them bravely. Matthew 26:55.
   • He makes them fall. John 18:6.
   • He yields himself, but not to force. John 18:8.
   • He goes to the cross, and transforms it to a throne.
   • We, too, may expect our minor Gethsemane.
   • We shall not be there without a Friend, for he is with us.
   • We shall conquer by his might, and in his manner.

In Memoriam

The late Rev. W. H. Krause, of Dublin, was visiting a lady in a depressed state, “weak, oh, so weak!” She told him that she had been very much troubled in mind that day, because in meditation and prayer she had found it impossible to govern her thoughts, and kept merely going over the same things again and again. “Well, my dear friend,” was his prompt reply, “there is provision in the gospel for that too. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, three times prayed, and spoke the same words.” This seasonable application of Scripture was a source of great comfort to her.

Gethsemane, the olive-press!

(And why so called let Christians guess.)

Fit name, fit place, where vengeance strove,

And griped and grappled hard with love.

—Joseph Deer.

“My will, not your, be done,” turned Paradise into a desert. “Your will, not mine, be done,” turned the desert into Paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven.—E. Pressensé.

An inscription in a garden in Wales runs thus:—

“In a garden the first of our race was deceived, In a garden the promise of grace he received, In a garden was Jesus betrayed to his doom,

In a garden his body was laid in the tomb.”

There will be no Christian but what will have a Gethsemane, but every praying Christian will find that there is no Gethsemane without its angel.—Thomas Binney.

The Father heard; and angels, there, Sustained the Son of God in prayer, In sad Gethsemane;

He drank the dreadful cup of pain—

Then rose to life and joy again.

When storms of sorrow round us sweep, And scenes of anguish make us weep;

To sad Gethsemane

We’ll look, and see the Savior there,

And humbly bow, like Him, in prayer.

S. F. Smith.

“And there appeared an angel unto him from Heaven, strengthening him.”—What! The Son of God receives help from an angel, who is but his creature? Yes. And we learn thereby to expect help and comfort from simple persons and common things, when God pleases. All strength and comfort come from God, but he makes creatures his ministers to bring it. We should thank both them and him.—Practical Reflections on every verse of the Holy Gospels, by a Clergyman.

There is something in an olive-garden, on a hill-side, which makes it most suitable for prayer and meditation. The shade is solemn, the terraces divide better than distance, the ground is suitable for kneeling upon, and the surroundings are all in accord with holy thoughts. I can hardly tell why it is, but often as I have sat in an olive-garden, I have never been without the sense that it was the place and the hour of prayer—C. H. S.