The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
WATCH AND PRAY
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
WATCH AND PRAY
Golden Text: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” (Matt. 26:41)
Lesson Plan:
1. The Sifting of Peter Foretold (vs 26-31)
2. The Prayer in Gethsemane (vs 32-42)
Lesson Setting:
Time: Between midnight and one o’clock Friday morning, April 7. The morning of the day of
crucifixion.
Place: The garden of Gethsemane, on the lower slope of the Mount of Olives, opposite
Jerusalem.
Research and Discussion: Announcement of danger, and of the disciples falling before it. Why the assurance of His resurrection at this time. Why Peter’s denial foretold to him. The Garden of Gethsemane. Why the disciples were separated into two companies. Why were the three chosen to be near to Him? What was the cup Jesus dreaded to drink? The qualities noted in Christ’s prayer. In what respects was it a model prayer? In what way was it answered?
Introduction: This lesson, along with the next three, deals with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Therefore, if you are a teacher preparing a lesson for your class, please review the next three lessons, “Jesus in Gethsemane”, “Jesus and Judas” and “The Arrest and Trial of Jesus,” to hopefully avoid over-emphasizing similar material in this and the upcoming lessons. This lesson is full of sweet solemnity and should be considered with a reverent tracing of sorrows, filling the soul with holy awe and fear. It is only by slow degrees that meditation is able to soften our hard hearts, so that Christ’s trials and sorrows can really move us. Thinking of Christ every now and then simply will not do it. Only by meditating on Him quietly and steadily will He live in our mind’s eye, so that little and little we gain something of warmth, light, life and love. Our days begin at midnight and extend from midnight to midnight. But the Jewish day began at sunset, extending from sunset to sunset. When we enter the Garden of Gethsemane we hear the voice that came to Moses at the burning bush: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:26-31
1. The Sifting of Peter Foretold
Jesus knew that within two hours His disciples would be tested as they never had been tested before. It was midnight, the time of the full moon, but there were dark shadows of trees and buildings; and quite possibly the disciples had the same experiences as Dr. James E. Priest had in the same place some years ago at the Passover-time of month. One moment the moon broke through the rushing clouds. Then “high walls shut a man in along that rough road, and stormy darkness was settling down. Again that silver moon shone out, only to be obliterated by swift clouds. The valley was no longer discernible – the huge walls were only a blacker line through the dark. The rain broke once more into a descending flood” (from ‘Outside a City Wall’). Soon they would be surrounded by a crowd of bitter enemies, with flashing torches, while Roman soldiers guided by Judas arrested Jesus, taking Him to Jerusalem as a prisoner. These were terrifying, bewildering times. That’s why Jesus warned them to prepare their minds and hearts lest they be taken unaware.
v 27 ... “All ye shall be offended, because of me this night,” shall be tempted to desert Me, enticed to fall away from your loyalty to Me, because I yield Myself up instead of defending Myself.
Encouragement: “But after that I am risen,” (v 28), giving His disciples the assurance that He shall rise from the dead.
Peter’s Assurance: “But Peter said unto Him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I” (v 29). “Conscious of his own affection for the Lord, he impetuously repudiates the prediction. In his characteristic impulsiveness he is guilty of three faults. He contradicts our Lord; he claims to be stronger than the other disciples; and he relies on his own strength” (Plummer, ‘Exegetical Commentary’). Jesus warned him again, in order to take away his self-confidence that will lead to his fall.
vs 30, 31 ... “Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night ... thou shalt deny me thrice. [it was inconceivable to Peter that he should do this and] he spake exceeding vehemently, If I must die with thee, I will not deny thee” (R.V.). All other disciples aroused by Peter’s enthusiasm said the same for themselves. Peter was not to be the only brave, loyal and loving one. Peter was like Campbell’s Lochiel, the highland chieftain, “crested Lochiel peerless in might,” when the aged seer warns him against the battle in which he in his proud self-confidence is so eager to engage. The Seer: Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore And coming events cast their shadow before. Lochiel disdains the warning: For never shall Abin a destiny meet So black with dishonor, so foul with retreat. Peter was so sure of his loyalty and courage that he could not conceive of deserting his Master. He did not realize that “there is a great difference between the atmosphere of the streets where our vows are put to the test, and that of the upper rooms where they are made.” This is easily forgotten and don’t we often feel like it would seem impossible for anything to break through the barriers guarding us from falling? After all, we have rules of reason, Bibles laid open, ties of gratefulness, the sound of glory ringing in our ears, angels of grace, eternal hopes and fears, friends now living, and eyes watching us out of heaven. “Yet all these fences and their whole array One cunning bosom sin blows quite away.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." “Put on the whole armor of God.” “The only wise God our Savior is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:32-42
2. The Prayer in Gethsemane
v 32 ... “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.” Our Lord and His disciples went out of Jerusalem, passing through the gate at the north of the temple area, known then as the Sheep Gate, very near, if not exactly on the same spot, as the modern St. Stephen’s Gate. They then descended into the valley of the Kidron, which, though dry in summer, would at that time of the year be a winter torrent” (Trench). A stone bridge spans the torrent, and a few yards further on they came to the foot of Olivet, and to the traditional site of Gethsemane. Gethsemane signifies Oil Press, the press where the olives from the olive trees that abounded on the slopes of Olivet were crushed to produce the oil used for food and light, fitting symbols of the agony of Christ which brought to us the Bread of Life and the Light of the World. “After crossing the bridge you advance but a few steps till you come to the corner of a walled enclosure, the wall being about ten feet high, plastered and whitewashed. Here the roads fork, the broader part passing to the right of the walled space, and the narrower to the left. This enclosure is the traditional Garden of Gethsemane. It includes about half an acre of ground and it is entered through a grated iron door at the south-east corner” (Trench). John calls it a garden. “An Eastern garden differs from ours, in that it is chiefly filled with fruit trees and fragrant shrubs, rather than with flower-beds; and shade, not order or bright colors, is what is chiefly studied in its construction. Here there may have been, under the olive and fig trees in the enclosure, perfect seclusion and quiet, though so close to the din and bustle of a great city” (Tristram). “The present Gethsemane is about three quarters of a mile from the wall of Jerusalem, is almost a square, 160 by 150 feet, and contains eight venerable olive trees” (Edersheim). “Any of the olive groves on the Mount which have not been dressed as the Franciscan garden has, will give the pilgrim a more natural impression of the scene of our Lord’s agony than the latter can” (George Adam Smith, ‘Jerusalem’).
The Double Guard: “He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, [at the entrance of the garden] while I shall pray” (v 32). “go and pray yonder” (Matt. 26:36), deeper into the garden shades. Eight of the disciples remained here, as an outer guard against surprise and interruption, like the picket guards of an army.
v 33 ... “He taketh with Him Peter and James and John.” These three had seen His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration and were better prepared to sympathize with Him. These were the inner guard. Both guards were to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation (v 38). They were His guard against intrusion. He must have this hour alone with God to prepare for what was coming. In this hour Jesus needed human sympathy, even though He must “tread the wine press alone.” Three times He went to them during this season of prayer. “The desire for fellowship in hours of darkness and of sorrow is one of the desires of love, and is strongest in the hearts in which love is the richest” (Lyman Abbott). Every wise person accepts all the sympathy and help he can get. To throw this away is to reject one of the best aids God has given us in our times of trial or of labor. “Into the woods my Master went Clean forspent, forspent. Into the woods my Master came, Forspent with love and shame. But the olives they were not blind to Him, The little green leaves were kind to Him, The thorn-tree had a mind to Him When into the woods He came. Out of the woods my Master went, And He was well content. Out of the woods my Master came, Content with death and shame. When Death and Shame would woo Him last, From under the trees they drew Him last: ‘Twis on a tree they slew Him – last When out of the woods He came” (Sidney Lanier).
The Agony of Sorrow: “Began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy” (v 33), better in the R.V., “greatly amazed and sore troubled.” The Greek terms add peculiar force to these expressions. “Sore Amazed,” utterly amazed, implying that the disclosure of the sorrow came upon Him, if not literally as a surprise, at least with new and unexpected force. “Sore troubled, not at home. The sorrow of a stranger in a strange land, a homesick grief. Alone, that worn-out word – Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, Along” (Frances E. Tyner).
v 34 ... “My soul is exceeding sorrowful,” encompassed with sorrow, as with an atmosphere, or as with a besieging army.
v 34 ... “Unto death.” It seemed as if His agony (Luke) would crush His life out before He came to the cross. The Greek tense, ‘aorist,’ “suggest a growing intensity in the struggle,” so that “His sweat became as it were great drops of blood” (Luke). This is not unknown to medical men. It is noteworthy that the circumstance is mentioned by only Luke the physician. Charles IX of France consented to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He was in such agony while dying that, according to documented historical evidence, he sweat blood through his nostrils, corners of his eyes, as well as many places through the corrugated veins. That was the agony of remorse for his own sin. The agony of Jesus was for the sin of the world. But the record showing the intensity of His agony is shown to be historically possible.
The Cause of the Intense Sorrow of Jesus: (a) It is plain that it was not mere fear of death, or even of shrinking from the physical pain of the cross, though terrible beyond belief. Many a martyr has gone triumphantly to the cross or flame, and many a hero has gone into battle as eagerly as the sight of sky and stars to prisoned men. But one slowly facing death alone, seeing it coming in horrible form, feels its horrors. “Whether, as Holman Hurt represents, the cross threw its shadow back as far as the shop at Nazareth, we do not know, for the record is silent. But we do know that the shadow of death lay across the whole of His public life, for we find it appearing in His words” (Chadwick). But He was never so oppressed with sorrow as in Gethsemane. Nothing could be braver, more heroic, than the way Jesus bore His crucifixion. A friend once called to the attention of Napoleon the blanched face of an officer marching into battle, calling him a coward. Napoleon replied that that man was the bravest officer in his army; because he saw clearly and felt keenly his danger, and yet went forward into the thickest of the battle. (b) In connection with the above we must remember that Jesus must have been exceedingly exhausted and worn out after the terrible strain of the last few days. (c) But this was on the surface and there was far greater sorrow in the depths below. President Woolsey once said, “I cannot help feeling that part of Christ’s state of mind in the garden was owing to the deep, awful sense of responsibility, the conception of the supreme importance to man of His standing firm at this crisis. There never was so great a crisis, and He was aware of its length and breadth.” Look at the situation. Jesus was bearing the sins of the world. He had come from heaven to save mankind from sin and ruin. All the crimes, and wrongs and depths of iniquity rose up before His vision like the smoke and flame of the bottomless pit darkening the whole horizon. What He should fail? What had He accomplished in His short life? How could He die and leave His work scarcely begun? A whole world lost. How could He commit this great work to His few disciples, who had learned so little of His teaching, had imbibed so little of His spirit, still contending for the better places, still unwilling to wash one another’s feet, one of them a traitor, the chief one soon to deny Him, all going to forsake Him, and to sleep while He was in the agony of prayer – what could these few unarmed, unlearned, poor peasants do to save the world, against the whole Roman power, and the hatred of the rulers of their nation and all the principalities and powers of the world-rulers of this darkness? It is not strange that in this hour of physical weakness and depression, amid all the fiery darts of the evil one, He should sorrow even to death. In his sermon, Jesus in the Garden, Dr. William Harrison pointed out what could have been one of the elements of Christ’s sorrow – that His greatest anguish was from the fear that His bodily strength might not hold out; that He might die before reaching the cross. “We cannot question that Satan would have been glad to interfere in the work of atonement by killing Jesus before He could get to the cross. As His bodily resurrection is needed as a proof to men of His power over the grave, so the cross is needed as a symbol of His atoning work. How much poorer the world would have been, if the cross and the shedding of His blood had never been facts. The atonement without the cross would have been a fact, but an unpreachable Gospel. This seemed to be facing Him in the garden. We can be sure of this: Satan wanted Jesus to fail and an unpreachable Gospel was without a doubt Satan’s objective. If God, in His infinite wisdom, choose to change His plan, His Son would consent; but He pleaded to be delivered from death so that He might come to the cross, to be delivered from the bitter cup of having His atoning work made incomplete and ineffective.”
The Watchers: “Tarry ye here, and watch” (v 34), against intrusion and the sudden coming of the soldiers led by the traitor, which Jesus knew were on the way.
v 38 ... “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” The verb means to enter into a condition or state of things, the atmosphere of temptation where one could be easily tempted. Let every faculty be alert, keep in the atmosphere of heaven, your hearts open to all its influences. “They pray best who pray and watch; they watch best who watch and pray."
The Prayer of Jesus: “And He went forward a little [Luke, ‘a stone’s throw’] and fell on the ground” (v 35), Luke, ‘kneeled down’: i.e., as in the East, with the head bowed forward to the ground. The natural position of agonizing prayer.
v 35 ... “Prayed that, if it were possible.” If it were possible to save men, and carry out the divine work of redeeming them, and bringing in the kingdom of God, in some other way than by His suffering and death. Might not God find some easier way?
v 35 ... “The hour might pass from him.” All the sufferings before Him that were realized in this hour.
v 36 ... “Abba. [the Aramaic word for] Father,” the very word that Jesus used. ‘Father’ is a translation of ‘Abba.’ The very word ‘Father’ implies trust in Him.
v 36 ... “All things are possible,” but they may not be wise and good. But His Father was the All- powerful, and if the cup was not removed it was not from lack of power.
v 36 ... “Take away this cup from me.” This cup represents the coming hours as holding all the agony and sorrow which were upon Him and before Him. To desire its removal even with intense longing was perfectly right.
v 36 ... “Nevertheless, not what I will, [what I desire and wish by itself] but what Thou wilt,” that is My prayer and desire. I do not merely submit to Thy will, but desire it, pray for it. This prayer, “Thy will be done,” contains the essence of faith; a faith expecting an answer, calmly trusting God for the answer. Three times Jesus prayed the same prayer. After each period of prayer He returned to His disciples apparently to come into touch with their human sympathy as they watched and prayed with Him.
v 37 ... “And findeth them sleeping.” Luke, the physician, gives the cause; it was from sorrow. It was their grief, not ignorance or indifference that made “their eyes heavy” (Matthew). Keep in mind it was very late, after midnight, long after their accustomed sleep. They had also been in the midst of very exciting scenes, their minds intensely strained, and now in the silent stillness and darkness, a natural reaction came upon them. And yet we cannot help feeling that with a deeper sympathy for Christ and a fuller realization of the crisis, they would have been able to stay awake, and not found sleeping while on guard.
v 37 ... “Saith unto Peter,” the one loudest in profession of loyalty and naturally the most wide awake. This was another gentle warning to him. There are almost tears of disappointment in the Savior’s words “Couldst thou not watch one hour?”
Then in general excuse He says “The spirit truly is ready [‘willing’] but the flesh is weak” (v 38); not merely an excuse, but a reason why he should strive harder to stay awake.
v 41 ... “Saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest.” Not sarcasm, not reproof but a kindly permission of love. Jesus had fought the battle and won. He had returned, and now simply waited for further developments. From now on, He could watch for Himself. Observe: In sleep the disciples forgot sorrow. Christ conquered it by prayer.
Soon Jesus hears the approaching traitor and his group, and “It is enough; the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners” (v 41). The R.V. says, “It is enough; the hour is come; Arise, let us be going: behold he that betrayeth Me is at hand.”
Conclusion: The Answer to the Prayer of Jesus – His prayer was answered, and a spirit of peace surrounded Him like a radiant halo even to the end. The answer was three-fold: (a) the prayer was answered through the strength given Him to drink the cup, and change it into a cup of blessing. (b) It was answered in the same way God answers our prayers, as God answered Paul’s prayer that the thorn in his flesh might be removed. (c) The angel strengthening Him (Lk. 22:43) was a direct answer.
There are two ways of answering a prayer for the removal of a burden. In one, the burden is taken away, and we remain the same; in the other, we are made so strong that the burden is no longer a burden to us, such as that which could crush a child might be sport to a man. The latter is by far the best way of receiving an answer. Paul kept the thorn in his flesh, but God’s grace was made sufficient for him. God answered Jesus’ prayer in a better form than the one in which the petition was stated, the soul of His prayer, the things wanted in His deepest heart. If clearly before the vision of Jesus there had appeared two choices, the one of escape from the cross, but with that also the failure of His mission, the triumph of evil, the loss of unnumbered souls, no crown, no glory, no abiding on the right hand of God; and the other choice, that of the cross and its agony, but with it also the redemption of the world, the ineffable glory of God, the joys of millions of the saved, the crown of triumph over evil – who doubts which would have been His real, innermost prayer? His prayer was answered, because the cross was changed to a crown, Gethsemane into paradise, death into immortal glory.
