The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
JESUS IN GETHSEMANE
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
JESUS IN GETHSEMANE
Golden Text: “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” (Lk. 22:42)
Golden Text: “The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” (Matt. 26:45)
Lesson Plan:
1. Gethsemane – “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee” (vs 36)
2. The Prayer of Jesus – First Petition (v 39)
3. The Prayer of Jesus – Second Petition (v 39)
4. Judas Betrays Jesus (vs 47-50)
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.
Place in the Life of Christ: The beginning of His great passion
Research and Discussion: The heroism of Christ. Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? Sleeping vs. watching and praying. “Thy will be done.” Peter’s defense. Judas the betrayer.
Introduction: Like the last lesson, this lesson deals with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Therefore, if you are a teacher preparing a lesson for your class, please review the last lesson, “Watch and Pray”, as well as the next two lessons, “Jesus and Judas” and “The Arrest and Trial of Jesus,” to hopefully avoid over-emphasizing similar material. In this lesson we continue with our Lord in Gethsemane, realizing more clearly the heroic side of Christ’s life. It was all heroic, but here the heroism of His victory over the worst that Death and Sin could do is made clearer. For at any time He could have escaped from the tortures, but He endured them only because duty and the salvation of men required the sacrifice. “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries” (Mrs. Browning). This lesson provides one of the best instances of true prayer and its answer. Christ’s agony in the garden and His betrayal is included in all four Gospels.
Additional Suggestions:
a. Compare the four accounts of this period and make a connected story. Note especially the
elements of the sorrow of Jesus, and the victory as shown in the hours that followed.
b. Put together all that is recorded about Judas, and note the landmarks of his downward course,
the partings of the ways, and the lessons of warning.
c. Consider the first petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane (See Jn.
5:30).
d. Consider Paul’s prayer about the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor. 12:8, 9).
e. Consider David’s prayer
that he might build the Temple (2 Sam. 7).
f. How are all these prayers answered?
g. Compare with the promises of God to answer prayer, such as Psalms 37:4, 5; 86:5; Isaiah
55:6, 58:9; Matthew 7:11; Mark 11:23, 24; John 16:23-27; James 1:5, 6.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:36
1. Gethsemane – “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee”
An example of true prayer, the Garden of Gethsemane: “Then cometh Jesus” (v 36) from the upper room in the city (see last lesson). “Unto ... Gethsemane” (v 36). “The word ‘Gethsemane’ signifies ‘an oil press,’ of which there were certain to be several in a locality then covered, as Mt. Olivet was, with olive trees” (Tristram). “Three quarters of a mile from the wall of Jerusalem, is almost a square, 160 by 150 feet, which contains eight venerable olive trees” (Edersheim). 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” (Tristram). From the fact that “Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples” (Jn. 18:2), it is probable that it was a suburban pleasure ground, or belonged to some friend of Jesus who gave Him the free use of it during His stay.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:39
2. The Prayer of Jesus – First Petition
v 39 ... “And fell on His face.” Mark “fell on the ground;” Luke, “kneeled down;” i.e., as in the East, with the head bowed forward to the ground. The natural position of agonizing prayer; because in that position no thought whatever need be given to the body, but mind and will may be wholly concentrated on the object of prayer.
v 39 ... “O my Father.” In prayer, the fatherhood of God is the basis of our hope. If God is afar off, if He is merely a “bright spirit increate,” a mere “power that makes for righteousness,” we cannot really pray to Him. We pray to a living God (a living person) with a will, a heart, a love, wisdom and power, giving every possible help to His children.
v 39 ... “If it be possible.” Observe the variation in expression. Matthew says, “If it be possible;” Mark, “All things are possible;” Luke, “If thou be willing.” The spirit of the prayer is seen by combining the accounts. If it be possible to save men, and carry out the divine work of redeeming them in some other way than by His suffering and death. Might not God find an easier way?
v 39 ... “Let this cup pass from me.” “This hour,” in Mark. So that He need not drink it. What were the ingredients of this cup which Jesus so dreaded to drink? There were several mingled together rendering it so bitter.
(A) There was the dread of the intense physical suffering of the trial and the crucifixion. “Death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of the horrible and ghastly – dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds – all intensified up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but just stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness. Such was the death to which Christ was doomed” (Farrar). Others had seen and heard, but Jesus knew all these horrors to the fullest. It’s been said that Jesus did not dread these sufferings; that He did not draw back in any way from the horrible experiences soon to come. One says he cannot believe this, because it seems to him that such is not worthy of the Master. Besides, it makes Him offer a prayer to His Father which was not granted. On the contrary Jesus would not be human, could not have been “touched with the feelings of our infirmities,” or “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin,” unless He felt and dreaded such tortures. He was an example to us. It was the intensity of feeling and dread that proved His courage and heroism. Moral courage, not indifference to danger, is the highest form of courage.
Illustration: Two soldiers were charging up a hill with their regiment, in a desperate attempt to capture a battery. When half way up, one of them turned to the other, and said, “Why, you are as pale as a sheet. You look like a ghost. I believe you are afraid.” “Yes, I am,” was the answer; “and, if you were half as much afraid as I am, you’d have run long ago.”
Illustration: Henry Clay Trumbull was a brave soldier. He went into his first battle feeling the dangers so intensely that he feared he might turn back, so he asked a soldier to shoot him if he tried to retreat.
Jesus felt, but He never hesitated, never turned back from the way of the cross, but feeling most intensely, seeing most clearly, He went on calmly, majestically, nobly, and became the Hero of the Ages. True heroism is not dullness of feeling, not dreadness to danger, not indifference to results. It is the most sensitive nature, the most vivid consciousness of the appalling pain and danger, going right on in the path of duty. It is moral courage, infinitely more than physical courage. There is a vast difference between risking one’s life in action to save another, or going into battle for the sake of one’s country; facing an awful death along as it slowly approaches in its awful form. Two things make Jesus’ heroism more notable: He had the power at any time to avoid the suffering; “twelve legions of angels” were at His call (Matt. 26:53); and When the women of Jerusalem in their kindness offered Him a soothing stupefying drink, on the cross, He refused because He desired to drink to the very dregs the cup of suffering which God gave Him.
(B) The more highly organized any being is, and the more capable he is of the highest joy, so much the more is he sensitive to pain. Thus a musician is tortured by a discord unnoticed by others. Thus all pain, whether physical or spiritual, was more intense to Jesus than to others. His physical organization, unblunted by one deviation from natural ways, undrugged by one excess, was surely capable of a range of feeling as vast in anguish as in delight. But Jesus never hesitated, never turned back from the way of the cross.
(C) “The Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Thus He was being wounded for our transgressions and brusied for our iniquities (Is. 53:5, 6). He felt the sin of the world with the greatest intensity. The wickedness of Judas; the weakness of His chosen ones; the crimes of the Jewish leaders soon to be unleashed on Him; their measureless folly in rejecting their Messiah; the terrible evils soon to come upon the whole nation; brought before His soul the most awful results of sin upon the human race. It was the unspeakable horror of a world throwing away heaven and hope, trampling on the most radiant manifestation of love God Himself could make.
(D) Jesus was in the prime of manhood; life was just opening before Him; His soul was eager for work, and conscious of rare capability to perform it; His death marked end of human hope of achievement. In this dark hour His earthly career may have seemed a failure. Only a few disciples, instead of a glorious kingdom, and these few about to forsake Him. Where were the fruits of His life? It was His hour of darkness, with the future veiled from His eyes with its resurrection, and ascension, and Himself King and Lord of Lords. This required the utmost heroism of faith.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:39
3. The Prayer of Jesus – Second Petition
v 39 ... “Nevertheless not as I will, [not as seems desirable now] but as Thou wilt.” What in your loving wisdom You see to be wise and best. This is My prayer and desire. I do not merely submit to your will, but desire it, pray for it. “Underneath that awful agony there lay, millions of fathoms deep, unmoved and immovable, the intense desire that His Father’s wish and will should be done” (Morison). This prayer, “Thy will be done,” contains the essence of faith: a faith that expects an answer, and calmly trusts God for the answer. “Thy will be done” means far more than merely enduring the suffering God sends. It means doing His will in our business, in our homes; everywhere living according to God’s laws and principles. It means carrying out His plans for the redemption of men. Jesus prayed this prayer three times. Not that He merely repeated these words three times, but He had three seasons of prayer in which these words were the soul, the essence. It was not till the third time that Jesus felt His prayer was fully answered.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:47-50
4. Judas Betrays Jesus
v 47 ... “Lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came.” He knew where Jesus would likely be, because the Savior was accustomed to resorting to this garden with His disciples (John). (a) The leaders did not dare arrest Jesus openly, for fear of awakening the inflammable fanaticism of the populace. “At first sight nothing would seem more unlikely that there should have been the least chance of success of a Jewish rising against the Roman power. Yet a few years later such a rising was successful. An exasperated nation is capable of a reckless daring which seems incredible to the historian” (W.J. Dawson). (b) Judas was just the tool whom the Pharisees could use to take Jesus in one of His quiet retreats at night. (c) Judas himself must have presented some characteristics of mind and spirit, certain potentialities of usefulness or he would not have been chosen by Jesus. He fell partly from love of money, as many a man has done, and partly from envy. He felt that his abilities had not been recognized, and others like John and Peter had been chosen often before him, because they had grown spiritually – a greatness he apparently could not recognize and weigh. “Vanity enraged is a kind of madness.” The brilliant picture of a glorious kingdom of which he was to be treasurer had faded away, leaving nothing behind. He would make friends with the real rulers and be on the safe side. Men like Judas are certainly not rare. Robespierre, the evil genius of the French Revolution, was another. The man who sent thousands to the guillotine had, in his younger days, resigned his office as a provincial judge, because it was against his conscience to pronounce sentence of death on a culprit found guilty of a capital offense. Another example may be found in the famous Greek, Alcibiades, who, to unbounded ambition, unscrupulousness and licentiousness, united a warm attachment to the greatest and best of the Greeks. The man who in later years betrayed the cause of his native city, and went over to the side of her enemies, was in his youth an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Socrates.
v 47 ... “And with him a great multitude [including a group of Roman soldiers, Jewish officers, captains of the temple police] chief priest and elders [and their attendants, such as Malchus, followed by a multitude of people] with swords and staves,” lanterns and torches and weapons.
v 49 ... “Hail [rejoice, be well, prosper], master; and kissed Him.” Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The Greek means “kiss again and again,” “kiss tenderly.”
v 50 ... “Jesus said unto him, Friend.” Not the common word for friend, but comrade, partner. This betrayal was a very bitter experience for Jesus. Compare Shakespeare’s account of Brutus killing Caesar, his most intimate friend. Dante in his version of hell places Judas in the lowest circles of the damned. Green’s ‘Short History of the English People’ compares King John with Judas when he writes, “Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler presence of (King) John. Judas can no longer be lonely.” The end of Judas (our next lesson) was a tragic failure.
Conclusion: As we will see in our next lesson, Judas was soon overwhelmed with remorse, and ended his life by suicide. Note that Judas was never a real disciple, never a real learner at the Lord’s feet. The way Judas was lost was by a daily falseness and disloyalty to Christ. To the outward eye his betrayal of His Master seemed a sudden fall. Doubtless, it stunned the other disciples when they saw it. But it was not sudden, as we will study next. It was prepared for, not merely by the repeated pilferings of the bag, but also by his often repeated secret refusals to obey the voice of his Master. And, further, all this went on in Judas in the very presence of Jesus Himself, went on in a man who had to do with Jesus every day. In this very place, in the very holiest circle, this man Judas sank into hell (Carnegie Simpson). “So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore! Revile him not – the Tempter hath A snare for all; And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath, Befit his fall! Scorn! would the angels laugh, to mark A bright soul driven, Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark From hope and heaven!” (Whittier).
Illustration: Sin can be compared to fine boring ants and seed that grows into a big tree. The danger of sin is in its insidious approach and its continuous attacks. It will undermine character and the strongest of us cannot resist. It is said that in India the white ants bore their little holes through the timbers of buildings, and the holes they bore are so small that the casual passer-by cannot detect them, but when the storms come and the winds blow, the eaten through timbers give way and the building is destroyed.
It is thus and only thus that men fall into grievous sin. Rarely does anyone leap suddenly into the depths of iniquity, but journeys by slow stages, practicing and engaging in sins as insignificant as the boring of an ant hole. Though small in its beginning, it should be greatly feared. One cannot truly appreciate the big trees of California without studying them. On a university field trip, a student measured one of the great trees of California at 105 feet in circumference; 35 feet in diameter; and the height she wrote, “... was to me so amazing that I hesitate even to suggest it.” However, several of the seeds for those great trees can be placed in the palm of your hand – they are smaller than a lettuce seed. So it is with sin. An evil imagination encouraged, an impure thought harbored, an unholy ambition controlling us, and the work is begun, but the end no human tongue is able to describe.
