After much more conversation and prayer with his disciples in the
supper-room, and having sung the hymn of praise which usually concluded
the passover feast among the Jews, Jesus went with them out west
of the city, over the brook Kedron, at the foot of the Olive mount,
where there was a garden, called Gethsemane, to which he had often
resorted with his disciples, it being retired as well as pleasant.
While they were on the way, a new occasion happened of showing Peter’s
self-confidence, which Jesus again rebuked with the prediction that
it would too soon fail him. He was telling them all, that events would
soon happen that would overthrow their present confidence in him, and
significantly quoted to them the appropriate passage in Zechariah xiii.
7. “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” Peter,
glad of a new opportunity to assert his steadfast adherence to his
Master, again assured him that, though all should be offended, or lose
their confidence in him, yet would not he; but though alone, would
always maintain his present devotion to him. The third time did Jesus
reply in the circumstantial prediction of his near and certain fall.
“This day, even this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny
me thrice.” This repeated distrustful and reproachful denunciation,
became, at last, too much for Peter’s warm temper; and in a burst of
offended zeal, he declared the more vehemently, “If I should die with
thee, I will not deny thee in any wise.” To this solemn protestation
against the thought of defection, all the other apostles present gave
their word of hearty assent.
Illustration: VALLEY OF THE BROOK KEDRON
BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
John xviii. 1.
They now reached the garden, and when they had entered it, Jesus spoke
to all the disciples present, except his three chosen ones, saying,
“Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.” He retired accordingly into
some recess of the garden, with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
James and John; and as soon as he was alone with them, begun to give
utterance to feelings of deep distress and depression of spirits.
Leaving them, with the express injunction to keep awake and wait for
him, he went for a short time still farther, and there, in secret
and awful woe, that wrung from his bowed head the dark sweat of
an unutterable agony, yet in submission to God, he prayed that the
horrible suffering and death to which he had been so sternly devoted,
might not light on him. Returning to the three appointed watchers, he
found them asleep! Even as amid the lonely majesty of Mount Hermon,
human weakness had borne down the willing spirit in spite of the
sublime character of the place and the persons before them; so here,
not the groans of that beloved suffering Lord, for whom they had just
expressed such deep regard, could keep their sleepy eyes open, when
they were thus exhausted with a long day’s agitating incidents, and
were rendered still more dull and stupid by the chilliness of the
evening air, as well as the lateness of the hour of the night; for it
was near ten o’clock. At this sad instance of the inability of their
minds to overcome the frailties of the body, after all their fine
protestations of love and zeal, he mildly and mournfully remonstrates
with Peter in particular, who had been so far before the rest in
expressing a peculiar interest in his Master. And he said to _Peter_,
“Simon! sleepest _thou_? What! could ye not watch with me one hour?
Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit indeed
is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Well might he question thus the
constancy of the fiery zeal which had so lately inspired Peter to
those expressions of violent attachment. What! could not all that
warm devotion, that high pride of purpose, sustain his spirit against
the effects of fatigue and cold on his body? But they had, we may
suppose, crept into some shelter from the cold night air, where they
unconsciously forgot themselves. After having half-roused them with
this fruitless appeal, he left them, and again passed through another
dreadful struggle between his human and divine nature. The same strong
entreaty,――the same mournful submission,――were expressed as before,
in that moment of solitary agony, till again he burst away from the
insupportable strife of soul, and came to see if yet sympathy in his
sorrows could keep his sleepy disciples awake. But no; the gentle
rousing he had before given them had hardly broken their slumbers. For
a few moments the voice of their Master, in tones deep and mournful
with sorrow, might have recalled them to some sense of shame for their
heedless stupidity; and for a short time their wounded pride moved them
to an effort of self-control. A few mutual expostulations in a sleepy
tone, would pass between them;――an effort at conversation perhaps,
about the incidents of the day, and the prospect of coming danger which
their Master seemed to hint;――some wonderings probably, as to what
could thus lead him apart to dark and lonely devotion;――very likely
too, some complaint about the cold;――a shiver――a sneeze,――then a
movement to a warmer attitude, and a wrapping closer in mantles;――then
the conversation languishing, replies coming slower and duller, the
attitude meanwhile declining from the perpendicular to the horizontal,
till at last the most wakeful waits in vain for an answer to one of his
drowsy remarks, and finds himself speaking to deaf ears; and finally
overcome with impatience at them and himself, he sinks down into his
former deep repose, with a half-murmured reproach to his companions
on his lips. In short, as every one knows who has passed through such
efforts, three sleepy men will hardly keep awake the better for each
other’s company; but so far from it, on the contrary, the force of
sympathy will increase the difficulty, and the very sound of drowsy
voices will serve to lull all the sooner into slumber. In the case of
the apostles too, who were mostly men accustomed to an active life, and
who were in the habit of going to bed as soon as it was night, whenever
their business allowed them to rest, all their modes of life served to
hasten the slumbers of men so little inured to self-control of any kind.
These lengthy reasons may serve to excite some considerate sympathy
for the weakness of the apostles, and may serve as an apology for their
repeated drowsiness on solemn occasions; for a first thought on the
subject might suggest to a common man, the irreverent notion, that
those who could slumber at the transfiguration of the Son of God on
Mount Hermon, and at his agony in Gethsemane, must be very sleepy
fellows. On this occasion these causes were sufficient to enchain their
senses, in spite of the repeated exhortations of Jesus, for on his
coming to them the second time, and saying in a warning voice, “Rise
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation; why sleep ye?” they wist not
what to answer him, for their eyes were very heavy, and they slept
for sorrow. Still again he retired about a stone’s throw from them,
as before, and there, prone on the ground, he renewed the strife with
his feelings. Alone and unsympathized with by his friends, did the
Redeemer of men endure the agonies of that hour, yet not wholly alone
nor unsupported; for as Luke assures us, there appeared to him an
angel from heaven, strengthening him. At last the long struggle ceased.
Distant voices coming over the glen through the stillness of the night,
and the glare of torches flashing from the waters of the Kedron through
the shades of the garden, gave him notice that those were near who
came to drag him to a shameful death. Yet the repugnance of nature with
which his late strife had been so dreadful, was now so overcome that he
shrank not from the ♦approaching death, but calmly walked to meet it.
Coming forward to his sleeping disciples, he said to them, “Sleep on
now and take your rest; behold, the time is at hand when the son of
man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going.”
The rush of the armed bands of the temple guards followed his words,
and when the apostles sprung to their feet, their drowsiness was most
effectually driven off by the appalling sight of a crowd of fierce
men, filling the garden and surrounding them. As soon as the villainous
leaders of the throng could overcome the reverence which even the
lowest of their followers had for the majestic person of the Savior,
they brought them up to the charge, and a retainer of the high priest,
by name Malchus, with the forward officiousness of an insolent menial,
laid hold of Jesus. Now was the time for Galilean spunk to show itself.
The disciples around instantly asked, “Lord, shall we smite with the
sword?” But without waiting for an answer, Peter, though amazed by
this sudden and frightful attack, as soon as he saw the body of his
adored Master profaned by the rude hands of base hirelings, foremost in
action as in word, regardless of numbers, leaped on the assailants with
drawn sword, and with a movement too quick to be shunned, he gave the
foremost a blow, which, if the darkness had not prevented, might have
been fatal. As it was, there could not have been a more narrow escape,
for the sword lighting on the head of the priest’s zealous servant,
just grazed his temple and cut off his ear. But this display of courage
was after all, fruitless; for he was surrounded by a great body of
men, armed in the expectation of this very kind of resistance; and in
addition to this, the remonstrance of Jesus must have been sufficient
to damp the most fiery valor. He said to his zealous and fierce
defender, “Put up thy sword again into its sheath, for they that take
the sword shall perish by the sword. The cup which my Father hath given
me, shall I not drink? Thinkest thou that if I should now pray to my
Father, he would not instantly send me twelve legions of angels at a
word? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that
it must be thus?” Having thus stopped the ineffectual and dangerous
opposition of his few followers, he quietly gave himself up to his
captors, interceding however for his poor, friendless and unprotected
disciples. “I am Jesus of Nazareth: if therefore you seek me, let these
go their way.” This he said as it were in reference to a literal and
corporeal fulfilment of the words which he had used in his last prayer
with his disciples,――“Of them whom thou gavest me I lost none.” The
disciples after receiving from Jesus such a special command to abstain
from resistance, and perceiving how utterly desperate was the condition
of affairs, without waiting the decision of the question, all forsaking
him, fled; and favored by darkness and their familiar knowledge of the
grounds, they all escaped in various directions.
♦ “ap-approaching” replaced with “approaching”
_Gethsemane._――This place has already been alluded to in the
description of Mount Olivet. [Note on p. 96.] From the same
source I extract a further brief notice of the present aspect of
this most holy ground. “Proceeding along the valley of Kedron,
at the foot of Mount Olivet, is the garden of Gethsemane:
an even plat of ground, not above fifty-seven yards square,
where are shown some old olive trees, supposed to identify the
spot to which our Lord was wont to repair. John xviii. 1, 2.”
[Modern Traveler, Palestine, p. 156.] It is also remarked by
Dr. Richardson, [p. 78 of the same work,] that “the gardens of
Gethsemane are still in the sort of a ruined cultivation; the
fences are broken down, and the olive trees decaying, as if the
hand that dressed and fed them was withdrawn.”
The etymology and meaning of the name Gethsemane, is given by
Lightfoot, (Centuria Chorographica in Matthew, chapter 41.)
The name is derived from the product of the tree which was
so abundantly raised there, and which gave name also to the
mountain. Gethsemane is compounded of גת, “a press,” and שמנא,
“olive oil,”――“an oil-press;” because the oil was pressed out
and manufactured on the spot where the olive was raised.
_Ten o’clock._――This I conclude to have been about the time,
because (in Matthew xxvi. 20) it is said that it was evening
already, (that is, about 6 o’clock,) when Jesus sat down to
supper with his disciples, and allowing time on the one hand for
the events at the supper-table and on the walk, as well as those
in the garden,――and on the other hand for those which took place
before midnight, (cock crowing,) we must fix the time as I have
above.
_The glare of torches._――John (xviii. 3.) is the only evangelist
who brings in this highly picturesque circumstance of the
equipment of the band with the means of searching the dark
shades and bowers of the garden.