Gethsemane

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Luke 22:39-46

And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.…

I. Come hither and behold THE SAVIOUR'S UNUTTERABLE WOE. We cannot do more than look at the revealed causes of grief.

1. It partly arose from the horror of His soul when fully comprehending the meaning of sin.

2. Another deep fountain of grief was found in the fact that Christ now assumed more fully His official position with regard to sin.

3. We believe that at this time, our Lord had a very clear view of all the shame and suffering of His crucifixion.

4. But possibly a yet more fruitful tree of bitterness was this — that now His Father began to withdraw His presence from Him.

5. But in our judgment the fiercest heat of the Saviour's suffering in the garden lay in the temptations of Satan. "This is your hour and the power of darkness." "The prince of this world cometh."

II. Turn we next to contemplate THE TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD.

1. A temptation to leave the work unfinished.

2. Scripture implies that our Lord was assailed by the fear that His strength would not be sufficient. He was heard in that He feared. How, then, was He heard? An angel was sent unto Him strengthening Him. His fear, then, was probably produced by a sense of weakness.

3. Possibly, also, the temptation may have arisen from a suggestion that He was utterly forsaken, I do not know — there may be sterner trials than this, but surely this is one of the worst, to be utterly forsaken.

4. We think Satan also assaulted our Lord with a bitter taunt indeed. You know in what guise the tempter can dress it, and how bitterly sarcastic he can make the insinuation — "Ah! Thou wilt not be able to achieve the redemption of Thy people. Thy grand benevolence will prove a mockery, and Thy beloved ones will perish."

III. Behold, THE BLOODY SWEAT. This proves how tremendous must have been the weight of sin when it was able so to crush the Saviour that He distilled drops of blood I This proves, too, my brethren, the mighty power of His love. It is a very pretty observation of old Isaac Ambrose that the gum which exudes from the tree without cutting is always the best. This precious camphire-tree yielded most sweet spices when it was wounded under the knotty whips, and when it was pierced by the nails on the cross; but see, it giveth forth its best spice when there is no whip, no nail, no wound. This sets forth the voluntariness of Christ's sufferings, since without a lance the blood flowed freely. No need to put on the leech, or apply the knife; it flows spontaneously.

IV. THE SAVIOUR'S PRAYER.

1. Lonely prayer.

2. Humble prayer.

3. Filial prayer.

4. Persevering prayer.

5. Earnest prayer.

6. The prayer of resignation.

V. THE SAVIOUR'S PREVALENCE. His prayers did speed, and therefore He is a good Intercessor for us. "How was He heard?"

1. His mind was suddenly rendered calm.

2. God strengthened Him through an angel.

3. God heard Him in granting Him now, not simply strength, but a real victory over Satan.I do not know whether what Adam Clarke supposes is correct, that in the garden Christ did pay more of the price than He did even on the cross; but I am quite convinced that they are very foolish who get to such refinement that they think the atonement was made on the cross, and nowhere else at all. We believe that it was made in the garden as well as on the cross; and it strikes me that in the garden one part of Christ's work was finished, wholly finished, and that was His conflict with Satan. I conceive that Christ had now rather to bear the absence of His Father's presence and the revilings of the people and the sons of men, than the temptations of the devil. I do think that these were over when He rose from His knees in prayer, when He lifted Himself from the ground where He marked His visage in the clay in drops of blood.

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