Basic HTML Version
Sufferings of Christ
185
visited the spot with a heart so full of sorrow. It was not bodily
suffering from which the Son of God shrank, and which wrung from
His lips, in the presence of His disciples, these mournful words:
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” “Tarry ye here,”
said He, “and watch with Me.”
Leaving His disciples within hearing of His voice, He went a
little distance from them and fell on His face and prayed. His soul
was agonized, and He pleaded: “O My Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
The sins of a lost world were upon Him and overwhelming Him.
It was a sense of His Father’s frown, in consequence of sin, which
rent His heart with such piercing agony and forced from His brow
great drops of blood, which, rolling down His pale cheeks, fell to
the ground, moistening the earth.
Rising from His prostrate position, He came to His disciples and
found them sleeping. He said unto Peter: “What, could ye not watch
with Me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:
the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” At the most
important time—the time when Jesus had made a special request
for them to watch with Him—the disciples were found sleeping. He
knew that severe conflicts and terrible temptations were before them.
He had taken them with Him that they might be a strength to Him,
and that the events they should witness that night, and the lessons
of instruction they should receive, might be indelibly printed upon
their memories. This was necessary that their faith might not fail,
but be strengthened for the test just before them.
But instead of watching with Christ, they were burdened with
sorrow, and fell asleep. Even the ardent Peter, who, only a few hours
before, had declared that he would suffer and, if need be, die for
his Lord, was asleep. At the most critical moment, when the Son
[205]
of God was in need of their sympathy and heartfelt prayers, they
were found asleep. They lost much by thus sleeping. Our Saviour
designed to fortify them for the severe test of their faith to which
they would soon be subjected. If they had spent that mournful period
in watching with the dear Saviour, and in prayer to God, Peter would
not have been left to his own feeble strength to deny his Lord in the
time of trial.