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The Desire of Ages
Near the entrance to the garden, Jesus left all but three of the disci-
ples, bidding them pray for themselves and for Him. With Peter, James,
and John, He entered its secluded recesses. These three disciples were
Christ’s closest companions. They had beheld His glory on the mount
of transfiguration; they had seen Moses and Elijah talking with Him;
they had heard the voice from heaven; now in His great struggle, Christ
desired their presence near Him. Often they had passed the night with
Him in this retreat. On these occasions, after a season of watching
and prayer, they would sleep undisturbed at a little distance from their
Master, until He awoke them in the morning to go forth anew to labor.
But now He desired them to spend the night with Him in prayer. Yet
He could not bear that even they should witness the agony He was to
endure.
“Tarry ye here,” He said, “and watch with Me.”
He went a little distance from them—not so far but that they could
both see and hear Him—and fell prostrate upon the ground. He felt
that by sin He was being separated from His Father. The gulf was
so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered before it. This
agony He must not exert His divine power to escape. As man He must
suffer the consequences of man’s sin. As man He must endure the
wrath of God against transgression.
Christ was now standing in a different attitude from that in which
He had ever stood before. His suffering can best be described in the
words of the prophet, “Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and
against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Zechariah
13:7
. As the substitute and surety for sinful man, Christ was suffering
under divine justice. He saw what justice meant. Hitherto He had been
as an intercessor for others; now He longed to have an intercessor for
Himself.
As Christ felt His unity with the Father broken up, He feared
that in His human nature He would be unable to endure the coming
conflict with the powers of darkness. In the wilderness of temptation
the destiny of the human race had been at stake. Christ was then
conqueror. Now the tempter had come for the last fearful struggle. For
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this he had been preparing during the three years of Christ’s ministry.
Everything was at stake with him. If he failed here, his hope of mastery
was lost; the kingdoms of the world would finally become Christ’s;
he himself would be overthrown and cast out. But if Christ could be