Matthew 26:36-39 Then comes Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, Sit you here, while I go and pray yonder.… The interest attached to the events belonging to the course of our Redeemer becomes more touching and more absorbing as they advance towards the close, etc. I. WHAT WAS THE "PLACE CALLED GETHSEMANE?" There were reasons why this garden should be selected, at once obvious and important. Knowing what He had to undergo, the Lord Jesus wanted privacy; the disciple who was to betray Him knew the place, etc. II. THE EMOTION OF WHICH THE "PLACE CALLED GETHSEMANE" WAS THE SCENE. It was the emotion of sorrow. 1. Its intensity. Formerly His sorrow had been chastened and subdued, while now it burst forth irrepressibly and without reserve. Presented in the Evangelical narratives. 2. Its cause. The solitude of the cause of the Saviour's emotion, is exclusively this, that He was not only a martyr, but a Mediator, and that He suffered as an expiation on behalf of human sin. He was feeling the immense and terrible weight of propitiation. 3. Its relief and end. Support conveyed as an answer to His prayers, through the ministration of an angel, invigorating Him for the endurance of the final and fearful crisis which was before Him. He is enthroned in the loftiest elevation. III. THE IMPRESSIONS WHICH OUR RESORT TO THE "PLACE CALLED GETHSEMANE" OUGHT TO SECURE. 1. The enormous evil and heinousness of sin. 2. The amazing condescension and love of the Lord Jesus. 3. The duty of entire reliance upon the Saviour's work, and entire consecration to the Saviour's service. For that reliance, genuine and implicit faith is what is required — faith being the instrument of applying to whole perfection of His work, etc. Who can do other than recognize at once the obligation and the privilege of entire consecration? (J. Parsons.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. |
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