John 18:1, 2 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden… The mind of man is naturally interested in places, not so much for their own sake, as for the sake of associations connected with them. Religions have their sacred places: the Jew cannot forget Jerusalem; the Mohammedan venerates the holy Mecca; and the Christian regards Gethsemane with a tender and pathetic interest. I. THE GARDEN WAS TO THE MINDS OF THE TWELVE A PLACE OF HOLY INTERCOURSE WITH THEIR LORD. "Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples." Doubtless they learned much from Jesus as he taught in the temple and in the synagogues, in the highways, and in the dwellings of the people. But there was much he wished to say to them which could be said better in private. He took them aside into a desert place, and in seclusion and quiet communicated to them tidings which were not for the multitude. He gathered them together in an upper room, and discoursed to them with such profundity and spirituality, that it needed the illumination of events that were yet to happen to make plain his wonderful sayings. He led them away from the thronged streets and temple-courts of the city, crossed the Kedron ravine, and took them into the retired garden, that he might, without interruption, reveal to them whatever truth they were able to bear. Gethsemane thus became a symbol for the "quiet resting-places," where the Savior meets congenial souls, and unfolds to them the volume of his truth, the mystery of his love. Such intercourse binds the heart of the scholar to his Master. Such fellowship makes its lasting mark upon the character. "Did not I see thee in the garden with him?" II. THE GARDEN WAS TO THE LORD JESUS THE SCENE OF BITTEREST MENTAL ANGUISH. It seems strange that John, who, we know, was one of the chosen three who were near Jesus in his agony and bloody sweat, says nothing of his Master's conflict in Gethsemane. This silence cannot be attributed to want of sympathy, for the beloved disciple felt keenly with and for his Lord. He was content that his fellow-evangelists should tell the awful sorrows of the Redeemer. The unexampled pains which Christ endured, when with strong crying and tears he made supplication, constituted a phase of his mediatorial ministry, not only deeply affecting to the sensitive mind that contemplates the scene of woe, but doubtless ever memorable to our Divine Representative himself. "Our Fellow-Sufferer yet retains A fellow-feeling of our pains; And still remembers, in the skies, His tears, his agonies, and cries." Perfect through suffering, the Captain of our salvation looks back to the hour when he drank the bitter cup in our stead; and to him Gethsemane is for ever linked with his sacred undertaking of our cause, with the price he raid for our redemption. III. THE GARDEN WAS TO JUDAS THE SPOT WHERE HE HEARTLESSLY BETRAYED HIS LORD. To the mind of the traitor the one point of interest in Gethsemane was this - it was a place where Jesus might be apprehended by the officers of the priests and Pharisees, with no fear of disturbance or opposition. The garden, though near Jerusalem, was secluded and solitary; no admiring and sympathizing crowd would there protect or rescue the honored and beloved Teacher and Healer. After the capture, during the few hours of life remaining to him, Judas could not think of Gethsemane without distress of mind, which deepened, not into repentance, but into remorse. The thought of his own sin and of his Master's innocence must have oppressed his guilty soul, until he was driven to confession and to suicide. Terrible is the state of that man before whose memory there constantly arises the scene of crime from which he sees no deliverance, for which he sees no expiation, the scene of violence and cruelty, of debauchery, or of profanity. "Better had it been for that man that he had never been born." IV. THE GARDEN IS TO CHRIST'S CHURCH FOR EVER ASSOCIATED WITH DIVINE SACRIFICE AND REDEMPTION. The same place, the imagination of which awoke the guilty conscience of Judas to misery and despair, is associated in all Christians' minds with the ransom which was paid for the deliverance of many from sin and death. There the anguish was endured, the cry was uttered, the cup was drunk, the perfect submission was rendered, the death on Calvary was anticipated. Very dear to the heart, very present to the memory, of Christendom is the garden whither Jesus oft resorted, where Jesus suffered himself to be betrayed, where Jesus took upon his heart the burden of human sin, where Jesus cried, "Not my will, O my Father, but thine, be done!" - T. Parallel Verses KJV: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. |
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