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Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane. He had passed through the agony. He was in the presence of the betrayer and his myrmidons. He was about to endure the indignities of the trials and the anguish of the cross. Yet his thoughts were not of himself, but of his friends. Knowing the danger to which they were exposed, the weakness which still characterized them, he was anxious on their behalf that they should not be exposed to a trial which they were not then ready to bear. Hence the stipulation and the plea to which, in surrendering himself, he gave utterance, "If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way."

I. THERE WERE SPECIAL REASONS WHY AT THIS CRISIS JESUS SHOULD TAKE MEASURES FOR THE LIBERTY AND SAFETY OF HIS FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS.

1. Jesus intended them to be his apostles, and therefore it was not in accordance with his purposes that they should at that time accompany him to trial and to death.

2. It was part of Jesus' plan to die alone. Malefactors, indeed, yielded up their breath by his side. But as his was a death unique in its import, it was not consonant with his wishes that any of his adherents should partake his Passion, and distract attention from himself.

3. In all likelihood the faith and devotion even of his nearest friends were not such as to enable them to endure participation in his death. They could not suffer for Christ until Christ had first suffered for them.

4. Our Lord designed to fulfill his own declaration uttered in his intercessory prayer - that of those given to him he had lost none.

II. This REGARD OF JESUS FOR OTHERS WAS IN HARMONY WITH HIS CONDUCT THROUGHOUT HIS MINISTRY. It was his habit to forget himself in his benevolent work and in his regard for those whom he came to save. E.g. his disinterested and generous treatment of his forerunner, John; the complete self-forgetfulness which he displayed in the season of his temptation, when he, for the sake of his mission to men, lost sight of hunger, reputation, power; his benevolent ministry to the multitude, to the sick, the suffering, the sinful. His own ease, comfort, or renown, never occupied his attention; but no pains did he ever spare that he might serve the objects of his Divine pity. Christ would not have been himself if he had not thought of and secured the liberation of his threatened friends.

III. THE UNSELFISHNESS WHICH JESUS DISPLAYED IN THE HOUR OF HIS ARREST WAS PERFECTED IN HIS SACRIFICIAL SUFFERINGS AND DEATH. It was his own profession that the laying down of his life should be for his friends - his sheep. Paul testified that he gave himself a Ransom for all, that he was a Propitiation for the sins of the whole world. When the Savior - in accordance with the appointment of Divine wisdom, and with a view to ends the most purely benevolent that were ever conceived in the whole history of the universe - hung upon the cross, it seems to us that he uttered a cry which was the earnest of the spiritual deliverance and emancipation of mankind, a cry which was the expression at once of the deepest agony and the kingliest gladness of his compassionate nature, and-that the purport of the cry was this: "Let these men go!"

IV. CHRIST'S BENEVOLENT SELF-FORGETFULNESS IS OFTEN NEGLECTED AND ABUSED. In a family we sometimes observe one person peculiarly kind and unselfish, whose demeanor, so far from being an example and an advantage to the other members of the household, is abused. The yielding and self-denial of one sets others at liberty to carry out their own favorite plans, to gratify their own selfish tastes. There is something parallel to this in the way in which some persons in Christian communities take advantage, for their own temporal comfort and prosperity, of the influences of Christianity, without at all recognizing their obligation to the Savior for all the benefits they have received, social and domestic. So tar as we can see, such persons are little the better for all that Christ has undergone for them, for the immunity from many ills which he has secured for them. The self-devotion, magnanimity, and pity of the Redeemer should surely be to such, first a rebuke, and then an exhortation to a nobler and a better life.

V. THE SELF-SACRIFICING DEVOTION OF THE SAVIOR IS THE EVERLASTING INSPIRATION OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF MANKIND. This was the intention of Christ; and it was this prospect which sustained him amidst the treachery, the hatred, the desertion, the malice, the indignities, to which he exposed himself. How sorely the world was in need of a principle and power which should correct and heal its selfishness, is well known to every one who is acquainted with his own heart, who has studied the moral ills of human society. The wars and enmities which even now disgrace humanity are sufficient evidence of this. There were others than Christ who to some extent saw the evil, and desired to do what in them lay to remedy it. Even the heathen Seneca could say, "I would so live as if I knew I received my being only for the benefit of others." But that which philosophical theory, ethical dogma, even serene example, could not effect, has been in some measure effected, and will be brought at last perfectly to pass, by him whose unselfish, self-sacrificing spirit found utterance in the cry, "Let these men go!" - T.

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KJV: Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:

WEB: Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way,"