Matthew 26:36-46
Garden of Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
1 John 3:1-3
Jesus, Our Example
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
John 16:13
The Holy Spirit Will Guide Us to the Truth
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
In the Garden of Gethsemane is a sad and anxious place for our LORD and Savior...It is a place where He is in agony...In this garden, where He took Peter, John, and James He begins to feel sorrowful and troubled...Jesus wants and asks for their company...Jesus very soon must submit to the troubles and sins of all humanity...And He must suffer greatly for us...He says to the three disciples, “My Soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death...Stay here and keep watch with Me.”...He knows the depth of His suffering and also what sin has done to our world (much more than anyone ever)...And this has Him overwhelmed...
And He leaves the three to go pray to His Father...And as He travels a short distance, He falls with his face to the ground and prays, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me...Yet not as I will, but as You will.”...Then He returns to His disciples and only to find them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asks Peter...“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation...The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”...Jesus understands the situation completely of His upcoming crucifixion and death for us...But His disciples trying to stay awake as best they can and being late at night, do not realize the great troubles on their Master and Savior's mind...He goes away a second time and prays, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”...And when He comes back, once again He finds the three sleeping, because their eyes were heavy...So He left them and went away once more and prayed for the third time, saying the same thing...
Often when I am feeling low, I wonder why would God do this (to me)...Why does He make us suffer?...And certainly, Jesus is our example as a Man...And this example shows that in our hands and life, God sometimes puts a most bitter time in front of us, that we must face...And like His Son we must drink from that bitterest of cups and suffer what seemingly God has handed us...And we will struggle as our Master struggled in the Garden, but He submitted, as we must submit...It is more about the soul being saved than the body being given a bitter pill...
The journey of a follower of Jesus shows us that at different times in life, we will suffer...God does not promise us an untroubled life...And in the life and times of Jesus in our most suffering moments only He of all people goes with you and cries with you and is on His knees with you -knowing exactly how you feel...And by following Him and His example, we are being guided by a Spirit and to His Truth...That path to the Truth is a pat of hope...
No doubt Jesus knew soon that He would suffer more than He ever had...Mankind's sin stood in front of Him...And seemingly and as calm as One could be in the situation He was facing, He neither slumbered or slept...And our Savior prayed three times that night, and is our example that we might learn from Him, and knowingly like Him it is not easy to suffer...Prayer helps...We can see what LOVE our Father has given us...He LOVES us that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are...The flesh is weak and we get distracted and tempted by the things that we do, by others around us, by what is going on in the day, by what might happen tomorrow, and even by drowsiness and sleep...It is hard to be like Him...But because we are God’s children; what we will be has not yet been revealed to us...What we do know is this: when His Son is revealed to us again, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is...And all who have this hope in Him, believe we will one day be with Him and be much like Him...