Matthew 26:36

Luke says, To the mount of Olives, (Luke 22:39.) and John, Went forth over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, (John 18:1.) which is the same as this Gethsemane, and is a place where He prayed at the foot of mount Olivet, where is a garden, and a Church now builtr When the Lord prayed in the mountain, He taught us to make supplication for heavenly things; when He prays in the garden, He teaches us to study humility in our prayer. And beautifully, as He draws near His Passion, does He pray in the 'valley of fatness,' showing that through the valley of humility, and the richness of charity, He took upon Him death for our sakes. The practical instruction which we may also learn from this is, that we should not suffer our heart to dry up from the richness of charity.

(de. Fid. Orth. iii. 24.) But seeing that prayer is the sending up the understanding to God, or the asking of God things fitting, how did the Lord pray? For His understanding needed not to be lifted up to God, having been once united hypostatically to God the Word. Neither could He need to ask of God things fitting, for the One Christ is both God and Man. But giving in Himself a pattern to us, He taught us to ask of God, and to lift up our minds to Him. As He took on Him our passions, that by triumphing over them Himself, He might give us also the victory over them, so now He prays to open to us the way to that lifting up to God, to fulfil for us all righteousness, to reconcile His Father to us, to pay honour to Him as the First Cause, and to show that He is not against God.

Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemani. In this part, the preparation by prayer is set forth; and he does three things. First, the intention to pray is set forth; second, the necessity of praying; third, the manner. The …

Peter said unto Him, Even if I must die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go away …

Then cometh Jesus with them,.... The eleven disciples, unto a place called Gethsemane; the Syriac version calls it Ghedsiman; the Persic, Ghesmani, so the Arabic; the Vulgate Latin, and the Ethiopic, Gethsemani: in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in the Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, it is called a "village"; and in the Ethiopic version, "a village of wine"; and in the Syriac and Persic versions, a place. Here, according to an Ethiopic writer, the Virgin Mary was buried by the apostles (d).

Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane - That is, the valley of fatness. The garden probably had its name from its soil and situation, laying in some little valley between two of those many hills, the range of which constitutes the Mount of Olives.

A place called Gethsemane - A garden at the foot of the mount of Olives. The name seems to be formed from גת gath, a press, and סמן shemen, oil; probably the place where the produce of the mount of Olives was prepared for use. The garden of the oil-press, or olive-press. Sit ye here - Or, stay in this place, while I go and pray yonder: and employ ye the time as I shall employ it - in watching unto prayer.

The verses we have now read describe what is commonly called Christ’s agony at Gethsemane. It is a passage which undoubtedly contains deep and mysterious things. We ought to read it with reverence and wonder, for there is much in it which we cannot fully comprehend. Why do we find our Lord so “sorrowful and very heavy,” as he is here described? What are we to make of his words, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.”

The verses we have now read describe what is commonly called Christ’s agony at Gethsemane. It is a passage which undoubtedly contains deep and mysterious things. We ought to read it with reverence and wonder, for there is much in it which we cannot fully comprehend. Why do we find our Lord so “sorrowful and very heavy,” as he is here described? What are we to make of his words, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.” Why do we see him going apart from his disciples, and falling on his face, and crying to his Father with strong cries, and thrice repeated prayer? Why is the almighty Son of God, who had worked so many miracles, so heavy and disquieted? Why is Jesus, who came into the world to die, so like one ready to faint at the approach of death? Why is all this? There is but one reasonable answer to these questions: the weight that pressed down our Lord’s soul was not the fear of death and its pains. Thousands have endured the most agonizing sufferings of body, and died without a groan, and so, no doubt, might our Lord. But the real weight that bowed down the heart of Jesus was the weight of the sin of the world, which seems to have now pressed down upon him with peculiar force: it was the burden of our guilt imputed to him, which was now laid on him, as on the head of the scapegoat. How great that burden must have been no human heart can conceive! It is known only to God. Well may the Greek Litany speak of the “unknown sufferings of Christ.” The words of Scott on this subject are probably correct: “Christ at this time endured as much misery of the same kind with that of condemned spirits, as could possibly consist with a pure conscience, perfect love of God and man, and an assured confidence of a glorious event.”

THOUGH I have taken only these few words for my text, I shall endeavor to bring the whole narrative before your mind's eyes. It is a part of the teaching of Holy Writ that man is a composite being—his nature being divisible into three parts—"spirit," "soul," and "body." I am not going to draw any nice distinctions tonight between the spirit and the soul, or to analyze the connecting link between our immaterial life and consciousness and the physical condition of our nature and the materialism of the world around us.

THOUGH I have taken only these few words for my text, I shall endeavor to bring the whole narrative before your mind's eyes. It is a part of the teaching of Holy Writ that man is a composite being—his nature being divisible into three parts—"spirit," "soul," and "body." I am not going to draw any nice distinctions tonight between the spirit and the soul, or to analyze the connecting link between our immaterial life and consciousness and the physical condition of our nature and the materialism of the world around us. Suffice it to say that whenever our vital organization is mentioned, this triple constitution is pretty sure to be referred to. If you notice it carefully, you will see in our Savior's sufferings on our behalf that the passion extended to His spirit, soul, and body—and although at the last extremity upon the Cross it was hard to tell in which respect He suffered most, all three being strained to the utmost—yet it is certain there were three distinct conflicts in accordance with this threefold endowment of humanity. The first part of our Lord's dolorous pain fell upon His spirit. This took place at the table in that upper chamber where He ate the Passover with His disciples. Those of you who have read the narrative attentively will have noticed these remarkable words in the thirteenth chapter of John and the twenty-first verse: "When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." Of that silent conflict in the Savior's heart while He was sitting at the table no one was a spectator. Into any man's spiritual apprehensions it was beyond the power of any other creature to penetrate.

Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane - This account is also recorded in Mar 14:32-42; Luk 22:39-46; Joh 18:1. Mat 26:36 Then cometh ... - After the institution of the Lord’s Supper, in the early part of the night, he went out to the Mount of Olives. In his journey he passed over the brook Cedron Joh 18:1, which bounded Jerusalem on the east. Unto a place - John calls this “a garden.” This garden was on the western side of the Mount of Olives, and a short distance from Jerusalem. The word used by John means not properly a garden for the cultivation of vegetables, but a place planted with the olive and other trees, perhaps with a fountain of water, and with walks and groves; a proper place of refreshment in a hot climate, and of retirement from the noise of the adjacent city. Such places were doubtless common in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Messrs. Fisk and King, American missionaries were at the place which is commonly supposed to have been the garden of Gethsemane in 1823. They tell us that the garden is about a stone’s cast from the brook of Cedron; that it now contains eight large and venerable-looking olives, whose trunks show their great antiquity. The spot is sandy and barren, and appears like a forsaken place. A low broken wall surrounds it. Mr. King sat down beneath one of the trees and read Isa 53:1-12, and also the gospel history of our Redeemer’s sorrow during that memorable night in which he was there betrayed; and the interest of the association was heightened by the passing through the place of a party of Bedouins, armed with spears and swords. A recent traveler says of this place that it “is a field or garden about 50 paces square, with a few shrubs growing in it, and eight olive-trees of great antiquity, the whole enclosed with a stone wall.” The place was probably fixed upon, as Dr. […]