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.… Let us come into the presence of the Suppliant — this most human, yet most Divine Person, who is wrestling here in an agony even more spiritual than mortal. It is night. Christ has left the guest-chamber. He has crossed the brook Kedron. He has entered a garden, oftentimes His resort during His visits to Jerusalem, at the foot of the slope of Olivet; He has come hither to pray. Such prayer must be secret. He leaves His disciples at the entrance. Even secret prayer may be the better for having friends near. So with a touching union of love and humility He entreats His three disciples to watch with Him. See the example of suffering which is here set before us in Christ. I. That all sorrow, all suffering, even if it be anguish, is A CUP. It is something definite, of a certain measure. It is of the Father's mingling; the cup of medicinal love. II. Concerning this cup itself You MAY PRAY. There is not the distress upon earth as to which we ought not to pray. III. But HOW PRAY. 1. As to a Father. 2. Again with an "If." You must recognize the possible impossibility. 3. With an earnest confession of the comparative value of two wills — your will and God's. Jesus went away the second time, and prayed. And what was this second prayer? "O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." This second prayer asks not at all for the removal of the cup. The first was prayer with submission; the second is submission without even prayer. Here is an example, set us by our Lord, of a progressive, growing submission to the mighty hand of God. I do not mean that our Lord had to learn, in the garden of Gethsemane, a lesson of obedience unknown before. How was Christ made perfect, but in the sense of a transition from disobedience to obedience. Yet, thus, in a constant development of obedience under a course of increasing difficulty. The earthly life of Christ was a perpetual going forward. "Let this cup pass." Was it not an added trial that the Saviour, like an apostle (2 Corinthians 12:8, 9) had asked relief, and not been answered? Beyond the submission of the will lies the silencing of the will; beyond the desire to have only if God will, the desire that God only may will, whether I have or not. All of us have wishes, strong impulses of the will towards this and-that; it is a part of our nature. By what steps shall they pass unto our final good? 1. We must turn them into prayers. Everything evil will refuse that test. You cannot turn a sinful wish into prayer. 2. The next step is not only to pray your wishes, but to pray them in a spirit of submission. 3. Then nothing remains but the act of submission, pure, simple, unconditional, absolute. No longer, "Let this cup pass," but "If this cup may not pass, Thy will be done." All this I leave to Thee; I ask not; I desire not; I pray not longer concerning it, only Thy will be done. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.) 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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