Matthew
26:36-44 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to
the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over
there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He
began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here
and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and
prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray,
lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, He went away and prayed,
saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from
Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them
asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and
prayed the third time, saying the same words. NKJV
Perhaps from His first cry coming out of Mary’s womb
He always knew this hour would come and yet we see His Humanity in conflict
with His Divinity prior to His most great, gracious, and glorious sacrifice for
us undeserving sinners. He no doubt reflected back in His mind to the most
innocent of days before He turned 30 years old when He lived in obscurity to
the world at large and was known only as Joseph’s son. The time He spent with
His brothers and sisters in the flesh doing the things all Jewish children did
during those days, but He was so obviously different for even during His
terrible twos, and middle school days, and as a Handsome strapping teenager
catching all the girls eyes, He was completely without sin in word, thought,
and action. He knew this was what He had ordained before the foundation of the
world, and yet there is a moment (though it was ever so brief) of shrieking back
from that cross and the separation from His Father as humanities sins are placed
upon His clean, pure, spotless, and sinless soul. He did not just wear man’s
sin like an overcoat; He drank every filthy sin imaginable and took them into
Himself that they might be destroyed forever. Therefore, He had been seeing
glimpses and snapshots of the cross perhaps during various times of His earthly
331/2 years before the reality manifested.
Now let me delve into this time our Lord spent in
great agony and with Your help Dear Holy Spirit despite the limits upon my finite
mind, that I and all might gain some deeper understanding of what our Lord was
experiencing and what He is teaching us from these passages. First as our Lord
so commonly did (as with His Transfiguration) He took Peter, John, and James
with Him and said to them, “My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” Although our
Lord had begun to already anticipate the extreme heaviness of sins burden
before the throne room of the Father and so doing His heart was grieved, He
gave His disciples an opportunity to pray for Him. Verse 39 says, “He went a
little farther and fell on His face.” The weight of the sins He would have to
carry were so heavy even then that He could not go further before He had to cry
out to the Father and plead that it would be some other way to save these
people from their sin.
How could He take and ingest lust, pride, greed,
rape, murder, witchcraft, theft, hatred, fornication, pornography, sodomy, pedophilia,
bitterness, slander, and the list is endless and actually become these things
when He is so pure that He cannot even look upon them. In Verse 41 our Lord
goes to the disciples and finds them asleep. He was somewhat angry (this was
concerned anger as a Father for a son) with them because He is right at that
moment doing battle with the devil as He is in prayer. Our Lord knows that
Peter, James, and John then as well as us today need to be spoken to in this
manner. He wanted them and us to see the urgent need to be watchful, vigilant,
and sober in prayer to God the Father because our adversary the devil is always
going about seeking someone to devour.
Perhaps our Lord wanted to so drive home this point
clearly and powerfully right at that very moment after He (the King of all
Kings and the Lord of all Lords) shrieked back in His own flesh from what He
knew He must do before He ever spoke anything in the Universe into existence
and this is why He said to them, “The spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak.” Let us never forget that He mostly referred to
Himself as “The Son of Man” always wanting to
identify with those who will receive Him on the level of our humanity. Seeing
them lying there they looked so weak, vulnerable, and ready prey for the enemy
of their souls that He is in present conflict with and so the writer of Hebrews
probably captures this exact moment precisely with these words.
Hebrews
2:14-18 Since, therefore, [these His] children share in flesh and blood [in the
physical nature of human beings], He [Himself] in a similar manner partook of
the same [nature], that by [going through] death He might bring to nought {and}
make of no effect him who had the power of death--that is, the devil--And also
that He might deliver {and} completely set free all those who through the
[haunting] fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of
their lives. For, as we all know, He [Christ] did not take hold of angels [the
fallen angels, to give them a helping and delivering hand], but He did take
hold of [the fallen] descendants of Abraham [to reach out to them a helping and
delivering hand]. So it is evident that it was essential that He be made like
His brethren in every respect, in order that He might become a merciful
(sympathetic) and faithful High Priest in the things related to God, to make
atonement {and} propitiation for the people’s sins. For because He Himself [in
His humanity] has suffered in being tempted (tested and tried), He is able
[immediately] to run to the cry of (assist, relieve) those who are being
tempted {and} tested {and} tried [and who therefore are being exposed to
suffering]. QAB
Finally, in verses 42-44 we see our very own mighty
Lord Jesus going back to God the Father three times and the Scripture in verse
44 says, “He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the
same words.” I mean this is unbelievable and wonderful all at the same time. The
One who knows what we will say or do before it is done as the Scripture says, “He
knows our thoughts afar off” knew the answer already so why go back and pray
the same words. This was for His comfort and more importantly for our learning
although Peter, James, and John did not get it then because they remained sleep
then every time, but we see all through the Book of Acts their persistence in
prayer. During many discourses He taught the disciples to be persistent in
prayer through parables and by His example of retreating to the mountains often
alone to talk to God the Father. This record of His praying the exact same
words three times crushes and destroys the falsehood of praying for something
one time and then by faith believing it to be done. We are to learn from this
act from our Lord Jesus Christ that we are to pray every day for the salvation
of the soul of someone and for other things as God the Holy Spirit moves us to
pray until the answer is given, even if we never see it before our death in the
body. This is a most glorious truth to me Dear Heavenly Father, Dear Lord
Jesus, and Dear Holy Spirit.
Dear Heavenly Father, I am but weak but You are
exceedingly strong and You know the petitions I have brought before Your Throne
for many years now without seeing any visible evidence of salvation having been
wrought in the souls I am praying for, but by the grace (Divine influence upon
my heart) You give to me Your son Clifford D. Tate, Sr. I will persist in
saying the same words to You until they are born again or until You call me
Your son home into Your bosom in Jesus Name Amen!!!
“If I am perturbed by the reproach and
misunderstanding that may follow action taken for the good of souls for whom I
must give account; if I cannot commit the matter and go on in peace and in
silence, remembering Gethsemane and
the cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Amy Carmichael 1867-1951
“Look at Him at Gethsemane, sweating as it were great drops of blood; look at Him
on the cross, crucified between two thieves; hear that piercing cry, “Father,
Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And as you look into that
face, as you look into those wounds on His feet or His hands, will you say He
has not the power to save you? Will you say He has not the power so to redeem
you?” D. L. Moody 1837-1899
“Methinks every true Christian should be exceedingly
earnest in prayer concerning the souls of the ungodly; and when they are so,
how abundantly God blesses them and how the church prospers!” “It is the
burning lava of the soul that has a furnace within---a very volcano of grief
and sorrow--it is that burning lava of prayer that finds its way to God. No
prayer ever reaches God’s heart which does not come from our hearts.” Charles
Spurgeon 1834-1892
“In Gethsemane the
holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass
from Him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a
sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed.” C. S. Lewis 1898-1963
“Many people believe the word flesh is referring to
our physical bodies. In many cases in the Bible when the Lord refers to the
flesh He is speaking of the physical body of man. For example, when the prophet
Isaiah said that “all flesh is as grass” and Peter quoted the verse in the New
Testament, both were referring to our physical bodies. In Matthew 26:41,
however, the Lord Jesus is referring to our frail and corrupt human condition
resulting from the fall of Adam. Christ created every part of us and
understands the weakness of our unregenerate human nature and the carnal
desires of our flesh. He has allowed a remnant of our corrupt nature—the
flesh—to remain with us until we see Him face to face. Plainly He wants us to
overcome our flesh and He has given us first the Spirit and then His Word to
accomplish this.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr. 1961-? This quote taken from the Book
My Lord wrote through me “Silent Assassins of the Soul”
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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