Matthew 26

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira has interestingly written of the “heroism” of Jesus.

The most perfect example [Jesus] gave of His own heroism was, in my view, the Agony in the Garden, which Nietzsche despised. Nietzsche said that Our Lord Jesus Christ had not shown himself to be a real man in this instance. Further, with His doctrine of forgiveness and His goodness, He showed He was just a soft sweet being. This statement is blasphemous, and had Nietzsche been ordered to carry the Cross, he would have handed it over 200 times. He would have abandoned that Cross, apostatized, done a hundred other things, but he would not have had the courage to carry the Cross.[1]

How fascinating!

Who is right?

Is Oliveira correct that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is shown to be a hero?

Is Nietzsche correct that in the Garden of Gethsemane shows Himself to not be a real man, to be “just a soft sweet being”?

I stand strongly with Oliveira’s assessment, though the “heroism” that Christ showed in the Garden comes in unexpected ways. A lot is revealed in the Garden Gethsemane. Let us consider the full implications of what happened there!

In the garden, we see the fickleness of human devotion.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see in the disciples a picture of the fickleness of human devotion. To get at this, let us first remember the great assertion of faithfulness made by the disciples in the text immediately preceding our own. After prophesying Peter’s denials, Peter and all of the disciples pledge their ultimate allegiance to Jesus.

³⁵ Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

What an amazing contrast we find immediately, then, between this great assertion of fidelity and and the disciples’ slumber of the garden!

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

When the contrasting statements are isolated and put beside each other, the picture is even more stark!

³⁵ Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”

⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

What a contrast! What a stark difference from “I will never deny you” to “I cannot stay awake even one hour for you”! Yet, this is the nature of the human heart, is it not? This is the fickleness of human devotion.

Perhaps we are tempted to excuse the slumber of the disciples. Was it not late? Were they not tired? Yes and yes, but, interestingly enough, even then there was a normal expectation of a late night on Passover!

Craig Keener observes that Jesus and the disciples “may have arrived at Gethsemane by 10 or 11 p.m. (which was well into the night in that culture).” He then makes a fascinating observation.

It was customary to stay awake late on the Passover night and to speak of God’s redemption. They should have been able to stay awake to keep watch; they had probably stayed up late on most other Passovers of their lives. According to one Jewish teaching, if anyone in the Passover group fell asleep (not merely dozed), the group was thereby dissolved; the teaching may, however, be too late for relevance to this period.[2]

It is interesting how quickly slumber slips into our devotions to Christ, no? How quickly we feel sleepy when we come to pray. How quickly we feel distracted when we open our Bibles. How quickly we “zone out” in corporate worship.

It all happens so very very quickly! We all know what it is to not be able to wait even an hour. A lot of us cannot make it even ten minutes! In the disciples, we see ourselves. In their slumber, we see our own hearts.

Gethsemane is a cautionary tale for us all. Let us be aware of our own penchant to slumber fast on the heels of grandiose exclamations of faith.

In the garden, we see the intensity of the price to be paid.

We also see in the garden the intensity of the price that Christ was about to pay. This manifests itself in both the intensity of Jesus’ struggle as well as in the language of the cup. We note first the intensity of Jesus’ struggle.

³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ^39a–c And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed…

The language here is vivid and crackling with energy.

• sorrowful
• troubled
• very sorrowful
• even to death
• he fell on his face

Jesus knew the price that He was about to pay. He knew the cost. He knew what it would entail. The weight of it was staggering. It brought sorrow and trouble to His soul. This was not a lack of faith. This was rather a stark recognition. Iain M. Duiguid makes an interesting point about this depiction of Jesus.

Matthew admits Jesus’ grief and anguish at the prospect of crucifixion. Christ grieves greatly, “even to death” (v. 38, alluding to Ps. 42:5, 11; also Jonah 4:9). Here critics join conservatives in calling this passage something that surely happened. The criterion of embarrassment posits that no one would fabricate events that discomfit or humiliate them or their group. Here Jesus, the church’s hero, seems frightened, uncertain. Does the plea for release from the cross mean he has lost confidence in the Father’s plan? Besides, the Greco-Roman ideal features martyrs like Socrates, who faced death calmly. Among Jews, Maccabean martyrs died joyfully, without tears or pleading.448 And Christian martyrs often died with praise on their lips. Who would fabricate events that make Jesus look weak?

As a normal man, Jesus quails at the prospect of dying in physical agony.[3]

Indeed, were one wanting to depict their hero in the terms familiar to both that time and our own, they would not depict him in the throes of such anguish of soul. To the world, this is not manly, not strong, not heroic. But the gospel accounts are unflinching in their raw honesty: Jesus feels crushing sorrow at the prospect of what was to come.

The God-Man, Jesus, was about to undergo something unfathomable. And what He was about to undergo was spelled out in the thrice-repeated image of the cup.

³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

How does the image of the cup help us understand the nature of the price that Jesus was about to pay and the nature of the anguish He felt? It helps us because the cup is often a picture of divine wrath in scripture.

Consider Isaiah 51.

¹⁷ Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Consider Jeremiah 25.

¹⁵ Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”

So, too, in the New Testament. Consider Revelation 14.

⁹ And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

And Revelation 16.

¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.

Let this cup pass from me!

Let Your wrath pass from me, O God!

What does this mean? It means that in a very real and meaningful sense Jesus on the cross was going to drink the cup of the wrath of the Father. This is a doctrine that many modern people do not like, but it is unavoidable. When the Son takes on the sin of humanity, He also takes upon Himself the wrath that that ocean of sin deserved. He paid the price. He was punished in our stead.

Iain M. Duiguid correctly writes:

In the OT, the metaphor of a cup evokes that which is measured out, of which one must partake. In the Psalms, the Prophets, and Revelation, the cup signifies God’s wrath toward sin and punishment of it (Pss. 11:6; 75:8; Isa. 51:17–23; Jer. 25:15–28; Rev. 14:9–11). Revelation joins the sense of punishment with sin itself (Rev. 17:3–6; 18:3–6). “Cup” explains Jesus’ fear. Jesus is sinless, holy, and therefore detests sin, but during the crucifixion he bears our sin. Indeed, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that . . . we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). This is how he earns the right to offer the forgiveness mentioned in Matthew 26:28. As he bears the punishment of sin and is identified with it, he tastes the Father’s wrath and revulsion toward sin (Hab. 1:13). The Father turns from the Son while he is upon the cross, so that Jesus loses his perfect union with the Father (cf. comment on 27:45–50).[4]

See here the amazing love of Jesus Christ! He was willing to drink this cup for you, for me! He was willing to take the wrath of God upon Himself for you, for me! He paid a price we never could have paid!

In the garden, we see the passive obedience of Jesus.

In doing this, we see the passive obedience of Jesus. This may be a new term for some, but it is a helpful term. Barry Cooper writes:

…the Reformers talked about what’s called the active and passive obedience of Christ. Both are essential parts of Christ’s work on earth, because both are needed if you and I are to have any hope of salvation.

Jesus’ active obedience is His perfect obedience to God’s law. Jesus’ passive obedience is His paying the penalty for our failure to obey God’s law.[5]

Again, this is helpful. In His active obedience, Jesus actively obeys and fulfills the divine standards of perfect righteousness. In His passive obedience, Jesus submits to death on a cross. Both are obedience. Both contribute to our salvation. In His active obedience, Jesus refuses to ever sin. In His passive obedience, Jesus dies in our stead.

Many have argued, I believe rightly, that the passive and active aspects of the obedience of Christ should not be broken down into two nice and neat sequences: His life and then His death. They argue—again, rightly—that Jesus’ passive and active obedience are operative throughout every moment of His life. This is true and it is a point well made. Yet the passive obedience of Christ certainly reaches its culmination in His submission to the Father’s will that He go to the cross, that He drink the cup of wrath.

The passive obedience of Christ is seen most clearly in the words, “…nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” and “your will be done.”

³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

Jesus is willing to undergo this.

Jesus will allow the events of the cross to happen to Him.

We are saved by His life.

We are saved by His death.

Actively, He fulfills the standard of righteousness.

Passively, He lays down His life.

Both are heroic. In both, yes, Jesus is a hero. Yet the world has trouble understanding the passive obedience of Jesus as heroic. To the world, heroism is profoundly and ever active! It is doing, overcoming, conquering. But let us be clear: The most heroic act Jesus ever did was the act of laying down His life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the suffering Savior taking up the mantle of heroism in a way and manner that confounds the world.

Our Hero falls on His face.

Our Hero is very sorrowful even to death.

Our Hero asks the Father if the cup might pass Him by.

And yet, our Hero dares to say this: Not my will, but Thy will be done!

In the garden, we see the humanity of Jesus and we see the deity of Jesus. In His humanity, He is grieved and agitated in His soul. But as God, He knows that He and He alone can pay the price and meet the perfect standard of holiness.

What a Savior! What a King! What a Lamb! What a Hero!

 

[1] https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/c038rpHeroism.html

[2] Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (IVP Bible Background Commentary Set) (p. 116). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[3] Duguid, Iain M.. “ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke.” Apple Books.

[4] Duguid, Iain M.. “ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke.”

[5] https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/simply-put/active-and-passive-obedience-of-christ