Gethsemane & Arrest

I. Introduction
A. Lent series
B. Next week: Steve Atkinson
C. Matthew 26:36-56 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.” 47 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
D. This is given to us, not to cast a tiny shadow on Christ’s willingness to submit to His Father, but to illustrate to us how heavy a burden He was willing to bear for us.
II. Explanation of Matthew 26:36-56
A. 36-39 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.”
1. Here we walk onto holy ground. Here we are given a glimpse of a sacred and agonizing moment.
2. It is Thursday night. Jesus and His disciples have finished up their Passover and walked out of the city, across the Kidron Brook, to Gethsemane. (Gethsemane means oil press, and it’s as if Jesus is put through the press here, slowly being crushed for our iniquities.)
3. His agonizing anticipation of the cross has reached a near-fatal crescendo. He needs to pray.
4. He says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” Then He fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
5. It wasn’t His physical death which troubled Him so deeply. It was staring into the terror of His Father’s wrath for the sins of man – the intensity of billions of eternal hells crashing down upon Him in a matter of a few hours.
6. It may seem strange that this crisis occurred not when they later sentenced Him to death, not when they nailed Him on the cross, but the night before in Gethsemane, before He was even arrested.
a. Jonathan Edwards gives us a brilliant insight into the reason behind this.
b. He says that once Jesus was in their custody, it would have looked like the choice was out of His hands. He had to make His choice while He still had a choice – so that we could see that no one took His life from Him, but He laid it down of His own accord (John 10:18). From our human perception, this is the last moment when He still had the freedom to abandon the project.
B. 40-41 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.”
1. There were numerous other times when Jesus went off to pray. But never like this.
a. He took with Him James & John – and Peter, the one who was about to deny Him.
2. After awhile, Jesus pauses His prayer and returns to the disciples. They’re asleep.
a. Instead of supporting Him in His hour of trial, they have added to His grief. And they have added to the enormous mountain of human guilt for which He was preparing to die.
b. Instead of lending aid to the Savior as He faced unspeakable trauma, the apostles just rubbed salt into His wounds: they slept when they should have prayed, they abandoned Him when they should have stood with Him, they denied Him when they should have honored Him.
3. “Couldn’t you watch with me for just one hour? ...The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
a. And He’s not talking about the body’s need for sleep. He has the same bodily need for sleep, but He’s not dozing off during prayer.
b. He’s talking about how in our flesh we are so out of touch with what’s happening, so oblivious to the spiritual battle raging around us, so blind to the eternal importance of the moment that there’s no urgency to rouse us from sleepiness.
c. Why is it that I can do so many things without getting sleepy? I don’t get sleepy when I’m eating ice cream. I don’t get sleepy when there’s a bear on my porch. But it’s easy to get sleepy when I pray. Peter wasn’t dozing off a few minutes later when a big mob showed up with swords/clubs, enemies far less dangerous than the spiritual forces of evil which assaulted Him at Gethsemane.
d. Mostly sleepiness in prayer is because there’s something wrong with our hearts, not our body.
4. You know why the disciples were so sleepy? Because they hadn’t really listened to the Lord’s warnings about this moment coming. Jesus did so much to try to prepare them, but they were unresponsive. They didn’t prepare. So, they weren’t ready.
5. 41“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
a. They should have been praying, “Father, I know that something terrible is going to happen to Jesus, He keeps telling us so. Help us to stand firm. Help us not to deny Him. Help us not to flee from Him. Help us to trust and not panic. Help us not to give in to the temptation to think that everything is spiraling out of control. Help us not to indulge in fear and cowardice.”
b. But instead they slept. And even after He pled with them, they still fell asleep two more times.
C. 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.”
1. It happened three times – for emphasis. They fail him over and over.
a. But, in spite of this, He will never fail them!
2. Notice what Jesus doesn't appeal to His disciples for help.
a. No, He says, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (41)
b. The salvation part Jesus does all by Himself. It is all of Him and none of us.
c. Remember the story of Moses praying over the battle against Amalek, when Aaron and Hur held up his hands so he was able to press on? And Aaron and Hur get a little bit of the glory for standing with Moses and helping him persevere.
d. But not in the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane. No one stood with Him. No one shares the glory with Jesus. Jesus did it all Himself – that no man may boast.
D. 47 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.
1. While He was still speaking, Judas came, with a great crowd from the chief priests and the elders carrying swords and clubs.
2. Luke 22:3 says that the devil entered into the heart of Judas. And it was a devilish deed – to kiss Jesus, acting like he loved Him when really He was sticking a knife in His back.
a. There are some who kiss Jesus as a way of attacking Him.
b. Some who kiss jesus are actually His enemies, and agents of the devil.
E. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
1. John 18:10 tells us this was Peter, as we talked about last week, pulling out his earthly weapons and cutting off the ear of a servant of the high priest named Malchus.
2. What was Peter trying to do here?
a. Well, I think Stuart Briscoe was right when he said Peter was not trying to cut off the ear of Malchus; he was trying to divide Mal- from -chus.
b. Fortunately Jesus sovereignly prevented the injury from dividing Malchus in two, and then reattached the ear.
3. Peter is still not listening! He is still refusing what Jesus told Him about going to Jerusalem to die. He is still resisting the will of God. He is still kicking against the goads. Even the “Get behind Me, Satan,” didn’t sink in. And Jesus had to put Peter in his place yet again.
F. 52-54 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
1. “Put your sword away, Peter!”
a. This rebuke was not just for Peter. This rebuke was for every king and every army and every government which has tried to use earthly force to advance the kingdom of God.
b. And it’s not just about swords. It’s about every form of human coercion: threats, humiliation, cursing. All of it.
c. There are a lot of Peters in the Christian church today! In my opinion, there is a lot of blindness on this issue. What does Jesus have to do to tell us that His kingdom does not advance by the sword or by any form of human coercion?
d. And yet, earthly fighting comes so naturally to us, it’s very hard for us to give it up and trust that spiritual warfare is much more powerful and much more consistent with the way of Christ.
e. Peter wanted to die fighting for Jesus. But Jesus wanted Peter to stay awake and pray.
f. It was the kind of warfare Peter wasn’t yet skilled in.
2. Unlike Peter, Jesus was ready for the moment. He had spent the night praying. He had spent His life reading about Himself in the Scriptures, preparing for what was coming.
a. Isaiah 53:3-9 “He was despised and rejected by men...he was pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities; the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression he was taken away...although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”
b. And now He was ready.
3. In the end, not only does Jesus repudiate Peter’s attack, but He graciously undoes it. Matthew doesn’t say Jesus healed the ear Peter had cut off. We get that detail from Dr. Luke 22:51.
G. 55-56a
1. At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
2. After rebuking Peter for his use of the earthly sword, Jesus takes up the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God) and goes after their ears in a very different way.
3. The disciples wanted to fight, but they weren’t comfortable with the approach Jesus was taking. Even after three years, they still had so much to learn.
H. 56b
1. Then all the disciples left him and fled.
2. This is one of my favorite parts of this story. It’s so encouraging!
3. These men, who kept falling asleep when it was time to pray, who relied on their swords instead of their prayers, and who fled away from the Lord in fear when things got hot, these very same men were transformed into men whose prayers made the room shake (Acts 4:31), who stood fearlessly before these same authorites and proclaimed Christ’s truth – even if it led to death!
4. If these cowards could become the giants of faith and power they later became, how much hope there is for us!
III. Application
A. Though we will never experience anything close to the intensity of our Lord’s trial, His experience here validates our experience of sorrow and feeling deeply troubled. Our Lord Himself experienced this kind of thing!
1. Not only does this validate our experience of sorrow, but His example instructs us as to what we are to do when we experience great distress.
a. We are to pray — and keep praying.
b. And we are to ask our friends to sit with us in prayer.
(1) This implies that we ought to cultivate friends who will stand with us and pray for us in times of anguish.
(2) It also suggests that we should be close enough to others to stand with them and pray with them in their dark hour.
2. Some people, however, refuse to even contemplate the thought that they will ever face a dark night of the soul. They can’t let go of their dream of a smooth and easy life. So they can do nothing to prepare for the storms which inevitably come.
B. And we can’t walk away from this passage without appreciated the One who was crushed for our iniquities in Gethsemane and in Golgotha.
1. Jesus proved here that when it comes to His beloved people, He will not waver. He will not break. He will never buckle under pressure, He will never bend in His commitment, He will never turn His back on them. There is not even a shadow of turning with Him (James 1:17).
2. It was your salvation which was driving Christ to follow through.
3. He was determined to purchase you, to win you as His prize, to make You His.
4. He is not just the Christ. He is your Christ. And this is how committed He is to your welfare.
5. And He proved that by giving Himself over to be crushed.
6. And because He did so, we not only stand as innocent before the Judge of all, but we have an unimaginable inheritance waiting for us in heaven which will make these afflictions seems light in comparison.
7. And as we walk through this life, no matter what we go through, we always know that Jesus has already been there. He’s experienced all the trauma of this life. “We do not have a high priest who’s unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb.4:15-16

IV. Communion
A. He should have been being honored. But instead they arrested Him! Why? So that you might be honored instead of arrested. He drank our death so we could drink His life.