Mat 26:36-46 | PNT | STEP | Gethsemane . The word means "oil-press", and would indicate that a press for making oil out of the olives, which grew in abundance on the mountain, stood there. It was on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. Sit ye here . He speaks to the eight who were to remain. These eight would form, as it were, a watch against premature surprise. While I go and pray yonder . The great crisis was at hand, and it was casting its dark shadow before on the spirit of our Lord. In this hour of the power of darkness he felt that he must throw himself upon his Father's bosom.

Matthew 26:36-46

Gethsemane. The word means "oil-press", and would indicate that a press for making oil out of the olives, which grew in abundance on the mountain, stood there. It was on the western slope of the Mount of Olives.

Sit ye here. He speaks to the eight who were to remain. These eight would form, as it were, a watch against premature surprise.

While I go and pray yonder. The great crisis was at hand, and it was casting its dark shadow before on the spirit of our Lord. In this hour of the power of darkness he felt that he must throw himself upon his Father's bosom. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. The eight were left at the entrance of the garden, while the three who had always been a kind of inner circle, who had been witnesses of his transfiguration, and of one of his greatest miracles (Mr 5:37) were taken within.

Began to be sorrowful and very heavy. The shadow of the cross had fallen upon him. It was not fear of the agony, or fear of death, for he bore all, when the moment came, so sublimely that a heathen officer exclaimed, "Surely he must be the son of a god". I doubt whether it is possible for a mortal to comprehend the mystery of his suffering, but I think the key is found in the declaration, "He was made sin for us" (2Co 5:21). My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. The weight of woe was literally crushing out the Savior's life.

Tarry ye here, and watch with me. He had wished his chosen disciples to be near him in his woe; and yet, as it advanced, he felt that he must retire even from them, and be alone with himself and his Father. And he went a little further. "About a stone's cast" (Lu 22:41).

If it be possible. If it were possible to save men, and carry out the divine work of redeeming them.

Let this cup pass from me. "This cup" is the betrayal, the trial, the mocking, the scourging, the cross, and all besides which our thoughts cannot reach.

But as thou [wilt]. This is an example of perfect faith--the faith by which alone answers to prayer can be obtained. He that insists on his will, when it is contrary to the will of God, fails in faith. Findeth them asleep. Peter, James and John, soldiers placed on duty in an hour of dreadful peril and bidden to "watch". Luke says they were sleeping from sorrow (Lu 22:45). Great sorrow stupefies. Dr. Rush says that criminals usually sleep soundly the night before execution. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Our Lord does not direct them to pray to God that no temptation might befall them, but that they might not be overcome by the temptations in which they must be involved. The need of such prayer was shown by Peter's denial. He went away again the second time, and prayed. "More earnestly", says Luke, who adds the account of the bloody sweat (Lu 22:44). His agony returned on him. The continuance of the trial he accepts as God's answer to the petition, "Let this cup pass from me" (Mt 26:39). Now he asks only, "Thy will be done". He came and found them asleep again. The motive of this return we may reverently believe to have been, as before, the craving for human sympathy in that hour of awful agony. Our Savior, we must not forget, was human as well as divine. He . . . prayed the third time, saying the same words. The fact is suggestive as indicating that there is a repetition in prayer which indicates not formalism, but intensity of feeling. Sleep on now, and take [your] rest. I look upon these words as reproachful. The hour when he needed their watchfulness and sympathy was past. They had failed to guard in the hour when he wished to be alone with God. Now the moment is at hand; the soldiers are approaching. Rise, let us be going. It was no time for repose. Let them rouse, and go with him at once to confront the traitor and the band of enemies. WAS CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED?--The Epistle to the Hebrews says it was (Heb 5:7). An angel came and strengthened him (Lu 22:43). There are two ways of answering a prayer for the removal of a burden. In one, the burden is taken away, and we remain the same; in the other, we are made so strong that the burden is no longer a burden to us; as what would crush a child, is but sport to a man.