Jesus in the Garden of Olives
John xviii. 1-13; Matt. xxvi. 36-56; Mark xiv. 32-52; Luke xxii. 39-53.
On the further side of Kedron the, at the foot of the hillside, there lies a garden overshadowed by olive trees, and called Gethsemane, because of an olive press which formerly stood there. Nothing disturbed the solitude of this region, where the Saviour was accustomed to pass the night-time whenever He did not return to Bethany in the early evening. Judas was well aware of the secluded retreat, for a few hours later he led the band sent in search of the Divine Master unhesitatingly in this direction.
Hardly had Jesus entered the garden when He felt the awful throes of an anguish, like the first icy chills of the death struggle.
"Sit ye here," He said to His disciples, "while I will go yonder and pray." There is a rock still pointed out, near the gateway of the garden, where Tradition says the Apostles found a resting place.
The Saviour took with Him Peter, James, and John, to whom He had promised that they should drain the cup of His grief; so now He led them under the black shadows of the olive orchards into the dimmest corner of the garden. Never had His Apostles seen Him plunged in such sadness as this; terror, dejection, something like a stupor, says Saint Mark, seized his soul. And here He stopped His companions.
" My Soul," He groaned, "is sorrowful even unto death! Wait here, watch and pray!"
Then withdrawing from them about a stone's throw He fell upon His knees, His head bowed down till His face pressed the ground, while He prayed that if it were possible this hour might pass from Him.
" Father, all things are possible to Thee; take away this cup from Me," this cup of anguish, wherein He tasted beforehand all the bitterness of His Passion. So greatly did Jesus suffer that He shrank from enduring any more as yet, and so for a long while He remained motionless, only beseeching the Father to grant Him sufficient strength and comfort. And, at the last, His words were words of resignation.
"Let Thy will, not Mine, be done!"
Then He returned to the disciples, craving some relief for His trouble; yet it only resulted in making the sense of His loneliness and abandonment more vivid and overpowering. There was not one human heart to watch with Him or to take compassion on His anguish. Peter, the intrepid champion of a few hours back, James, despite all his sturdy courage, and John, the well beloved, every one of them was sleeping, notwithstanding all the love they bore Him, Who was racked with anguish almost before their very eyes,— Who had besought them not to leave Him alone, but to uphold and sustain Him by their presence!
Addressing the most presumptuous of those three:—
"Simon," He said, "so, thou sleepest! Couldst thou not then watch one hour with Me? Watch ye and pray that you enter not into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
The disciples saw Him withdraw from them again, once more casting Himself down, and in the dust exhausting Himself in the throes of His awful Agony, while His lips still murmured the same prayer as before.
" Father, if this Chalice cannot pass except I drink it, Thy will be done."
Soon weariness once more overweighted their eyelids, and returning Jesus found them for the second time asleep. " They knew not what to answer Him," says Saint Mark. The Saviour left them for the last time; it was to engage in that mightiest combat of all, the one which Saint Luke has recounted.
What transpired in that dread hour within the Soul of the Christ? Was Hell let loose upon the Lamb Who bore the sins of the world? Did it hope, with the weight of all wicked deeds, past and future, to crush this Jesus, before Whose eyes was now marshalled the whole empire of evil, far up and down the ages? But this is no place for such conjectures. All that we may know is that in this trial not only were the Saviour's eyes wet with bitter woe, but tears of blood poured from His limbs. "And, as He was torn with His Agony, there came a sweat upon Him, like drops of blood trickling down upon the ground."
Jesus did but pray the more ardently, ever more repeating the same words:—
"Father, if this Chalice may not pass except I drink it, let Thy will be done!"
This blood, these tears, His suppliant cries, ascended unto God. At the voice of the spotless Victim of love Heaven, which had been closed against sin-stained humankind since Adam, now threw wide its gates, and an Angel descended thence to strengthen and console the Saviour.
And Jesus rose up, once again stronger than His sorrow, "knowing all things that were to come upon Him," yet nonetheless calmly awaiting the hour of torture and death.
Then He returned to His slumbering disciples. They had failed in the duty entrusted to them of watching beside their Master in His Agony, and this their sole privilege was lost to them for ever. But the Saviour addressed to them in words wherein tenderness is marvellously mingled with reproachfulness.
" Sleep on now and take your rest;" there is no more time for watching with Me hereafter. Then, as tokens of the arrival of Judas began to break in upon His words,—
"It is enough," He added; "the hour is come wherein the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of sinners; rise up, come! Lo, he that will be tray Me is at hand!"
Jesus was still speaking when at the foot of the garden appeared and armed band bearing swords and staves. It was a Roman Tribune with his legionaries, accompanied by a crowd of Jews of every rank and condition, officers of the Sanhedrin, Temple-guards, the serving-people of the High-Priests,— a motley assemblage at whose head marched Judas, " one of the Twelve." Torches flared and lanterns glimmered in every direction over the heads of the multitude.
Arrived at Gethsemane they halted near the garden, to arrange measures. Judas reminded them that a kiss was the sign agreed upon to indicate the Saviour, Whom they were forthwith to seize and hurry away,— cautiously, however, for fear of His supernatural powers.
While they were thus lingering in consultation, of a sudden the Master appeared; at sight of Him Judas hesitated; all his plot seemed to fall to the ground.
" Whom do you seek?" said Jesus.
The Apostle and those who like him knew the Saviour were silent and dumbfounded at finding their purpose anticipated. But the rest, seeing Judas speechless and motionless in the midst of them, and by chance thinking that the newcomer was only some stranger, responded at once,—
"Jesus of Nazareth."
" I am He," the Saviour said.
Terrified they one and all recoiled and fell at His feet.
" Whom do you seek?" again Jesus demanded.
At last they knew Who He was, that stood before them; still they durst not say, " Thyself," but answered only,—
"Jesus of Nazareth."
" I have already told you, it is I, Jesus of Nazareth."
For the second time the Christ delivers Himself into their hands by these words, they even now He does not fall get His own.
" Then if you are seeking Me," He added, "let these go their way."
In the depth of His humiliations and in the clutches of His foes, He still decrees how far their violence may venture, and this limit they must needs respect. Thus was fulfilled the Saviour’s promise to His flock, when He said, "Father, I have lost no one of them that Thou hast given Me."
But there must be an end to this faltering and hesitation; the soldiers and the tribune, dismayed at what had just occurred, now looked at Judas, as if waiting for the covenanted signal. Hastily the traitor approached His Lord.
" Master, Master, hail!" He said, and his lips touched the cheek of the Christ.
" Judas," the Saviour replied, " friend, is it for this that thou art here? To betray the Son of Man with a kiss!"
Immediately the soldiers came up and seized Jesus. The Apostles were still around Him and holding their two swords drawn and ready; seeing what was about to happen, one of them cried,—
"Master, shall we strike at them?"
At the same instant the blade in Simon's hand flashed in the torchlight and glanced above the head of a servant of the High-priest, named Malchus; swerving to one side, the fellow received the blow upon his right ear, which was asked cut away.
Fierce feelings were beginning to surge in their hearts, that Jesus quelled the storm with a word.
" Suffer ye thus far!" He said, and perceiving that Malchus was bleeding, with His own hands, which though He was their captive were not yet bound, He touched the servant’s ear and healed it.
Then turning toward Peter, Jesus rebuked him for thus disturbing His Passion and degrading the dignity of His estate to the likeness of some criminal, apprehended in an act of revolt.
" Return thy sword to its sheath, for whosoever taketh the sword shall perish by the sword."
Then as His Agony and the cup of anguish rushed back upon His mind,—
" What! Shall I not drink the Chalice which My Father hath given Me to drink? Thinkest thou that I cannot pray unto Him, and presently He will send hither unto Me more than twelve legions of Angels? Yet how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, wherein it says that even so it must needs be?"
Such abnegation as this confounded Peter; nevertheless he at least understood that, in this very hour of humiliation, the Saviour called God His Father, and that, instead of the twelve trembling Apostles, He might summon as many legions of Angels to overwhelm His foes.
No longer hoping to fathom the Master’s designs, he dropped back in silence.
Hereupon Jesus perceived, coming toward them, some members of the Sanhedrin. Among them were certain Temple-officials, leading men of the priesthood, with some Ancients of the people, who had followed after their satellites at a distance. Addressing them in a tone devoid of anger, Jesus protested against the violence of which He was the Victim.
"You are come out against Me as against a thief, to seize Me with swords and staves. I was every day in the midst of you, teaching in the Temple, and you did not hinder Me; but lo! This is your hour, and the powers of darkness."
Thus Jesus declared, in the presence of His enemies, that they had been obliged to wait for the hour marked out by God wherein He should be apprehended.
"And all this," He said, "happeneth, that that which was written by the Prophets may be accomplished."
Hearing these words, the disciples took to flight, and left the armed bands to surround their Master unhindered. The soldiers with their tribune, together with the mass of Jews, all rushed upon Him, in order to see Him fast bound; for they still trembled before Him at whose least word they but just now had been dashed to earth. Forsaken by His own, Jesus was dragged and pushed along to Jerusalem. One young man alone clung close about His footsteps; dwelling in Kedron Valley doubtless and wakened by the uproar, he had had only time to throw a light mantle about him. His eagerness in following the Saviour gave rise to suspicions, and the guards made some effort to detain him, but he left his garment in their hands, and with naked limbs fled from them into the shadows of the night.
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