St Matthew Chapter XXVI : Verses 36-46
Contents
- Matt. xxvi. 36-46. Douay-Rheims text & Latin text (Vulgate).
- Notes on the text.
- Additional Notes: The Brook Cedron. Comparison between the Temptation and the Agony in the Garden.
Matt. xxvi. 36-46
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| My soul is sorrowful even unto death: J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum |
Tunc venit Jesus cum illis in villam, quae dicitur Gethsemani, et dixit discipulis suis : Sedete hic donec vadam illuc, et orem.
37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to grow sorrowful and to be sad.
Et assumpto Petro, et duobus filiis Zebedæi, cœpit contristari et moestus esse.
38 Then he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with me.
Tunc ait illis : Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem : sustinete hic, et vigilate mecum.
39 And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying, and saying: My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Et progressus pusillum, procidit in faciem suam, orans, et dicens : Pater mi, si possibile est, transeat a me calix iste : verumtamen non sicut ego volo, sed sicut tu.
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| Could you not watch one hour with me? J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Et venit ad discipulos suos, et invenit eos dormientes, et dicit Petro : Sic non potuistis una hora vigilare mecum?
41 Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak.
Vigilate, et orate ut non intretis in tentationem. Spiritus quidem promptus est, caro autem infirma.
42 Again the second time, he went and prayed, saying: My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done.
Iterum secundo abiit, et oravit, dicens : Pater mi, si non potest hic calix transire nisi bibam illum, fiat voluntas tua.
43 And he cometh again and findeth them sleeping: for their eyes were heavy.
Et venit iterum, et invenit eos dormientes : erant enim oculi eorum gravati.
44 And leaving them, he went again: and he prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word.
Et relictis illis, iterum abiit, et oravit tertio, eumdem sermonem dicens.
45 Then he cometh to his disciples, and saith to them: Sleep ye now and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Tunc venit ad discipulos suos, et dicit illis : Dormite jam, et requiescite : ecce appropinquavit hora, et Filius hominis tradetur in manus peccatorum.
46 Rise, let us go: behold he is at hand that will betray me.
Surgite, eamus : ecce appropinquavit qui me tradet.
Notes
Note. — St Luke’s account of the Agony is much shorter and differs considerably in form from those of St Matthew and St Mark, which are almost verbally the same. St John omits the Agony, but he mentions that the Betrayal took place in a garden which was close to the brook Cedron (xviii. 1). Two details are peculiar to the third gospel — the apparition of the angel and the sweat of blood (verses 43, 44).
36. Then Jesus came with them. St Luke records that he went out according to his custom to the mount of Olives. It is the hour of the powers of darkness, and Jesus goes to Gethsemani, knowing that the traitor expects to find Him there.
a country place which is called Gethsemani. Three names descriptive of Gethsemani are given by the Evangelists, farm, garden, place. Gethsemani signifies olive-press.
It was a country place outside the city walls. As no gardens were allowed in Jerusalem except those on the roofs of the houses, many of the wealthier classes had gardens on the adjacent mountain slopes. We may conclude that Gethsemani belonged to a disciple of Christ, since Judas also, who betrayed him, knew the place ; because Jesus had often resorted thither together with his disciples (St John xviii, 2).
Eight ancient olive-trees now mark the traditional site. These trees could not have existed in the time of our Lord, since Josephus tells us that Titus and Adrian, during the siege, felled all the trees within ninety stadia of Jerusalem, but they must have existed before the Saracens conquered Jerusalem in 636 A.D., since only a tax of one medin is paid for these trees, whereas for trees planted after the Turkish occupation the tax was half the produce of the fruit of each. It is possible that these trees now standing sprang from the trunks of the trees that stood there in our Lord’s time.
he said to his disciples. These words were addressed to eight of the apostles only. A fiat stone, at a little distance from the Grotto of the Agony, is said to mark the spot where the eight disciples were left to watch and pray.
Sit you here. Possibly this was not the first time the apostles had slept while Jesus prayed, since He sometimes spent whole nights in prayer ; and as it often happened that the Son of man had not where to lay his head, the disciples must have shared His privations.
till I go yonder and pray. When saying “here” and “yonder” our Lord would have pointed to the place indicated. Jesus, as man, had to prepare His soul for the awful conflict that was at hand.
37. taking with him Peter, etc. These three apostles had been allowed to witness the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the Transfiguration. There was a peculiar fitness in our Lord’s choice of them, since St Peter, as the future Head of the Church, could thus bear witness to the Agony of Christ, and the sons of Zebedee, who had offered to drink of our Lord’s chalice, would learn what they had really asked. St Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the two sons of thunder, had strong, ardent characters, and this may explain why Jesus chose them as special witnesses, and favoured them more than the other apostles.
he began to grow sorrowful. The word began shews that Jesus allowed the human passion of fear to disturb His soul. Thus we read at the grave of Lazarus, Jesus groaned in the spirit and troubled himself. “Fear and sorrow, heaviness and sadness, and every other passion must be ever completely subject to Him. They cannot affect Him but when He wills it, and as much as He wills it” (Gallwey, S.J.). Jesus, as man, feared death ; He shrank naturally from the awful sufferings which He foreknew awaited Him. Our Lord allowed only the three privileged disciples to see Him in His weakness. Perhaps the sight of His terrible agony would have been too great a trial for the faith of the other eight.
and to be sad. St Mark reads, he began to fear and to be heavy. A dull, weary tedium and loathing of life, a state of stupor and mental depression. This heaviness was probably caused by the isolation of His position and by the inutility of His sufferings for many, since souls would be lost in spite of His passion ; among these Judas, one of the Twelve.
38. he saith to them. To St Peter, etc.
My soul. A distinct reference to our Lord’s human soul, shewing that He had a perfect human nature.
even unto death. Jesus’ sorrow was great enough to have caused death if God had not upheld Him. St Luke, in his account, refers to Christ’s sufferings in Gethsemani as an agony. Jesus was perfect man, and as such He willed to suffer not only bodily pains, but interior anguish.
Christ did this that He might know the weight of our infirmities, and feel all and more than all the sorrows which the human heart can experience. Thus He can sympathize with us all in our trials and weakness and desolation. For we have not a high-priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities : but one tempted in all things, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace ; that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid (Heb. iv. 15, 16). The sorrow that overwhelmed the all-holy soul of Christ was the weight of the sins of humanity. Jesus our Substitute was charged with the guilt of every sin that ever has been or ever will be committed. The anger of God smote Him, as though He had been guilty of these crimes, for on Him God laid the iniquity of us all. “ These iniquities, like a mighty flood, overwhelmed the soul of Jesus, and He was simultaneously moved by fear, sadness, and sorrow, together with a stupor and insensibility and a loathing weariness of life " (MacEvilly).
stay you here. A local tradition points out a spot on the right of the Grotto of the Agony, and hut a few feet from it. From this place they could have heard our Lord’s words. It was here, too, that the three apostles slept, and that Judas gave the traitor’s kiss ; hence the spot is called the terra damnata (the accursed ground).
and watch with me. Jesus in His hour of agony longed for human sympathy, but even this was denied, and His disciples, for whom He gave His blood, slept when they should have watched and prayed.
39. And going a little further. A local tradition points out a grotto close to the Chapel of “ the Sepulchre of our Lady ” as the spot where Jesus prayed in His agony. St Luke describes the distance our Lord advanced as about a stone's cast (xxii. 41), but this Evangelist does not mention that the three apostles were nearer to Jesus than the eight.
he fell upon his face. Jesus first knelt, and then, as His agony increased. He prostrated Himself, and finally fell flat on the ground (St Mark). Our Lord’s different postures and His frequent visits to the three apostles shew the struggling of one wrestling with a mighty sorrow. Jesus, our Surety, took the attitude of a criminal, to teach us to humble ourselves before God for our many sins. “The Jews generally prayed standing, but when the matter of their petition was very urgent, they knelt.”
My Father, if it he possible. This is the conditional part of Jesus’ prayer. These words have been variously interpreted, e.g. —
(а) As a prayer for a death less terrible.
(b) As a request that His Father would advance the hour.
(c) As a petition that His death might not be through the agency of the sin of man.
let this chalice pass from me. Jesus refers to His Passion as a bitter potion which He must drink. Thus He had said previously : The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? (St John xviii. 11).
Though the chalice came through the instrumentality of the wicked, yet God allowed the crimes of men to bring about the death of Christ, and so accomplish His eternal designs. Jesus foresaw all the details of this chalice ; He Himself had enumerated them a short time before, (see supra, xx. 17-19).
not as I will but as thou wilt. These words shew the perfect submission of the will of Christ to His heavenly Father, in spite of His natural shrinking from torments and death. Jesus had two wills, the divine and the human.
The Monothelites, who taught that Jesus had no separate human will, but only a divine one, were condemned by the Third Council of Constantinople, A.D. 680, under Pope Agatho.
Note. — It was at this moment that there appeared to him an Angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer (St Luke).
40. he cometh. This was the first time during His agony that Jesus went to His apostles for sympathy.
findeth them asleep. The disciples were overcome by sadness. Cf. When he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping in sorrow (St Luke xxii. 45). Great grief has a stupefying effect. The apostles were weary, and the unusual emotion of the solemn Paschal Supper, the changed demeanour of their Master, His weakness and anguish, made them heavy with sorrow, and, in spite of their real affection for our Lord, they slept.
It is very probable that they did strive to obey His command, Watch and pray, but they were overcome by drowsiness, during at least part of the time.
he saith to Peter. To the one who had promised to surpass the others by his devotedness, but He addressed him by his first name : Simon, steepest thou ? This is the name Christ used when warning him. Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat (St Luke xxii. 31). This was St Peter’s name before his call to the apostleship, and now that he acts as nature rather than grace prompts, our Lord calls him by his former name. The words, though in the singular, apply also to St James and St John. They, too, had professed their willingness to drink of His cup (see supra, xx. 22).
Could you not watch one hour with me ? To watch one hour (i.e. for a brief space) was surely less painful than to accompany Jesus to prison and to death.
41. Watch ye. Lit. keep awake, be vigilant.
pray that you enter not, etc. The object of their supplication is not that no temptation may assail them, but that they may have strength to conquer. Thus Jesus had petitioned His Father for the disciples. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil (St John xvii. 15).
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. These words are taken by expositors in two senses : either as a motive for watchfulness on the part of the disciples, or as an excuse for their having fallen asleep. Both explanations may be correct. By their united protestation they had testified that the spirit was willing.
42. Again the second time, he went and prayed. Once more Jesus returned to the hitter conflict : being in an agony he prayed the longer (St Luke xxii. 43). What a lesson to those Christians who, when in sorrow, are absorbed by their grief and neglect to pray.
saying, My Father, etc. Jesus prayed saying the same words. In deep sorrow men speak little, and it is natural to repeat a short, heartfelt prayer. Jesus repeated the same prayer with ever-increasing intensity and energy of will, till his sweat became as drops of blood, tricking down upon the ground (St Luke xxii. 44). He prayed in order to conquer the natural horror of suffering which He felt as man.
It was in Gethsemani that Jesus in the days of his flesh with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence. And whereas indeed he was the Son of God, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered (Heb. v. 7, 8). Possibly St Paul had this mystery of suffering present to his mind when in his epistle to the Hebrews he writes, Think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself ; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Heb, xii. 3, 4).
but I must drink it. St Matthew alone gives these words, which run literally “ unless I drink it ” (ἐὰν μὴ αὐτὸ πίω).
43. And he cometh again. A second time Jesus seeks His disciples, and again finds them sleeping. Our Emmanuel truly treads the wine-press alone, of His people there are none with Him.
their eyes were heavy. Weighed down with fatigue and sorrow. St Mark adds, they knew not what to answer him. They were —
(a) Overcome by sleep.
(b) Awed by our Lord’s intense expression of suffering.
(c) Conscience-stricken for their cowardice,
(d) Stupefied and stunned with grief and forebodings of evil.
45. Then he cometh to his disciples. This was the third time Jesus came to His disciples. “ On His first visit. He reproves ; on the second. He holds His peace ; on the third. He bids them rest” (St Hilary).
Now Jesus had triumphed, the angel had strengthened Him for the morrow ; His prayer obtained for Him, not the removal of the chalice, but the courage to drink it to the dregs. It is thus that God often answers our prayers ; He strengthens us to bear the suffering, but He does not exempt us from it.
sleep ye now, and take your rest. These words have greatly puzzled commentators. Some suppose them to be said in gentle irony, as though Jesus said reproachfully, Sleep on, if this he the time for sleep. Others think that He really allowed them to sleep for a short time until the traitor was close at hand, and that then He awoke them, saying. Rise up, let us go.
the hour is at hand, — i.e. of His exterior Passion. The hour which He had prayed might pass, but which He now accepted, having by prayer conquered the repugnance of the flesh.
hands of sinners. Either the Gentiles, to whom the Jews generally gave this name (e.g. sinners and publicans), or the chief priests and Pharisees.
46. Rise, let us go. To meet the traitor.
behold. Judas and the cohort of soldiers were probably in sight.
he is at hand that will betray me. These words shew how Christ by His prayer had prepared Himself for the supreme conflict with the powers of darkness. As when the days of his assumption were accomplishing that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem (St Luke ix. 51), so now Jesus goes resolutely forward to meet His enemies. In the prophetic words of Isaias, He could say, The Lord God is my helper, therefore I am not confounded ; therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded (l. 7).
Additional Notes
The Brook Cedron. The word Cedron or Kedron signifies “ black,” and the stream is so called from the colour of its waters, which are darkened by the tunnel through which it flows, and by the blood of the sacrifices which flowed into it from the Temple mount. The bed of the brook was perfectly dry in summer, but during the rainy season it was a rapid torrent, fed only by rain. Its bed near Gethsemani was a deep ravine. Two bridges now span the stream, one on the road of the Captivity leading from St Stephen’s Gate, and one across the road that leads from the Golden Gate (the old Shushan Gate).
Comparison between the Temptation and the Agony in the Garden. We are told by St Luke, in his account of Christ’s Temptation in the desert, that “ all the temptation being ended, the devil departed from him for a time” (iv. 13). It is supposed that Satan renewed his attack in the Garden of Gethsemani. Our Lord’s words seem to point to this conclusion, for in the Cenaculum He had said: “the prince of this world cometh ; and in me, he hath not anything ” (St John xiv. 30).
There is a certain analogy between the Temptation in the desert at the beginning of our Lord’s public life and the Agony in the garden at its close. On each occasion we notice that —
(a) There are three distinct stages in the Temptation.
(b) Jesus experienced physical pain.
In the desert He “ hungered.”
In the garden He was “ in an agony.”
(c) Jesus was assisted by the ministry of angels.
(d) Our Lord prayed in solitude.
As regards the points of contrast, St Augustine points out (Sermon cxxii. 2), that whereas in the desert, the devil proposed pleasant and seducing objects to win our Lord from His allegiance to God, in the garden, he tried to overcome Christ’s constancy by representing to Him all the sufferings and humiliations which awaited Him on the morrow ; “ having tried the door of desire and found it closed, the devil tried the door of fear, and again failed to effect an entrance.” We remark also, that in the desert, Jesus ex¬pressed His intention to devote His life, as He had ever done, to serve God, while in the garden He freely accepted the chalice of death, for the glory of God. St Augustine goes on to say that, as it was with the Master, so it must be with the disciples. They will need to conquer the lion and the adder, — i.e. to resist both threats and flatteries ; and it was in order to teach us this lesson that Christ endured temptation.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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