The Gospel of Matthew Study Help (Matthew 26:36-46)

The Passion of Christ

Questions to be answered in this study

1. What causes death from crucifixion?
2. Jesus was so stressed as He anticipated crucifixion that He sweat as if it were drops of blood. What is this called medically?
3. Jesus said to the disciples “keep watch with me….” What was it they were to watch for?
4. Why are there times when God does not do as we ask?
5. What was the reason Peter gave for the reason that Jesus persevered as He did as he faced crucifixion?
6. In what way is Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane a model for us?
7. What was the second reason Peter, James, and John were asked to accompany Jesus into the garden?
8. What were the two things that Jesus’ prayer included that is a model for us when we pray?.  

Introduction

We have been talking about the events leading up to the Passion of Christ, which starts officially in our study today when Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. To understand what Jesus went through at this time, we need to imagine ourselves facing death in the cruelest form of execution in history. Jesus knew what He was facing and the excruciating pain it would incur. How was Jesus able to face the emotional fear and temptations that faced Him that night before the execution with such strength? We must understand that it was God who was suffering and would die. That seems impossible that the all-powerful God who created the universe could suffer and die. How do we explain that without committing the error that the false teachers in the New Testament church claimed? Their explanation was that Jesus was not God at the crucifixion. According to them, the Spirit of God left Jesus before the crucifixion, and He did as any man would, but is that the truth, and is that what the Bible teaches?

           Answering those questions is the objective of today’s study as we anticipate the transition that started late Wednesday night and how Jesus anticipated it. Jesus and the disciples left the Upper Room after the Last Supper and walked to the Mount of Olives, and then gathered in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is probably around midnight, and the disciples were tired and sleepy and having difficulty staying awake. Earlier, Judas had probably gone directly to the high priests, and from there, the priests would have taken Judas to the Roman authorities to seek the arrest of Jesus and have secured the Roman soldiers to enforce it.

Jesus knew what was coming and could have easily avoided it as He had done on other occasions, but He knew that His death on the cross was His purpose for coming to the world. We must consider that Jesus was God, but He was also a man with emotions and was able to experience mental anguish as He waited there in the Garden, contemplating the terror and suffering that was coming.

So, we begin the process:

Matthew 26:36-38, “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 37And he took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38

Jesus directed eight of the disciples to wait near the entrance to the Garden and pray. At the same time, He, along with Peter, James, and John, who accompanied Jesus amid His suffering and distress, went further into the garden. Then in verse 38, we read, “Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.” Jesus then leaves the three to go a little further, still in sight and hearing, and begins to pray alone. 

Jesus is very distressed at this point. He knows that he will be beaten by the Roman soldiers who are trained to inflict much pain with no mercy in a few hours. After that, He will be scourged near to death, driving the body into shock from the loss of blood. At that time, a crown of thorns will be thrust on Jesus’ head. Finally, Jesus will be forced to carry a heavy wooden cross, used many times before. Crosses were used repeatedly because of the shortage of wood in Israel. Then Jesus will be nailed to the cross, and it will be lifted and dropped in a socket prepared for it. The body is hanged in a position that restricts the esophagus and causes breathing to be difficult; so, to live, the victim has to push his body up against the nails driven in the feet, causing excruciating pain, and then back down again to relieve the pressure; this is repeated over and over until the body gives out and the victim dies from suffocation.

No one could have known beforehand precisely what it would be like to be crucified; Jesus did because He was omniscient and knew exactly the pain that lay ahead. No wonder He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Jesus had the power to stop the crucifixion, but He went voluntarily to suffer and die for man’s sins. Sometimes we use hyperbole to express ourselves by saying I feel like I’m dying, but when Jesus said that He was grieved to death, He meant it.

So stressed was Jesus that He experienced hemosiderosis, a condition where the tiny capillaries near the skin’s surface burst due to the body’s stress and cause bleeding through the sweat glands. Therefore, Jesus’ suffering commenced in the garden and continued until His death on the cross. 

           The human side of Jesus needed the comfort and support of His disciples, but instead, they could not stay awake. However, there was a more important reason; in v.38, Jesus asked the three to remain with Him saying, “keep watch with me….” What was it they were instructed to watch for? Evidently, it was the approach of the Roman soldiers guided by Judas. At this point, the disciples did not know what lay ahead; they did not know that Judas, at that very moment, was leading the Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus. We might wonder why Jesus even directed them to be on the watch. 

           Jesus had another purpose for the disciples other than keeping watch that we will see in this next section:

Matthew 26:39-41, “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. 40And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one? 41Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The above instance is the only place in the gospels that Jesus refers to God as ‘my Father.” He asked that the Father let this cup pass from Him but dismissed it by saying not my will but yours be done. That is an example of how we should pray, accepting God’s will, whatever it may be, even though it may be the opposite of what we desire. That would relieve a lot of stress when we face the trials of life.

Jesus knew what He must do because He planned it; He was the one who inspired the Scripture, including that which foretold the crucifixion. We find an example of that in Isaiah: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:4-5; this was written hundreds of years before it took place. Jesus’ purpose, as should ours, was to fulfill the Father’s purpose, even including His death.

According to Scripture, Jesus was not forced to die for our sins; He went willingly to the cross. However, Jesus would not have been human if He had not dreaded dying in the fashion that had long been prescribed for Him; this was one of those times that we see Jesus’ humanity. We certainly can identify with Jesus here. Not one of us would have wanted to die as Jesus died. We may ask God to do things He could easily do but will not do for His purpose.

The Apostle Paul once asked God to remove a thorn from his flesh, some physical handicap, but God refused for His reasons, which were in Paul’s interest. Paul later said he was content with whatever he had to face in life, fully accepting God’s will in everything, even prison or death. His priority was serving Christ. He said, “For me to live is Christ and die is gain,” Philippians 1:21.

We may pray for certain things that God delivers, and we rejoice in it, but there are times when God does not do as we desire to strengthen us to trust Him in all things and learn to be content as Pual. Peter was there with Jesus when He prayed and later witnessed His arrest. In the future, he would write concerning what he had learned from the Savior: “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:20-24.

Peter gives us the reason that Jesus persevered as He did. Jesus entrusted Himself to the Heavenly Father. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed that the Father’s would be done. Therefore, Peter gives us the model for facing any trouble or suffering in life, and that is God’s will be done. We should be thankful that Jesus chose A second reason Peter, James, and John were asked to accompany Jesus into the garden was to witness the events to be related to us later. Jesus only gets through one sentence in His prayer until He notices that the disciples have fallen asleep. So, Jesus goes over to the men and wakes them, and in verses 40 and 41, he says, “Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one? 41Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Time is running out; there is only approximately an hour before Judas, and the Roman soldiers arrive to arrest Jesus. Jesus cautions Peter not to be tempted to sleep at this crucial time. Understandably, the disciples had a long and tiring day, and it would be easy to fall into the temptation to nap. It is essential that they not sleep and miss the prayer of Jesus and be able to record it later for the benefit of future saints.

Jesus then returns to pray but repeats it differently: 

Matthew 26:42, “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”

Jesus uses a metaphor of a drinking cup to express His desire to the Father. It is a picture of receiving the wrath of God, which the Bible describes in the book of Revelation. God’s wrath is poured out like a cup full on those deserving of God’s judgment. In this case, the wrath of God is being poured out on Jesus, who does not deserve it but receives the wrath instead of sinners so that they might be forgiven. 

We deserved the wrath of God, but our wrath was redirected to Jesus, who bore our sins for us. Once again, Jesus is our model when it comes to deciding whether to seek our will or that of the Heavenly Father. In His humanity, Jesus did not want to go through the pain and suffering ahead, which is understandable. Still, on His divine side, there was something else far more critical: the will of the Father, which Jesus concedes to over human will. We struggle with the same issue today in our relationship with Jesus. We sometimes balk at what the Spirit inside rather than what it is leading us to do. In our case, the sinful flesh rebels against God’s will. So. there is a battle between the Spirit and the flesh. 

The struggle Jesus experienced was not due to sin because He had no sin and was not born of Adam, as are we. Jesus was in a battle against the desires of the human body, which desires to avoid pain and suffering; those are natural drives, but if Jesus had yielded to them, for Him, it would have been sin because it would be against the will of the Heavenly Father. It was a temptation that He ignored in order to do the will of the Father. Jesus understands the battle we experience as the writer of Hebrews tells us: “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,” Hebrews 4:15-16.

We fall short of the strength to do the will of the Heavenly Father at times, so we must rely on the power of Jesus and do as He did, turn to the Heavenly Father in prayer. Our commitment to the Lord is to do His will and not our own. John witnessed what took place on that fateful night and shared what he learned with us in 1 John 5:13-15; “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” When we turn to God, we know He hears our requests and will answer us.

Now for a third time, the three disciples who Jesus told to watch and pray to fall asleep:

Matthew 26:43-46, “And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. 44And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.”

It is now the third time Jesus has prayed nearly the same prayer and the third time He has awakened the sleeping disciples. Jesus’ prayer was the Father’s will be done even though He desired to avoid the cross. Jesus might have said more in His prayer, but the disciples slept through it. At least they got the main point.

Jesus left us a model here on how to pray. First, He was persistent in what He asked for, praying the same prayer repeatedly. I’m glad to know that because I often pray for the same things repeatedly. Second, Jesus did not give up on praying because of the distraction of the sleeping disciples. We experience the attempts of Satan to keep us from praying by our becoming sleepy, being distracted, or our mind wandering off to something else. It takes persistence to overcome the weakness of the flesh and Satan’s attempts to spoil our prayer time.

It was important that the disciples stayed awake; Jesus was teaching them as they watched and as He prayed; it would be their responsibility to record for our benefit what took place on this fateful night. Our passage ends today with Jesus telling the disciples that Judas, the betrayer is nearby. Next time we will pick up with Judas as he arrives to betray Jesus.