The Story

It was still the Passover night. The Lord was still teaching and comforting the disciples as they went out of the city gate and down the hill in the moonlight. They crossed the brook Kidron in the valley, and at the very foot of the Mount of Olives they came to a garden called Gethsemane, or the "oil-press." There are very old olive-trees here now, and it was doubtless an olive garden then. Here among the trees it seems the Lord and His disciples often rested.

The other Gospels tell us how, while the disciples slept in the garden, the Lord prayed three times most earnestly. John does not speak of the agony or the prayer, but only of the perfect strength which followed. For as Judas came with armed men to take Him Jesus asked them, "Whom seek ye?" And when they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth," He said, "I am He." And when they heard it, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then He asked them again, "Whom seek ye?" and again He answered, "I am He; if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way." He would protect His disciples in this trial.

There must have been a Divine majesty as He stood before them and said, "I am He," never for a moment trying to escape from them or resist them, and yet He had infinite power to do so.

The disciples must have been bewildered, feeling that they ought to defend the Lord, and yet it was all so unexpected to them, and they so few. Peter had a sword, and he drew it in his desire to protect his Master, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. But the Lord bade him to put up his sword. "The cup which My Father bath given Me, shall I not drink it?" Comparing these words with the prayer recorded in the other Gospels (Matthew 26:39), we feel again that John is showing us the result of the trial which they describe. Then the Lord was taken and bound and carried away in the night and in secret to the palace of Annas. Annas had been the high priest, and now his son-in-law Caiaphas held the office. Annas and his family were the principal ones who had made the Lord's house a den of thieves. They had defiled the temple and were making immense profits from the trading and money changing. They were hated by the people who were obliged to buy of them for the sacrifices and feasts. When the Lord cleansed the temple they feared to rebel, but hated the Lord intensely for interfering with their money getting, and were among the first to wish His death and to help to bring it about. There is no record of what happened at the house of Annas; what follows was at the house of Caiaphas.

1. "These words," verse 1. What words are meant?

2. Who are meant by "these" in verse 8?

3. When had Caiaphas given the counsel referred to in verse 14?

4. Where was the garden of Gethsemane? What had happened at the garden before Judas came?

5. What happened at the garden after Judas came?

Spiritual Study

The three other Gospels say that the Lord went with the disciples from the table of the Last Supper to the Mount of Olives. Two Gospels give the name of the place, Gethsemane, which means "oil press." A threshing floor and a wine press often represent states of temptation, by which external and evil things are rejected from the life, and the deeper things of heavenly life are brought forth. So here the oil press is associated with a state of severe temptation, in which there was a crushing and laying down of natural life and a bringing forth of the pure oil of the Divine love. A garden also suggests the laying down of life, that a higher life may arise. (John 12:24) We shall think of this again when we read of the Lord's sepulchre in a garden. (A. 10261; R. 493; E. 359)

The three other Gospels tell of the Lord's trial in Gethsemane; how He prayed three times, while the disciples slept. It is descriptive of the extremity of the trial into which the disciples could not enter with Him. The Lord prayed that "the cup" might pass from Him. In verse 11 of our lesson He also speaks of "the cup." We see that the cup and its contents stand for the experience that the Lord must meet. In a good sense a cup and wine represent heavenly truth. In an opposite sense they represent falsity, and the temptation which is caused by the fighting of falsity against truth. Plainly the cup here means the experience of temptation. (A. 5120)

The calm strength which came after temptation, and the majesty of presence before which those who came to take the Lord went backward and fell to the ground, remind us of the day at Nazareth when they would have cast Him from the hill, but He passed through the midst of them and went His way (Luke 4:30), and of the day in the temple courts when officers who were sent to take Him, came back saying, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46). The wonder is not that a Divine power and majesty were at times felt in the Lord's presence, but rather that His power was so wonderfully restrained, that it might not overpower the freedom of men.

What is represented by the night and darkness in which the trial in Gethsemane and the betrayal of the Lord took place? See John 13:30; Luke 22:53. (A. 6000) Can you also see what is represented by the lanterns and torches in the hands of those who came to take the Lord? They represent the false thoughts which lead to the doing of evil, even to betraying and fighting against the Lord. Compare what is said of the Holy City: "There shall be no night there; and they need no candle," etc. (Revelation 22: 5; R. 940)

What do the weapons represent in the hands of Judas' men? and what is represented by the sword in Peter's hand? Peter's sword is the truth which exposes and condemns the wickedness of those who deny and betray the Lord. The weapons in their hands are the opposite, the false thoughts and denials with which they accuse and argue against Him. Why then did the Lord tell Peter to put up his sword? Because He did not wish to condemn and to compel by force of reasoning even those who were against Him. This would destroy their power to listen to Him willingly and obey Him freely. This violence to their free obedience is represented by the cutting off of the servant's ear, for which the Lord rebuked Peter, and He healed the wound. The sword of truth is a right thing to have, but we must be careful that we do not use it to condemn harshly, and to take away the willingness of men to hear and to obey. (A. 2799, 3868)

Annas, to whom the Lord was first led, had been himself high priest, and was still the ruling spirit in the priestly party. A father-in-law, or wife's father, is sometimes in the Scriptures a type of a higher or interior good from which the good comes, which is represented by the wife. Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, would seem to represent the inmost evil purpose which prompted the wicked acts of the other priests and of Pilate. See John 18:24; 19:11. (A. 6827, 8643, 8644)

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