Matthew 26:36-56

Matthew 26:36-56

Jesus leads the disciples to the place that was apparently their typical campsite. With Jerusalem being full for Passover such a rendezvous spot would have made sense. It, being known to Judas, would be a place to avoid if Jesus were trying to resist capture. Jesus is no victim, but rather, the Master of the situation.

The English translation of the Greek description of Jesus’s emotions does not do justice to the power of the language. Gethsemane means oil or olive press and is the appropriate symbolic location for this moment. The last time of preparation is over. Jesus now faces the reason for His coming to Earth. The sorrowful anticipation, the dread of the cross, while always there has been kept at bay as Jesus prepared, taught, healed and loved. In this moment it is as if Jesus gives His full attention to what is ahead and it causes Him grief unmatched in all of history. His soul is wretched and miserable to the point of death. This is the only time in the Gospels that we see Jesus face down in prayer.

We sometimes miss the connection between the disciples sleeping and their failure. In a matter of moments they will all desert Christ. Peter will both violently lash out at a guard and later deny Jesus. The weakness of the flesh manifested because he had not prepared in prayer. Do not think that the desertion and denial are unrelated to sleeping through prayers. The failure to prayer is the cause and the effect is his failure.

We get the picture of Judas's motivation for the betrayal in the betrayal itself. A disciple might kiss his rabbi’s hand or foot, but only if invited. To come up and presumptuously kiss a rabbi, on the face no less, was a calculated and studied insult. This was for Judas a repudiation of Jesus and an act of seething emotion. Later, Judas would regret but not repent of the action. But in the moment the emotion of Judas's issue is expressed in contempt and insult for Jesus. We have here a study in contrasts; a more radical difference cannot be imagined. Judas is holding Jesus in contempt and Jesus is calling Judas 'friend'. Jesus was never ironic, cynical or insincere. “Friend” expresses His true heart. Any hostility between God and us is solely and absolutely ours.

Jesus goes not as a victim, but as a commander of the powers of the universe, literally, an angelic army at his disposal, an army that is uncalled. He goes to take the cup from the Father's hand. These sinful men are mere extras in the drama of redemption.

"Lord, protect me from anything that might allow me to fail to love You with my whole being. AMEN"