Matthew 26:39

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

‘And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed.… let this cup pass from Me.’

Matthew 26:39

Why was our Blessed Lord in such distress? It is not sufficient to say that it was because of physical fear. What was it that caused Him such anguish of heart and mind?

I. The hour and the power of darkness.—In the first place, it was both the hour and the power of darkness. The expression ‘darkness’ surely alludes to Satan and to his emissaries. The enemies of God and man were allowed to have their way for the time being. The Son of God was almost in the very grip of the devil.

II. The consciousness of man’s sin.—Secondly, there was the consciousness that the vast majority of mankind loved the things which He hated, and would not accept salvation and the holiness it carried with it.

III. ‘He bare the sin of many’.—Thirdly, the real meaning of the agony lies in the work the Messiah had to do in saving sinners. The real key to our Lord’s agony is in Isaiah 53 To apply the language of Isaiah 53. To any human being, or to any nation, as the Jews do, is out of the question. Our Blessed Master was our Substitute. ‘He loved me, and gave Himself for me,’ and bore this agony for my sake.

IV. What is our attitude?—After studying the agony, we should, as a consequence, have a horror of sin. If there is no sympathy with Jesus in his agony, sin is not understood, and if there is no sympathy with Jesus in His agony, there is no gratitude towards Him, no love for Him.

—Canon M’Cormick.

Illustration

‘In one of the finest passages in the English language, Cardinal Newman, before he left the Church of England, referred to the agony in the most eloquent terms. Taking the ideas that are conveyed to us in this chapter, he said that our Blessed Lord had all the sin of the whole world laid upon Him. All the lies, all the adulteries, all the murders, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the sins that the human mind could imagine were heaped upon Him, until, as it were, they reached up to heaven, and that He had to bear the punishment that was due to these sins. The idea is a marvellous idea.’