Mark 14:32-42

1. FRIDAY 1. STRONG CRYING AND TEARS 14:32-42

TEXT: 14:32-42

And they come unto a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here, while I pray, And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled. And he saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful·even unto death: abide ye here, and watch. And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will but what thou wilt, And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words, And again he came, and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they wist not what to answer him. And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough; the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going: behold, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 14:32-42

803.

Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? Did this visit fill a need in His heart? Show what significance this place had in the life of our Lord.

804.

What did Jesus want Peter, James and John to do while He was praying? Cf. Mark 14:37.

805.

How would you explain the words greatly amazed, and sore troubled?

806.

How is the word soul used in Mark 14:34?

807.

Was there any possibility of Jesus dying in the garden? Could this possibility be the cup which He asked might pass away?

808.

Is the hour of Mark 14:35 the same as the cup of Mark 14:36? Discuss.

809.

What is the meaning of the expression Abba as in Mark 14:36 a?

810.

Didn-'t Jesus know the will ofthe Father?why then make the request He did?

811.

Wasn-'t the will of our Lord constantly the will of God?how shall we reconcile this fact with the request which includes my will and your will?

812.

What did Jesus want the three apostles to do that they did not do?what is included in the expression watch?

813.

Notice how Jesus addressed Peter, i.e. in namewhy?

814.

About what were the three to pray?

815.

What temptation was here present?

816.

Explain the little phrase the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weakdo it in its context.

817.

Why repeat the prayer as in Mark 14:39?

818.

What question did Jesus ask the disciples as in Mark 14:40? Why no answer?

819.

In what attitude were the words, sleep on now, and take your rest spoken? Was Jesus ironic? critical? sympathetic? sad? explain.

820.

What was enough as in Mark 14:41 b?

821.

Who were the sinners into whose hands the Son of man was betrayed?

COMMENT

TIME.Thursday evening, April 6th (14th Nisan), A.D. 30. With the Jews the 15th of Nisan had begun.
PLACE.Jerusalemthe Garden of Gethsemane.

PARALLEL ACCOUNTS.Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:40-46.

OUTLINE.1. The place and persons of the Saviour's agony, Mark 14:32-34. Mark 14:2. Surrender in prayer, Mark 14:35-36. Mark 14:3. Disappointing disciples, Mark 14:37-38. Mark 14:4. He prayed and wept alone, Mark 14:39-40. Mark 14:5. The Saviour's hour and the disciples failure, Mark 14:41-42.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE PLACE AND PERSONS OF THE SAVIOUR'S AGONY, Mark 14:32-34.

1.

The place:Gethsemane.

2.

The persons:disciplesand the three.

3.

His agony:greatly amazedsore troubledexceeding sorrowful.

II.

SURRENDER IN PRAYER, Mark 14:35-36.

1.

The place of surrender:he went forward a little, and fell on the ground,

2.

The struggle of the surrenderif it were possible, the hour might pass away from him.remove this cup from me.

3.

The victory in surrenderhowbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.

III.

DISAPPOINTING DISCIPLES, Mark 14:37-38.

1.

He came for comfort and found them asleep.

2.

He called Peter by his old name of Simonis one hour too long to watch for me?

3.

He helped them (when they should have helped Him) with a warningwatch (be spiritually vigilant) and prayin this way you (like me) will escape temptation. You have assented to my will but you can never carry it out without being spiritually awake and in prayeryour flesh is too weak for such action.

IV.

HE PRAYED AND WEPT ALONE, Mark 14:39-40.

1.

Away from the apostlesalone with

Godthe same needthe same answer.

2.

Still asleepyielded to the fleshno

human answer to spiritual need.

V.

THE SAVIOUR'S HOUR AND THE DISCIPLES FAILURE, Mark 14:41-42.

1.

Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? (Ralph Earle)

2.

You have slept long enough (Thayer).

3.

The great hour of the world's redemption has come. (Ralph Earle)

4.

Let us go to meet the betrayer.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

I.

THE PLACE AND PERSONS OF THE SAVIOUR'S AGONY.

Mark 14:32. And they come. We are taken back, and look on. To a place which was named Gethsemane. The word means oil-press. And, no doubt, originally there would be, in the spot, an olive-oil press. The real locality cannot now be precisely determined; neither is it necessary. There is an enclosed spot, lying at the base of the western slope of the mount of Olives, which is called Gethsemane (El-Jesmaniye), It is kept by the Latin Christians, and contains eight extremely aged olive trees. If, says Dr. Wilson, the Gethsemane of the Bible be not here, and we can see no reason for disturbing the tradition regarding it, it cannot certainly be far distant, as must be apparent from the incidental notices of the evangelists. (Lands of the Bible, vol. 1, p. 481.)

And He saith to His disciples, Sit here, until I shall pray. Until My prayer shall be past. The great crisis was at hand; and it was casting its dark shadow before on the spirit of our Lord. He felt that He must get into comparative retirement, in order that He might, without distraction, grapple with the appalling difficulties of the trial, and open up His heart, in the time of extremity, to His Father.

Mark 14:33. And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John. The elite of his elect, who had been witnesses of the counterpart scene, the transfiguration (chap. ix. 2). They were admitted by their own brethren to be a representative triumvirate, and primi inter pares. For, even among those who are good and true, some are better fitted than others for posts of eminence, and for intimacy of intercourse.

And began to be dismayed. Stunned, as it were. That is the radical idea of the word. (See G. Curtis, Grundzuge, p. 206.) He was astonished. Probably never before, within the limitations of His finite experience, had the sphere of our Lord's vision, in reference to sins, and their desert and effects, been so vast. Probably never before had the corresponding sphere of His emotions, in relation to these sins, been so profoundly agitated and heaved. This state of things now -began.-' And, as it -began,-' it caused an amazement, that culminated in consternation. Wycliffe translates the verb to drede (to dread); Coverdale, to waxe fearefull.

And greatly distressed. Comp. Philippians 2:26. Tyndale's version is borrowed from Luke, to be in an agony.

Mark 14:34. And He saith to them. Namely after the terrible experience had -begun-' to roll in on His spirit.

My soul is exceeding sorrowful. The idea is, My soul is sorrowful all round and round. It was a kind of moral midnight within the periphery of His soul. At no point in the circumference was a single gleam of light.

Unto death. Not a mere rhetorical addition. The weight of woe was literally crushing out the Saviour's life. In bearing it He was making more literal sacrifice of Himself than ever had been made on literal altar. The sacrifice would have been complete, then and there, had it not been that it appeared to Him and to His Father that certain momentous purposes of publicity, in reference to the conclusion of the tragedy, would be better subserved by shifting the scene.

Remain here and watch. He had wished His chosen three to be near Him in His woe; and yet, as it advanced, He felt that He must retire even from them, and be alone with Himself and His Father. -Of the people-' none could be -with Him-' in the agony, none on the altar. Still He wished that His chosen ones should not be at a great distance, and hence He said, Remain here. He desired to be the object of their active sympathy, and hence He said, and watch.

II.

SURRENDER IN PRAYER.

Mark 14:35. And He went forward a little. Still farther from the spot where the eight disciples had been asked to halt (Mark 14:32).

And fell on the ground. Gradually. The verb is in the imperfect. He would kneel first of all (Luke 22:41).

And prayed. He continued in prayer. The verb is in the imperfect. He kept addressing His heavenly Father. His aim in thus addressing His Father is brought out in the next clause.

That. In order that.

If it were possible, Very literally, if it is possible, We are taken back to the very time when the Saviour's prayers were uttered, and to the spot whence they were uttered, and we hear the very words which He used. Possible: the reference is not so much to absolute as to relative possibility, possibility in consistency with the great objects contemplated in the mission of the Saviour.

The hour might pass from Him. The hour that was imminent, and that embraced within its compass His betrayal, His arrestment, and the desertion of His disciples. He did not pray that the hour of the atoning sacrifice might pass by. It was the incidental woes, inflicted so superfluously and wantonly by men, and to no small extent by His own chosen disciples, it was these apparently these more particularly at least, to which the cry of His spirit referred.

Mark 14:36. And He said, Abba Father. The filial element in His spirit rose up and overshadowed all the other elements of relationship. Mark alone records the -bilingual-' appellation, Aramaic and Greek. No doubt it would be genuine; and most likely it would be current in certain bilingual-' home circles, more especially at moments of earnest address on the part of children. At such moments there is often a tendency to emphatic redundancy or repetitiousness of expression. Comp. Romans 8:15, and Galatians 4:6. As employed by our Lord, the dual form of-' the appellation is delightfully fitted to suggest that, in His great work, He personated in His single self not Jews only, but Gentiles also.

All things are possible to Thee. Literally true. A thing is a think; and all things thinkable are possible to almightiness. To imagine that there are actual limits to God's power is merely to bewilder oneself in nntbinkabilities. In the preceding verse the reference is to conditional possibility: hence the -if,-' In this the reference is to absolute possibility: hence the -all.-'

Remove this cup from Me. The Reheims translation is, transferre this chalice from Me. Not that our Saviour rued His enterprise, or desired to -back out of it.-' Infinitely far from that. The cup, which He felt it so dreadful to drink, had in it ingredients which were never mingled by the hand of His Father, such as the treachery of Judas, the desertion of His disciples, denial on the part of Peter, the trial in the Sanhedrim, the trial before Pilate, the scourging, the mockery of the soldiery, the crucifixion, etc., etc. All these incidental and unessential ingredients were put into the cup by men, wilfully and wantonly. Hence the petition, Remove from Me this cup, this cup as it is. Without these superadded ingredients the potion would have been unquestionably bitter enough; and it need not be doubted that, in consideration of that bitterness, the exquisite sensibility of our Lord would be conscious of a feeling of shrinking and instinctive recoil. But still He had come for the very purpose of -tasting death for every man,-' and was no doubt willing and wishful to die.

But not what I will, but what Thou wilt. But the question is not, What will I? but What wilt Thou? The reference in the word will, in so far as it is applied by the Saviour to Himself, is to that which Peter calls the sensitive will, and the schoolmen voluntas sensualitatis. The more literal translation however of the verb is wish rather than will. The question with the Savior was not, What do I wish? but What does My Father wish? There was infinite submissiveness to the wish and will of His Father. If the Father deemed it best that the cup, just as it was, should be drained, the Son was absolutely acquiescent. It is easy to conceive of the greatest possible diversity in the circumstantial incidents of the atoning sacrifice. The Saviour would have wished them to have been different from what they were. Who would not? But on almost everything that is done in the world, or that has to be endured, the foul fingers of sin are laid.

III.

DISAPPOINTING DISCIPLES.

Mark 14:37. And He cometh. To His disciples, viz. at some intermission in the agony of His spirit, when He had got strength through prayer. See Luke 22:43.

And findeth them sleeping. So far were they from profoundly realizing the solemnities that were imminent.

And saith to Peter. Peter is no doubt singled out, partly because he was the leader of the three, and partly because he had singled himself out but a little before. See Mark 14:29; Mark 14:31.

Simon, sleepest thou? Although thou sawest that I was in such distress, and although I expressly desired thee to keep awake and watch?

Couldst thou not watch one hour? Hadst thou not strength for that? Surely thou wilt not say so. Why then not use thy strength to watch, when I desired it, that I might have the consolation of thy sympathy? Note the expression one hour. It seems to indicate that our Savior had suffered an entire hour of agony. How long that period! when we remember that every moment would be stretched to its utmost.

Mark 14:38. Watch ye. The three disciples, we may suppose, had waked up when Peter was addressed. What our Lord said to one, He meant for all; and here He expressly addresses all.

And pray, that ye may not enter into temptation. They were in danger of losing confidence in Him as the Messiah. There was therefore much need for faithful watching and earnest praying.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The Saviour's gracious apology for the languor of His disciples. Even while He spoke to them, they had but imperfectly waked up. He saw them struggling with the oppressive languor, but ineffectively. And yet, true, as well as gracious, though His apology was, the spirit was nevertheless to be somewhat blamed. If it had been sympathetic to the quick, it would have roused the flesh. Some have supposed that the words, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, are the Saviour's explanation of His own distress. Unnatural. The supposition proceeds on the false assumption that the Saviour's horror was a weakness, and that it would have been more magnanimous and glorious to have had no experience of shrinking from the ingredients of the dreadful cup.

IV. HE PRAYED AND WEPT ALONE.

Mark 14:39, And again He went away. His agony returned on Him, Perhaps the very lethargy of His disciples might call up before His view the whole appalling succession of incidental and unessential woes that were about to overtake Him.

And prayed, saying the same words. More literally, as the Rheims, has it, saying the selfsame word. The term word is used collectively, as when we speak of the word of God.

Mark 14:40. And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Were, so to speak, -weighted-', or, according to the better reading, weighed down. The for introduces, not a reason for, but an illustration of, their sleepiness. It would appear that they had not deliberately surrendered themselves to sleep. They did not lie down, for instance. They sat, and, to a certain extent, sought to keep themselves awake, But ever and anon, and prevailingly, their eyelids closed.

And they wist not what to answer Him. They knew not what they could say to Him in reply. They had no excuse which they could honestly plead. Wist, or wissed as it were, that is knew, is now obsolete, but is connected with an interesting group of words, wise, wisdom, wizard, and the German wissen -to know.-' On another line it is connected with the Anglo-Saxon witan, the Dutch weten, and the Gothic vitan, -to know,-' around which we have another group of words, wit, wits, witty, witless, witch, outwit, to-wit.

V. THE SAVIOUR'S HOUR AND THE DISCIPLES-' FAILURE.

Mark 14:41. And He cometh the third time. After a third retirement for a solitary endurance of His overwhelming agony.

And saith to them, Sleep on now. A rather unhappy translation, almost suggesting irritation and irony on the part of our Lord. Peter actually thinks that our Lord spoke -in a taunting manner.-' But the verb rendered sleep on, a translation got from Coverdale, is simply sleep, the translation of Tyndale, the Geneva and the Rheims; and the expression rendered now means literally the remainder, that is, the remainder of the time that is available. Tyndale and the Geneva render it henceforth. Sleep the remaining interval! It was in compassion that our Lord thus spoke. His own struggle was meanwhile past. He did not feel the same need of the intense active sympathy of His disciples which, in the crisis of His agony, He had so fervently desired. He saw too that they were still overpowered with drowsiness, notwithstanding the persevering efforts they were making to wake up. He hence spoke to them soothingly; and, as Cardinal Cajetan expresses it, -indulgently,-' that they might get the refreshment they so much required, Sleep for the interval that remains. I can now calmly wait and watch alone.

And take your rest. Or, as the Rheims has it, and take rest. Rest yourselves, that is, refresh yourselves. The word is so rendered in 1 Corinthians 16:18; 2 Corinthians 7:13; Philemon 1:7; Philemon 1:20.

It is enough. An expression that has given almost infinite trouble to critics. It fairly puzzled the Syriac translator. He renders it, the end is at hand. Our English translation is just a reproduction of the Vulgate version (sufficit), which must, one should suppose, have been dashed off in a fit of despair. But howsoever dashed off, or otherwise introduced, there it stands; and Luther, in his version, simply accepted it, without any attempt at an independent judgement; as did Erasmus also, and Tyndale, and Coverdale. Henry Stephens, the lexicographer, was much perplexed with the word, and in particular with its Vulgate translation; but at length he found a solitary passage, in one of the apocryphal Odes of Anacreon (xxviii. 33), in which the term would seem to bear no other interpretation. It afforded him great relief. Beza too found in the same ode a corresponding relief, and speaks indeed of the passage -Occurring to him,-' in the midst of his doubts, as if it had been he, and not Henry Stephens, who had first alighted on it. He makes no reference at all to Stephens. The translation of the Vulgate, thus fortified out of Anacreon, was thenceforward regarded as confirmed. It was accepted by Castellio, the Geneva, Piscator, Erasmus Schmid, Sebastian Schmidt. It is found in all the Dutch versions. the earlier, the later, the latest. So too in Diodati, Zinzendorf, Rilliet; and in many other versions, Accepting the translation (and Wetstein hunted up another passage from Cyril on Hag. ii.9), the great body of expositors have interpreted the expression as a repetition -in earnest-' of the ironical expression that precedes, as if our Lord were now saying plainly, ye have had enough of sleep, See Diodati, Petter, and Schleusner. But Wolf supposes that the Saviour refers to His own sufferings, I have suffered enough for the present, and it only remains that I endure the sufferings that are to come! Neither phase of thought seems satisfactory, Grotius felt this, and imagined that the phrase must have an idiomatic import, corresponding to the technical expression employed in the Roman amphitheatre, when a gladiator was wounded, -Habet,-' He has it, he has got it, he has got the fatal wound. The Saviour, according to Grotius, as it were says, It is all over with Me now. The time is past for any benefit to Me from your sympathy. An unlikely interpretation, both on philological and on moral grounds, but accepted nevertheless by Principal Campbell, who renders the phrase All is over, Bengel's translation corresponds to a degree, only he gives it a turn in the direction of the disciples, not of the Saviour, it is over, viz. with your rest, So Felbinger. Kypke's interpretation is, The time is up. Heumann again, and Wahl, and Godwin, would render the phrase, it is past, or It is away, that is, My agony is past. Le Clerc, The thing is past, My resolution to go on is taken. There are other modifications of idea suggested by other expositors. But the great objection to all such interpretations is that the verb does not mean, to be away, to be past, or to be over, or to be all over. It means, when used intransitively, to have off, to hold off, to be distant. Such is its meaning in all the other passages of the New Testament in which it occurs with its intransitive signification. So Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6, -their heart is far from Me,-' -is distant from Me.-' So Luke 7:6, -when He was now not far distant from the house.-' So Luke 15:20, -when he was yet a great way off,-' that is, -when he was yet a long way distant.-' AndLuke 24:13, -A village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs,-' that is, -which was distant from Jerusalem.-' We see no reason for departing, in the passage before us, from this, the word's accredited and ordinary signification. But the question arises, to what, or to whom, does the Saviour refer, when He says -is distant-'? He refers, as we apprehend, not to a thing, but to a person, of whom He was thinking much, as is evident at once from the last clause of this verse, and from the next verse. But, though thinking much of him, He did not feel inclined expressly to name him. The reference we take to be to Judas, He is distant, He is at a distance. The expression is thus not the unmasking of a previous sarcasm. It is the gracious utterance, partly to His own mind, and partly to the minds of His lethargic disciples, of a reason for indulging them in a few minutes more of rest. We shall lose much of the true significance of the whole scene, and of the grandeur of the Saviour's demeanor, if we imagine that there was anything like hot haste and semi-irritation on the part of our Lord. There is not the slightest need for supposing that all the words, recorded by the evangelist, were spoken in rapid succession. It was, we believe, far otherwise. After our Saviour had got relief from the overwhelming pressure of His agony, and had graciously approached His disciples, and sympathised with them in their feelings of oppression, He would most probably seat Himself beside them, and say soothingly, Sleep for the remainder of the little time that we still have, and refresh yourselves. Then He would add, as a reason for this indulgence, the word before us, a word which did not demand, on the part of the disciples, any mental determination regarding the subject of the proposition. It was enough that they knew that, whether a person or a thing were referred to, distance was affirmed. They might indeed have waked up, and inquired, -who is distant?-' what is? who is? But this was not necessary, if they understood that the reason for making a final effort to shake off their drowsiness was yet at a distance. After the Lord had said (He) is at a distance, we may suppose that He paused, and turning His eyes in the direction of Jerusalem, wrapped Himself up in His own meditations. At length, when the moving lights of the band around Judas became visible, the Lord broke silence, and spoke as follows.

The hour has come. The hour, the crisis time, the beginning of the end.

Lo, the Son of Man is delivered up. Is in the act of being delivered up, viz. by Judas. The verb is in the present tense. The event was now so imminent that the Saviour speaks of it as transpiring.

Into the hands of sinners. Literally, of the sinners. The word is used, as often elsewhere, in its emphatic acceptation, and hence Godwin's translation does justice to its spirit, of the wicked. Such was the character of the white-washed men who bore sway in the Sanhedrim, and of the others who would co-operate with them in their eagerness to get rid of all who might disturb them in their hypocritical repose.

Mark 14:42. Rise up. Rouse yourselves up. There was no longer time for repose.

Let us be going. Let us voluntarily lead ourselves on, viz. that we may confront the traitor and his band. How sublimely does the heroism of our Lord reveal itself!

Lo, he who delivereth Me up is at hand. Instead of naming Judas, the Lord described him, and, in the description, verified His own former predictions regarding Himself. (James Morison)

FACT QUESTIONS 14:32-42

985.

What is the meaning of the word Gethsemane? What do we know of its location?

986.

Why did Jesus separate Himself from His disciples?

987.

In what sense were the three apostles the elite of the elect?

988.

What is the meaning of the word dismayed as in Mark 14:33?

989.

Why use the word began in connection with amazed?

990.

How else could we say greatly distressed?

991.

What thought or idea is behind the expression my soul is exceeding sorrowful?

992.

Was there literal danger of death in the garden? Explain.

993.

Discuss: none could be with Him in the agony, none on the altar.

994.

Show the meaning of the imperfect verbs of fell and prayed.

995.

Jesus did not pray that the hour of the atoning sacrifice would pass awaywhat then is included in the expression the hour might pass from Him?

996.

What element in the spirit of Jesus arose to overshadow all other elementsshow how touchingly and beautifully fitting is the bilingual use of the term Father.

997.

Explainall things are possible to thee.

998.

Jesus did not request that the cup the Father gave Him to drink would be removedwhat cup then is referred to in Mark 14:36?

999.

Show how the expression Not what do I wish, but what does my Father wishgives a better meaning to not what I will, but what thou wilt.

1000.

Why single Simon out of the group?

1001.

What temptation was imminent when He said that ye enter not into temptation?

1002.

What was the Saviour's gracious apology for the languor of His disciples?

1003.

Why go again to pray the same words?

1004.

What is meant by the expression and they wist not what to answer Him.?

1005.

How or in what manner did Jesus say sleep on now? What did He mean?

1006.

Give at least three meanings to the little expression it is enough.

1007.

Do you agree with Morison's preference? Discuss.

1008.

Who were the sinners of Mark 14:41?

1009.

How does the sublime heroism of our Lord show itself?