The Gospel Of Matthew Chapter 26 Part 7 The Agony And Suffering Of Christ Was For Us

After Jesus foretold His betrayal, after He said that all the disciples would flee when He was arrested, and after He predicted Peter's threefold denial, Jesus and the disciples went into the garden of Gethsemane. 

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

John 18:1  When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. 

John's gospel added another detail that is important.

As they exited Jerusalem, another preview of Christ in the Old Testament was literally fulfilled.

Late in his life, King David was rejected by his brethren during a coup staged by his son, Absalom. 

David and his faithful followers were forced to flee from Jerusalem. 

He left the city by a winding path that carried him across the Kidron Brook. 

The King was devastated by this terrible turn of events. 

He was full of grief, burdened with sorrow and emotional turmoil (See 2 Samuel 15:13-32). 

The distresses David suffered hindered his progress as he made his way up the Mount of Olives. 

Detractors along the way cursed David and threw rocks at the king.

David covered his head (a sign of shame and brokenness) as he made his way up the Mount of Olives.

David earnestly prayed to the Lord for help, and worshipped God when he reached the sum­mit. 

He then learned that his closest advisor named Ahithophel had betrayed him. 

Ahithophel later committed suicide by hanging himself.

It is clear that this portion of David's life represents far more than a typical palace coup. 

This same sequence of events was repeated during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jesus was also rejected from being King by His brethren, just days after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the son of David.  

Je­sus also left the city by a path that took Him over the same Kidron Brook that David had crossed over many centuries before.

Jesus then ascended the Mount of Olives and was overcome with grief and sorrow, just as David was. 

The Lord Je­sus fell to the ground in earnest prayer, experiencing such agony in His soul that He sweat drops of blood. 

Christ’s detractors cursed and mocked the King of kings. 

The betrayer Judas Iscariot plotted to betray Jesus and he later committed suicide by hanging himself, just as David’s wicked counselor Ahithophel did.

Matthew 26:37-38  And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39  And he went a little further, 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. 

John 12:27  Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. 

In this text we have Matthew telling us about the tremendous agony Jesus suffered.

John tells us that right before Jesus kept the Passover with His disciples (John 13-17) He understood that the hour He would carry our sins was drawing very close.

This knowledge troubled His soul but Jesus also knew that His sacrifice was at the heart of the Father's plan to save us from our sins.

Christ's death on the cross after living a perfect and sinless life, and showing us the heart of God in all situations that He encountered, is the capstone that upholds eternal salvation to all who repent and believer. 

The hour was coming where the sins of all humanity for all time, would be laid upon the sinless Son of God.

Jesus, God's perfect Lamb would carry the wretched and vile burden of our sins.

The one who was pure, holy, righteous and spotless at all times, would now bear the stench and decay of mankind's depravity.

I do not think anyone can fully grasp what this meant to Jesus, who is God manifest in the flesh.

As God, Christ is holy, righteous and pure but as the Son of man, He would taste death for every man, woman and child. 

He would spiritually drink the putrid, despicable, poisonous dregs of our sins in a cup.

Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him a little farther from the remaining disciples, and He asked them to watch and be in the spirit of prayer for Him.

Jesus then went a little further by Himself and fell on His face before His heavenly Father, and besought Him to take away the cup representing our sins.

Luke's gospel says Jesus went a stones throw, or about 60 feet from Peter, James and John (See Luke 22:41).

Ever God's perfect and obedient Son, Jesus then submitted to His Father's will, which is the exact point of testing that Adam and Eve failed.

Adam Clarke (1762-1832) was a very good Bible scholar, a Methodist theologian and wonderfully gifted preacher, who also wrote many helpful books, including an excellent and sound commentary.

The following is quoted from his commentary on this passage and the symbolic meaning of the cup Jesus prayed about.

"The word cup is frequently used in the Sacred Writings to point out sorrow, anguish, terror, death. It seems to be an allusion to a very ancient method of punishing criminals. A cup of poison was put into their hands, and they were obliged to drink it. Socrates was killed thus, being obliged by the magistrates of Athens to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock. To death, by the poisoned cup, there seems an allusion in Hebrews 2:9, where Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, Tasted death for every man. The whole world is represented as standing guilty and condemned before the tribunal of God; into every man’s hand the deadly cup is put, and he is required to drink off the poison. But Jesus enters, takes every man’s cup out of his hand, and drinks off the poison, and thus tastes or suffers the death which every man otherwise must have undergone."

His wise words help us understand some of the agony of Jesus' sufferings for us.

We also have a Messianic Psalm that applies to Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane (Messianic means applicable to Christ).

Psalm 88:1  A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: 2  Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; 3  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. 4  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: 5  Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. 6  Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7  Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. 

Read this Psalm carefully for it looks ahead from the Old Testament times all the way to Christ praying in that garden, facing the unimaginable task of bearing our sins.

When Christ prayed, it was with such fervent intensity that it seemed as if He prayed all night and day to His Father.

Christ the Son, beseeched His Father to hear His prayer and to be favorably disposed to grant His petition.

Jesus told His disciples that He was full of immense sorrow and the heaviness of death hung over Him.

The Psalmist recorded the heart of Christ by telling us that Jesus soul was greatly troubled and that death was looming upon Him.

His enemies viewed Jesus as a man without strength, one whom they would kill and send to the grave.

Jesus said He was like those who die and are soon forgotten.

It is His Father that laid Christ the Son, into a pit of sorrows and death.

It is the Father that poured out His holy wrath against our sins, upon His beloved Son, like massive, billowing ocean waves spawned by a turbulent storm.

Psalm 88:14  LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me? 15  I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. 16  Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

The Psalmist continued his Holy Spirit guided record of Jesus' time of prayer in the garden.

While praying, Jesus cried out to His Father "Why are you casting off my soul? Why are you hiding your face from me?

Jesus was always in perfect communion with His Father, never separated, never apart.

Now, the Father must cast off His own Son and hide His holy countenance from Jesus, as the dark, unholiness of our sins were laid upon Him.

Psalm 88:17  They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. 18  Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. 

At this point, Jesus realized that His own disciples and the multitudes who thronged about Him to hear the words of life, were gone away.

His own disciples would soon flee from Christ as Judas led soldiers to arrest Him.

Perhaps we can begin to see better the sufferings of Christ, which were for us.

He suffered for our sins. He bore the weight of our sins on His cross and on His body.

He died for us so that all who repent and trust Him, might receive eternal life.

Matthew's account of that night gives us hope, for even in the darkness of treachery and betrayal, God's plan to save us was unfolding exactly as He said it would in eternity past.

Thus, this night of Christ's agony was for us, that we might live unto God through faith in His Son.

We will finish learning about Jesus' prayers in the garden in our next post.

May these words give us hope and assurance, that God did indeed supply us a perfect Lamb who took away the sins of the world.

Acts 16:26-32  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27  And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28  But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29  Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32  And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 

Paul and Silas were wrongfully imprisoned and mistreated at Philippi.

That night, there was  an earthquake and the prison doors opened up.

The jailor grabbed his sword, ready to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

Paul shouted out that they were all accounted for. The jailor was so astounded that he picked up a lantern and went into the cell.

When he saw Paul and Silas, he trembled and fell on his feet and asked a simple question "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Paul's answer was very straightforward. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!"

This is what that long, terrible night of prayerful agony and the suffering Christ endured, was for.

It was to save repentant sinners.

Have you repented of your sins, which condemn you to eternal Hell? 

Have you called upon the Lord Jesus Christ in faith?

I pray that you have heard the glorious gospel message and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you.

Bob