Reading Mt 26:36-46)
Vehement cries
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear
This verse refers to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and takes us onto holy ground. We can never fully understand what happened there, it is beyond our human experience, but this gives us an insight.
Luke 22:44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Certainly Jesus suffered tremendous stress at Gethsemane, as He thought about the cross and what it would involve. This was so severe a weight of woe, more than whole worlds could bear that blood leaked into His perspiration. (Interestingly John Bunyan linked that to the blood applied to Aaron’s right ear, thumb and big toe when he and his sons were consecrated as priests Lev 8:23.)
Sometimes our prayers a sort of intellectual exercise that we go through, but He prayed earnestly with vehement cries and tears. It is His intensity that comes over so clearly. He was fully aware of all that was to happen and its horror gripped Him. He who knew no sin [was about] to be [made] sin for us 2Cor 5:21. We are used to sin and have been as long as we can remember. So we can’t imagine what it was like for the Holy one of God, with His holy, unspotted character to contemplate taking our filthiness upon Himself. And, as if the sin itself was not bad enough, it would also break His eternal fellowship with the Father causing a feeling of utter loneliness and rejection.
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Mt 27:45
It was from these horrors, not the mere physical suffering, that He recoiled. Have you ever thought that He allowed the seed of the tree to which He would be nailed to germinate and grow and that He watered it with rain and kept it from gales, woodworm and termites so that it was ready to serve its purpose? The same is true of the iron for the nails, the soldiers who nailed Him to it, and so on.
Yet He could have stopped His trial or execution at any moment by calling for more than twelve legions of angels Mt 26:53. One angel killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt in one night, so what might thousands of angels have done in defence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? But, as Jesus went on to say 54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?
39 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 42 "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’" Mt 27
I wonder if they were deliberately quoting from Psalm 22? 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. What restraint He showed!
Remember, when you can’t sleep or function because of your anxieties, that Jesus understands. The reasons for our anxieties may be quite different, but He has faced far worse and calls upon us to cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for us – 1Pe 5:7
And tears
The gospels don’t say that he wept in the garden of Gethsemane, but it is not surprising to find that he did, for Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, Jn 11:35, and over Jerusalem, Lk 19:41. In the emotional turmoil that caused Him to, literally, sweat blood there is every probability that there were also tears. Truly He was A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53:3.
This reminds me that that there is nothing dishonourable in tears, and that we, men in particular, should not be ashamed to weep either – although I draw the line at breaking into tears because of a broken a fingernail! What is much sadder than excessive tears is a hard heart that is unmoved by sin or the problems that others face. Our heart must be hard indeed if tears never come when we reflect on Christ’s suffering and death for us.
I also wonder if such a lack of real concern is a key reason why we don’t see more souls saved.
He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. Ps 126:6
Him who was able to save Him from death
Jesus prayed to Him who was able to save Him from death – the Father. He didn’t pray to the angels, although they came to help Him (Luke 22:43) or to Abraham or the other OT patriarchs – though He had met Moses and Elijah on the mount of Transfiguration. We may be helped by other men or women in our trials; we may be comforted by their sympathy and counsel; but in the final analysis only God can really help us. Nowhere do we find any of God’s people praying to angels or other believers – or rather, when they did they were reproved. Every prayer in the NT is addressed to the Father, with the sole exception, I think, of Stephen’s dying prayer. (Acts 7:59 “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”) This is a pattern that we should generally follow.
He was heard because of His godly fear
Jesus prayed for another way, though clearly He knew, in His heart, that there was no other way. "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour John 12:27. But He submitted to His Father’s will –”Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42.
But the cup of death could not be taken away, as Jesus fully understood; yet Hebrews tells us that His prayer was heard. How can that be? Surely it is that the answer was No, but the Father sent those angels to minister to Him in His hour of need. In the same way our prayers are always heard, even if the answer is No and whatever we feared and prayed for deliverance from comes upon us.
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” © Mary Stevenson
God never promised that we would be delivered from what we fear, but rather that He would stand with us as we face them and that He would also bring us through them. C H. Spurgeon said: “As sure as ever God puts his children in the furnace, he will be in the furnace with them.” This is what v 7 means by His godly fear or reverent submission (NIV) or His willingness to obey (JB Phillips).
As John reminds us: Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.1Jo 5:14 . But Jesus said:
Mt 21:22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” and
John 14:14 “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
These are not contradictory, but rather emphasise different aspects of prayer. It must be in faith and often we often loose out because we do not really expect God to answer. As James said 6 ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord James 1 But we also fail to get the answers we desire because our desires conflict with God’s perfect will.
This is why we should often pray like Jesus "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."Of course sometimes we don’t need to add this because the Bible tells us exactly what we can expect. But we don’t need to ask for forgiveness, if God wills, because He has promised He will forgive when we ask on the basis of His beloved Son’s sacrifice.
Far worse than a no is a yes that is contrary to the will of God. I think that one of the saddest verses in the Bible is: And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul. Ps 106:15 How much better it is for Him to refuse our requests that to give us what we want when it could really harm us or others.
Praying in Jesus’ name means praying in a way that pleases Him and honours His Father. You cannot pray selfishly or maliciously and then just tack on “for Jesus sake.” Jesus would never pray like that and His name does not belong in such bad company. As James put it: You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4v3. Let us pray that God will teach us to pray in faith, but a faith that submits to His perfect will and seeks that which pleases and honours Him.
A little child who had just learned the alphabet kept repeating time after time the letters of the alphabet in an attitude of prayer. A missionary approached her and asked what she was saying. The little girl’s answer was, "I am praying." "But why do you repeat the alphabet?" "I felt that I should pray, and because I did not know how to pray, I repeated the letters of the alphabet, knowing that the great Lord would fit the letters together to make words out of them"
He learned obedience
8 Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered
Don’t you just hate it when someone rises to a position of power and influence, not because they are better than anyone else, but because they have the right contacts or they are the boss’s son? It was not like that with Jesus. It was His legal right, as the Son of God, to be Lord of lords and King of kings. But He also earned the moral right through is obedience and suffering.
You would think that being the beloved Son of God would have exempted Jesus from suffering, but it did not. Instead it led Him to suffer the horrors of Calvary, for two main reasons; the first is His great love for us and the second that there was no one else and no other way to save us. As He suffered throughout His life and, supremely, on Calvary He learned what obedience meant in practice. This does not mean that he did not know what obedience was; or that He did not obey the Father in heaven in eternity past. The difference is that on earth He learned what it was to be obedient experimentally and practically in a sinful and painful environment.
A general rode up to a gunner standing by his gun. He took out his field glasses and looked around. "Pierre," he said to the gunner, "you see that little cottage over there. The one near the clump of trees." "Yes, sir," said Pierre turning pale. "There’s a nest of Prussians in there. I want you to destroy it." Pierre went even paler, but carefully sighted his gun and fired. The little cottage disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust. "Well done!" congratulated the general, then noticing a tear in the gunners eye he asked: "What’s the matter?" "That was my home," explained Pierre, "all that I had in the world."
What an amazing contrast we have in the picture painted in these verses to the glorious one in the earlier chapters the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power 1:3. Yet this glorious one is also the one who suffered such great agony of spirit and body to purchase our redemption.
Suffering is the common experience that all humanity shares, to a greater or lesser extent. One of its purposes is to teach us to obey God. In prosperity we tend to forget. We become self-confident and rebellious. Sometimes God lays his hand upon us; breaks our plans; crushes our hopes; takes our health to teach us that we have nothing without Him. In this way we learn to be dependent on Him and submissive to his will. God’s gems are often formed in the furnace of suffering.
Commenting on Malachi 3 v 2 Billy Graham said “He is not coming to soothe you or comfort you, or to protect you, or to insure you against every calamity that may happen to you. He is coming to refine your life; he is coming to burn out the baser metals so that the silver that is there can shine. This is a painful process.”
Some ladies met years ago to study the scriptures together. While reading the third chapter of Malachi they came upon a remarkable expression in the third verse: "He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver." One lady suggested that is was intended to convey the sanctifying influence of the grace of Christ, but she said that she would visit a silversmith to gain a further insight.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest, so as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, and then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
"Oh, yes, madam," replied the silversmith; "I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining is exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be spoiled."
The lady at once saw the beauty, and comfort too, of the expression. Christ sees it needful to put His children into a furnace, but His eye is intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the manner best for them. Their trials do not come at random.
As the lady was leaving the shop, the silversmith called her back, and said he had forgotten to mention that the only way that he knew when the process of purifying was complete was when he saw his own image reflected in the silver.
How does Jesus know when we are refined and ready for Him to make into a thing of beauty? …. Why, when He sees His reflection in us, of course!
Rom 8: 28 we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
