Friday, May 17, 2024

PT-1 "Sorrow" (Matt. 26:36-38)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2024 9:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  PT-1 “Sorrow”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:36-38             

            Message of the verses:  36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and *said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’”

 

            Today we begin looking at the first aspect of Jesus’ striving in the garden of Gethsemane, which is entitled “Sorrow.”  This is a fairly long section and so it will probably take several days to get through it as those who read these Spiritual Diaries on the internet know that I do not like to hurry when it comes to the study of the Bible, and that is one reason that I usually get help from John MacArthur’s commentaries and listen to his sermons on the subject that I am looking at as he certainly takes his time.  It took him five years to go through the book of Matthew, and I am now in my fifth year in studying this wonderful gospel account that Matthew wrote.

 

            You may remember that in verse 35 of Matthew chapter 26 that all of the disciples echoed Peter’s boast and insisted on their loyalty to Jesus even to the point of dying with Him if necessary.  After that they moved with Jesus to a place on the Mount of Olives which is called Gethsemane which was a familiar place that Jesus went to in order to pray and so Judas knew of this place even though Jesus did not say where they were going that night.

 

            MacArthur writes “The name Gethsemane means ‘olive press’ and the garden probably belonged to a believer who allowed Jesus to use it as a place of retreat and prayer.  As William Barclay points out, the owner of Gethsemane, like the owner of the donkey which Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the owner of the upper room, was a nameless friend who ministered to the Lord during His final hours.  ‘In a desert of hatred,’ Barkley observes, ‘there were still oases of love’ (Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2 [Westminster, 1958], p. 384).”

 

            We do not know for sure but it is likely that the garden had a wall around it and even a gate which would be where the disciples other than the three he took a little further in with him, Peter, James and John.  MacArthur notes that “He did not use the normal word for praying (euchomai), which was often used of asking or petitioning other people, but intensified proseuchomai, which was used only of praying to God.

 

            I think that it would be best for me to quote a rather long paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary at this point.  “Jesus told the disciples two days earlier that ‘after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion’ (26:2).  And just a few moments earlier He had told them, ‘You will all fall away because of Me this night’ (v.31).  They knew they were at a crisis point, and, like their Lord, they should have seen it as a time for deep concern and fervent prayer.  Luke reports that Jesus told the disciples now that they should ‘pray that [they might] not enter into temptation’ (Luke 22:40; cf. Matt. 6:13), a warning He later repeated (Matt. 26:41).  But there is no indication that they uttered a single breath of prayer, no hint that they called on the Father to strengthen them.  In smug self-confidence, they still thought of themselves as loyal, dependable, and invincible.  Like many believers throughout the history of the church, they foolishly mistook their good intentions for strength.  The sinless Son of God felt a desperate need for communion with His heaven Father, but His sinful, weak disciples, as so often they do today, felt no desperation about their weakness and vulnerability.”

 

            As mentioned Jesus left the eight disciples at what we described as a possible gate he took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John.  Jesus did not want to have his prayer with His Father interrupted and that is why he left eight of His disciples to watch for Him.  Why he took those three with Him, Peter, James, and John has been somewhat of a mystery to many commentators.  Jesus had a reason as to why He did everything that He did, and I think that there may have been several reasons why He took those three.  When He was on the Mt. of transfiguration those are who He took with Him.  Another reason was because of what this did to them in later years, even in later weeks as they would have remembered falling asleep and this would bring about growth in their walk with the Lord.  These three men were the leaders of the disciples would be another reason that Jesus took them with Him to watch and pray.  MacArthur adds “They were, in fact, the obvious leaders among the Twelve and were the inner circle to whom Jesus gave special attention throughout His ministry.”  With all of this said these were the obvious choices for whom Jesus took with Him.

 

            In the next SD I will pick up right where I am leaving off today as I continue looking at these very important verses from Matthew’s gospel.

 

5/17/2024 10:24 AM 

No comments:

Post a Comment