The Testimony of the Scriptures Mat 26:31-75 records the testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures regarding the impending betrayal and passion of Jesus Christ. Jesus predicts His arrest and the scattering of the disciples, and in particular Peter’s denial (Mat 26:31-35). When Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, His disciples scatter in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy (Mat 26:36-56). When Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin, Peter denies Jesus three times in fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction (Mat 26:57-75).

Here is a proposed outline:

1. Jesus Predicts His Arrest and Peter’s Denial Mat 26:31-35

2. The Fulfillment of Zechariah’s Prophecy Mat 26:36-56

3. The Fulfillment of Peter’s Denial Mat 26:57-75

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Mat 26:31-32. All ye shall be offended, &c. That is “You shall lose all sense of your dutyas disciples, and, seeing me in a condition inconsistent with the vulgar idea of the Messiah, shall leave me to the cruelties of my enemies.” This was a remarkable completion of Zec 13:7. See the note. Our Lord might use this as a proverbial expression, I will smite the sheep, &c. but it being so remarkably accomplished in him above all others, especially as he was the great shepherd of souls, as he was described under that image in the Old Testament, and had assumed the title peculiarly to himself;his disciples could not but consider this circumstance as a proof of his being the Messiah. No sooner did Jesus mention the offence which his disciples were to take at his sufferings, than, to strengthen their faith, he told them of his resurrection, as well as of the particular place where they should see him after he was risen. An appointment to meet in so large a region as Galilee, would, without this, have been of very little use; and ch. Mat 28:16 expressly declares such an appointment. We do not know the exact place, but we there learn that it was a certain mountain; probably it might be near the sea of Tiberias, not only because we find Christ on the borders of that sea after his resurrection, Joh 21:1 but also because, as he had resided there longer than any where else, he had, no doubt, the greater number of his disciples thereabouts; and it lay pretty near the centre of his chief circuits, and therefore must be most convenient, especially for those beyond Jordan, where many had of late believed in him. See Joh 10:40; Joh 10:42. The angel repeats the words of the 32nd verse to the disciples who visited our Saviour’s tomb. Ch. Mat 28:7. The words go before allude to the image of the shepherd in the preceding verse, it being the custom of the Eastern shepherds to precede their flocks. See Doddridge, and Joh 10:4.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 26:31 . ] whilst they were going out, Mat 26:36 .

] put first so as to be highly emphatic.

.] Comp. on Mat 11:6 . In this instance it means: instead of standing faithfully by me till the last, ye will be cowardly enough to run away and leave me to my fate, and thus show that your faith has not been able to bear the brunt of the struggle. Comp. Joh 16:32 . See Mat 26:56 . With what painful astonishment these words must have filled the disciples, sincerely conscious as they were of their faithful devotion to their Master! Accordingly this announcement is followed up with quoting the prediction in which the tragic event is foretold. The passage here introduced with . is from Zec 13:7 (quoted with great freedom). In the shepherd who, according to this passage, is to be smitten, Jesus sees a typical representation of Himself as devoted to death by God, so that the words cannot have had reference (Ewald, Hitzig) to the foolish shepherd (ch. Mat 11:15 ff.), but only to the one appointed by God Himself (Hofmann), whose antitype is Jesus, and His disciples the scattered sheep; comp. Hengstenberg, Christol . III. 1, p. 528.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

FOURTH SECTION

PROMISES TO THE DISCIPLES; AND CHRIST IN GETHSEMANE

26:3146

(Mar 14:27-42; Luk 22:31-46; Joh 13:36 to Joh 18:1)

31Then [in going out to the Mount of Olives] saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall [will] be offended because of me [at me] this night: for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad (Zec 13:7). 32But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. 33Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee [at thee],51 yet will I never be offended. 34Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the [a] cock crow 35[crows], thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not [in no wise, ] deny thee.52 [But]53 Likewise also said all the disciples.

36Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 37And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy [full of, or, overwhelmed with, sorrow and anguish, ]54. 38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39And he went a little farther,55 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. 40And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What,56 could ye not [then, ] watch with me one hour? 41Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup57 may not pass away from me,58 except I drink it, thy will be done. 43And he came and 44[again] found them asleep again:59 for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time,60 saying the same words. 45Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 26:31. Then saith Jesus unto them, For a time Jesus remained in the room of the Passover, as is evident from Joh 14:31. At this point comes the departure from the house. The prediction of the flight of the disciples and of Peters denial took place, according to Joh 13:37, in the Passover-room itself. Hereupon followed the farewell discourses, John 13-17 spoken partly within the room, and partly on the way to Gethsemane.

Will be offended at Me, That is, My sufferings ye will make an offence and snare to yourselves.

For it is written.What the Lord knew by immediate prevision, He nevertheless connects with a prophetic word: partly for the sake of the disciples, partly on account of His relation to the law; and further to prove that the course of His suffering was not contrary to Old Testament predictions, but that the carnal notions of the Jews as to a Messiah exempt from suffering were in direct contradiction to the Old Testament. The passage, Zec 13:1 : Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow [My equal], saith the Lord of hosts: smile the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn Mine hand upon the little onesis indeed quoted freely,61 yet not inconsistently with the connection of the text. In the original, Jehovah commands the sword to smite His Shepherd; but here He appears to lift up the sword Himself. The Messianic import of the passage is without reason resolved by Meyer (after Hitzig) into a merely typical significance. For the passage is closely connected with Zechariahs previous reference to a future time, when prophecy should be silenced, and when he who should arise as a prophet would be exposed to the most bitter sufferings. That prediction stretched forward beyond the prophetless period after Malachi to the period of the new prophets, John the Baptist and Christ. But if we recognize the prophetical spirit in this passage at all, we cannot refer it to John the Baptist. It foretold, however, the universal dispersion of the people in consequence of their rejection of Christ. The Shepherd indicated by the prophet is the same who, in Mat 11:4, feeds the miser; able sheep, the Jewish people; His death is the sign for the scattering of the flock, yet the Lord immediately stretches out His hand to save the little ones, the faithful, His disciples. Hence the profound meaning of the passage is this: When the Jewish people had rejected their last Deliverer and Saviour, they underwent the punishment of dispersion. This was preparatorily typified in the actual scattering of the disciples on the death of Jesus; just as their eternal salvation in their bodily deliverance when Jesus was taken (Joh 18:9). Gerlach.62

Mat 26:32. Go before you into Galilee.Meyer denies the genuineness of this declaration, for the groundless reason, that Jesus could not so definitely predict His own resurrection. The announcement of a particular meeting in Galilee, does not exclude the previous appearances of Jesus to the disciples in Jerusalem. He says this to those who had come with Him from Galilee to the feast: Before ye shall have returned to your homes, I will rise again. In Galilee He collected together again all the scattered disciples: Mat 28:16; John 21; 1Co 15:6. Gerlach. [The Lord seems to allude in this comforting prediction to the remaining words of the prophecy of Zec 13:7 : And I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones. To go before, is a verbum pastorale, as Bengel remarks, comp. Joh 10:4.P. S.]

Mat 26:34. Before a cock crows.De Wette: If Jesus said these words, He meant merely (de Wettes mere assertion) the division of the night called ; but the Evangelists referred it to a real cock-crowing. Gerlach: Before the cock-crowing between midnight and morning. But it came to pass literally, like so many other predictions. It must be regarded as fixed, that the definite specification of that time of the night was the main point; but since, where cocks were found, their cry would not be wanting, we must hold fast the circumstance, that the cock-crowing was appointed to be the warning sound for Peter. Meyer seems to suppose that the first cock-crowing took place at midnight, and the second about three in the morning. It is not established that the marked always the time from midnight till three; since the Talmudists reckoned only three divisions of the day, and regarded the fourth, as the morning of the day following. Comp. Winer, sub Nachtwache.63

Deny Me thrice.De Wette: Deny knowing Me (!). Better Meyer: Deny that thou belongest to Me. But the denial of faith in Christ, the Son of God, is contained in it; and not merely the denial of a personal relation.

Mat 26:36. Gethsemane.Most probably oil-press. The most approved form is : see de Wette. A piece of land at the foot of the Mount of Olives, which was provided with a press, and perhaps also with a dwelling-house, or at least the usual garden-tower. See Winer and Robinson. Through the Stephen Gate or the Gate of Mary (according to Schulz, identical with the ancient Fish Gate), there is a descent to the valley of Kedron, by which the traveller went over the bridge of the same name into the garden of Gethsemane. Kedron means Black brook; it flowed with perturbed waters, which were still more darkened by the blood of the temple-sacrifices, down through the valley toward the Dead Sea. Gethsemane lay on the right of the path to the Mount of Olives. It scarcely deserves now the name of a garden, as the place is covered with stones, and there are only eight old olive-trees remaining. The place is in possession of the Franciscans, who in 1847 erected a new wall around it, in length two hundred paces, and in breadth one hundred and fifty. There is no ground for doubting the identity of the present and the ancient Gethsemane; yet it must be confessed that there is no reason why the place on the left of the road may not be preferred (Wolff). C. von Raumer: The olives are not of the time of our Lord; for Titus, during the siege of Jerusalem, had all the trees of the district cut down; and, moreover, the tenth legion were encamped on the western declivity of the mountain. The great age of the eight trees is inferred from the fact, that each of them pays a particular tribute which goes up to the time of the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens (A. D. 636).64

And He saith to the disciples.There were eight of them; the three selected ones, and Judas, being excluded. Only those three, who had seen His transfiguration on the Mount, might be witnesses of the conflict of His soul. But this appointment of Christ formed also a kind of watch against premature surprise on the part of the traitor. In the foreground of the garden sat the eight disciples; beyond them are the three confidential ones; into the Holiest Of His Passion He goes alone. These stations are not without symbolical significance.65

Mat 26:37. He began to be overwhelmed with sorrow and anguish (to mourn and to tremble); .Suidas explains to be , . But the latter expression is probably not an intensification of the for me; it is a kind of contrast to it. is the passive: being troubled or afflicted. Thus it signifies, absolutely taken, the experience of an infinitely afflicting influence. All the woe of the world falls upon Him, and oppresses His heart. Mark has the stronger expression: . The contradictory impressions66 which Christ experienced extended to horror and amazement. , on the other hand, related to according to Buttmann from expresses in the absolute sense the being forsaken of all the world and bereft of every consolation, the uttermost anxiety and experience of woe.

Mat 26:38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, or girt round with sorrow, .Compare Joh 12:27. The soul is the intermediate in man between body and spirit. The spirit expresses the relation to God; the body, the relation to earth; the soul, the relation to the world at large, especially the world of spirits. Hence the soul is the specific organ of spiritual experiences and emotions of pleasure and sorrow (Beck, Bibl. Seelenlehre, 10).Even unto death.The extremest degree. Even unto death, so that sorrow might bring Me to death, Jon 4:9. Anguish even unto death, the woes of one struggling with death, I now experience. The words of Psa 22:16; Psa 40:13; seem to have been present to His thoughts. Gerlach.

Tarry ye here, and watch with MeIntimation of the deepest agony. Bengel: In magnis tentationibus juvat solitudo, sed tamen ut in propinquo sint amici.

Mat 26:39. And He went a little farther. belongs to , a little distance. Luke gives here the vivid and dramatic statements of the spiritual excitement of the Lord,of the bloody or blood-like sweat which poured from Him,of His being strengthened by an angel. See Com. on Luk 22:41-44.

If it be possible.Not as opposing the notion of an unbending decree; but in living harmony with the Fathers government and perfect submission. Luke: . The in Mark is no contradiction.

This cup.The suffering is a cup filled with a bitter potion. See above, Mat 20:22. Meyer (after de Wette): This suffering and dying now before Me. The signification of the cup is the same as the signification of the suffering of His soul. But the modern interpretation, of an anguish in the presence of death which extorted a prayer for its removal, is in opposition to all the earlier declarations of Christ, and especially to the institution of the Supper, and the high-priestly prayer, John 17. On this farther on.

But as Thou.As Thou wilt, let it be. See Mark. Not My will, but Thine be done. The feeling of profound emotion speaks in broken language. Meyer. [This passage figures very prominently in the Monothelite controversy as one of the principal proofs that Christ had two wills, a human and a divine, as He had two natures. It should not be overlooked, however, that the contrast is not as between His human and His divine will, but as between His will (as the God-Man in the state of humiliation and intense agony) and the will of His heavenly Father.P. S.]

Mat 26:40. And findeth them sleeping.The sleeping of the disciples, and of these three favorite disciples, under these circumstances, and with so unconquerable a drowsiness, is psychologically mysterious, even after Lukes explanation, (Mat 22:45); but the certainly genuine words of Jesus, Mat 26:40; Mat 26:45, constrain us to regard the circumstance as historically true. Meyer. We must connect with this the equally mysterious sleeping of the same three men during the transfiguration; and this will confirm the supposition, that higher spiritual influences and transactions almost overpowered the feeble flesh. Yet the Lord expressly declares that the disciples were morally responsible for being in such a condition. An analogous influence we see under preaching. Sermons stimulate some, and send others to sleep, according to their several dispositions and preparation. The simple law, that extraordinary tension raises the highly developed spiritual life, while it stupefies the less developed, finds here its strongest illustration in the most absolute contrast of spiritual watchfulness and sleep.

He saith unto Peter.He had promised most was in the greatest danger; and probably he was psychical respects the strongest.So then, ,with displeasure: with allusion to his great promises.Not one hour.Incidental intimation of the duration of our Lords first conflict.

Mat 26:41. That ye enter not into temptation; .That the situation in which they would soon be placed, might not be a cause of offence to them, through lack of their own preparation. The simple test, which comes from God alone, becomes , an assault dangerous to the soul, partly through the accession of tempting influences from without (the devil, the world), and partly through a blameable internal bias (our own flesh and blood). The Lords words were fully explained when the band soon afterward came upon them.

The spirit indeed is willing.A general declaration; but, like the passage, Rom 7:22; Rom 7:25, qualified and particularized by its relation to the disciples, and the progress of the Christian life. In the unconverted the willingness of the is not yet unbound; in mature Christians the is purified and governed by the spiritual principle. But, even in the first case, the willingness of the spirit is faintly expressed in indefinite desires; and in the last case, the opposition of the flesh is not absolutely suppressed and abolished until the consummation. The proper conflict between the , the higher principle of life, and the old ungodly nature, falls into the domain of the Christian discipleship, the life that is being matured. The is here the human spiritual life, awakened by the Holy Spirit. It is not only willing, but , ready and willing. The which opposes is not simply the sensual nature, but the sensuous nature disordered by the . The Scripture presents the that is, the natural life in its inclinations and impulses,in three stages: 1. As innocent (Genesis 2); 2 as sinful (Genesis 6.); 3. as sanctified (John 6). But the sinful is even in the regenerate excited to a diseased contradiction; it is not merely weak, but as the is . Hence, above all things, watchfulness is needed. Calovius: is here the homo animalis; the homo spiritualis. This is too dogmatical. [Stier, Alford, and Nast take flesh here in its original sense as a constituent part of human nature, which in itself is not sinful, but has an inherent weakness, which the soul, standing between the spirit and the flesh, must overcome by deriving strength from the spirit through watching and prayer. They also maintain that Christ Himself is included in this declaration, with the difference that He gave as high and pre-eminent an example of its truth, as the disciples afforded a low and ignoble one: He, in the willingness of the spirit, yielding Himself to the Fathers will to suffer and die, but weighed down by the weakness of the flesh; they, having professed, and really having, a willing spirit to suffer with Him, but, even in the one hours watching, overcome by the burden of drowsiness. Observe, it is here , the higher spiritual being, and not , the human soul, the seat of the affections and passions, as in Mat 26:38 and Joh 12:27.P. S.]

Mat 26:42. Again the second time.No pleonasm. The defines the ; the defines the in a significant manner. In the second supplication, the resignation and self-sacrifice comes more prominently forward.

Mat 26:44. The third time.Apart from the textual uncertainty, this presents no difliculty. It is in harmony with life, and especially spiritual life, that intense and decisive conflicts develop themselves in a succession of acts, with intermissions of pause. The rhythm here assumes a threefold rise and fall, according to the nature of the spirit and of spiritual conflict, as in the conflict of the Apostle Paul, 2Co 12:8. Luke does not record this threefold repetition literally; but he describes it in the growing intensity of the struggle, the bloody sweat, and the word of the strengthening angel.

Mat 26:45. Sleep on now, and take your rest.1. Chrysostom, Grotius, Winer, and others: Jesus needed no longer the co-operation of His disciples, and gives them rest. But, on the other hand, we read: The hour is come. 2. H. Stephanus, Heumann, [also Greswell and Robinson], and others, make it a question: Sleep ye still? but this is opposed by 3. Grulich (on the Irony of Christ, p. 74): Sleep and take your rest for the time to come, that is, in future, when ye shall have more security. But this would not be . 4. Euthymius Zigab., [Calvin], and Beza, call it rebuking irony. [Also Chrysostom.] Meyer: The common objection against the ironical view, that it is not in harmony with the present feeling of Jesus, is psychologically arbitrary. The profoundest grief of soul, especially when associated with such clearness of spirit, has its own irony. And what an apathy had Jesus here to encounter! But if the essential principle of irony is security and perfect composure of spirit, we recognize here the sacred irony which does not speak in contempt of weakness, but in the triumphant consciousness that the fight was already won. Another token is, that it passes over at once into the most solemn language. See the divine irony in Psalms 2 Meanwhile, we must be careful not to overlook the symbolical element in the saying. The disciples had slept in the body, because they slept in the spirit And, because they had not watched, there was a necessity now that they should outwardly watch while they slept on in spirit, until they were awakened by the cock-crowing, the Redeemers death, and the resurrection morning.

The hour is at hand.The great hour of decision. Comp. Luk 22:53.

Shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.Grotius: The Romans. Meyer: The Sanhedrin. De Wette, better: The Romans and the Jews. For that the betrayal was twofold, Jesus had before declared.

Mat 26:46. Arise, let us go hence.Remark the haste which is expressed in , , . Meyer.

The Relation or the Three Evangelists to John.The silence of John upon the conflict in Gethsemane has been explained in various ways. According to Olshausen and others, he took for granted an acquaintance with the synoptical narratives. I have explained the omission of this event, as well as of the institution of the Lords Supper, from the peculiar composition and aim of the fourth Gospel, with reference to the three already existing.67 So also Meyer. John has something analogous to the agony of Gethsemane in the spiritual conflict of Jesus in the temple, Joh 12:27, though the two are of course not to be identified.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1.The perfect fidelity of Jesus to the law is seen in His not going over the Mount of Olives to Bethany. It was necessary for every one to spend that night in Jerusalem. His calmness is seen in the fact of His going to His accustomed place of prayer (Luk 22:39), although knowing that Judas was acquainted with the place. The time for hiding Himself was past; for throughout the whole land there was no longer freedom for His steps. But no more did Jesus go prematurely to meet danger, which He would have done had He celebrated the Passover a day earlier than usual. Just at the commencement of His public teaching (Matthew 4), He retired, before His extremest agony, into silence; that there He might in prayer await and overcome in His inmost spirit the fiercest assaults of Satan (Joh 14:30), before He entered upon His external mortal passion. Gerlach.

2. The Agony of the Saviour in Gethsemane.The final form of an anxious presentiment which had pervaded His whole public life, and which constantly came out more and more distinctly into utterance: Luk 12:50; Mar 8:12; John 12 There is nothing improbable, though something mysterious and wonderful, in the record that Christs agony followed the high festival of His soul in the sacerdotal prayer (John 17). A similar transition in feeling often appears: 1. From joy to sorrow in the entry with palm-branches in Luke, in the temple, John 12, in Gethsemane; 2. from sorrow to joy at the departure from Galilee, at the dismissal of Judas from the company of disciples, John 13, after the cry, My God, My God, on the cross. All this shows the elasticity and absolute depth and vigor of His inner life. We distinguish three great conflicts and triumphs in the passion: 1. The victory over the temptation of the kingdom of darkness in His Spirit, at the institution of the holy Supper (Joh 13:31); 2. the victory over temptation in His soul, in Gethsemane; 3. the victory over temptation in His bodily life, on the cross. These three great crises, indeed, are not to be separated abstractly, as if in the one case His spirit only was tried, in the other, His soul, etc. But the assault made the life of the spirit the medium of trial in the one case, in the other, the life of the soul; and the victory which preceded became an advantage in the conflict which followed. And this serves to show the real import of the specific suffering of the soul of our Lord. It is in its nature one of the deepest mysteries of the evangelic history; but it receives some light from the position of the soul-conflict between the spirit-conflict and the conflict of bodily distress, from its relation to the temptation in the wilderness, and by definite declarations of Christ Himself. Interpretations:1. Origen, De martyrio, c. 29: Christ desired a yet deeper suffering; an ascetically strained view.68 Contra Celsum: He would have averted the destruction of Jerusalem. So Ambrose, Basil, Jerome. 2. He suffered the wrath of God in our stead and our behalf. Melanchthon: Jacuit filius Dei prostratus coram terno Patre, sentiens tram adversus tua et mea peccata. So Rambach, the cup of wrath. 3. Assaults of hell. Knapp: The last and most terrible attacks of the kingdom of darkness, in which the prince of death sought to wrest from Him the victory. 4. Ebrard: His trembling in Gethsemane was not dread of His sufferings, but was part of His passion itself; it was not a transcendental and external assumption of a foreign guilt, but a concrete experience of the full and concentrated power of the worlds sin. 5. Olshausen: Actual abandonment on the part of God; the human of Jesus alone was in conflict here, while the fulness of the divine life had withdrawn. 6. Rationalists like Thiess and Paulus refer it to physical illness and exhaustion,69 to which Schuster adds the distress of abandonment by friends.70 7. De Wette: Fear of death (a moral weakness!). 8. Meyer: Horror and shudder in confronting the terror of such cruel sufferings and death. So most modern interpreters. Neander proves against Strauss that a change of feeling in the life of the Saviour is by no means improbable. But we cannot admit a change of thought, least of all a change of the fundamental thoughts of His life. A supplication for the turning away of the suffering of death, even as a conditional and resigned request, is not to be imagined after so many foreannouncements of His passion, after the institution of the Supper, and His continuance in the scene of danger at Gethsemane. This would be to make Jesus directly contradict Himself. The agony in Gethsemane was not dread of the agony on Calvary, but it was a specific agony of itself; therefore He prays, according to Mark, that, if it were possible, the hour of this suffering might pass,similarly as in John.

It was the hour of nameless woe, of an excitement and commotion of soul,71 in which He would not appear before His disciples, in which He could not appear before His enemies. 1. It was then first a specific conflict of soul (My soul is surrounded by sorrow, ): He was assaulted by the severest experience of woe and distressing anxiety. And this disposes of the opinions of those who make the suffering either predominantly pneumatic, or predominantly corporeal. 2. It was a counterpart to the temptation in the wilderness. See Luk 4:13. Christ was tempted in the wilderness by the pseudo-messianic and carnal hopes and desires of His people, in connection with the vanities of the world. But in Gethsemane He was tempted by the pseudo-messianic, carnal grief and disappointment of His people, and the whole misery of the world, which culminated in the fearful treachery of Judas, and revealed itself in a milder form in the sleeping of the disciples for sorrow. The whole tempting power of the desperation of humanity pressed hard upon Jesus: that was His . And in His own internal defence He stood alone, invigorated by no sympathy and help of mortals: that was His .Comp. Isa 63:3. In this temptation through the despair of humanity lay indeed the strength of the fiercest assault of hellish powers upon His lonely soul. It was also the judgment of God upon humanity which Jesus experienced in His soul; not Gods judgment upon Himself, but a judgment upon humanity, which He received into His own soul, in order to change it into redemption. Of the formerthe despair of the worldJudas treachery was the concentrated and terrific expression: it was the demoniac fruit of his demoniac grief, an act of mad contempt of salvation and of self. Hence the Lord again alludes here to the traitor (Mat 26:46). The great double-betrayal of His people and of the whole world committed against His life, was the extreme suffering of the Saviour, the fulfilment of Josephs type, sold with fearful anguish on his part by his brothers (Gen 42:21). Thus the agony of Jesus soul in the garden was related to the despairing sorrow of the world, as the victory in the wilderness was related to the enticing and disguised pleasures of this world.

3. Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.Opposed to the Monothelite heresy. This preserves the truth and truly human character of His conflict, without disparaging His constant accordance in all things with the will of the Father. Contrast and suspense do not amount to contradiction. Difference is not discord. See the decrees of the Council of Constantinople, a. d. 680.

4. Christ, in His threefold supplication in Gethsemane, perfected the doctrine of prayer, and sanctified the prayers of sinners. His petition rises from the full expression of His woe to the full expression of submission to the Fathers will. And His being heard consisted in this, that in the Fathers strength He drank the cup, and enjoyed the perfect security of victory before the sharpest conflict took place.

5. It was not the treachery of Judas in its external aspect, but that treachery as the expression of the disciples and the worlds sorrow and disappointment and of their despair of Christs honor and victory, that constituted the temptation which the Saviour here suffered. But He had overcome this temptation already, when the external and actual betrayal came upon Him.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

I. The Two Sections.The passage from the Supper to Gethsemane; or, spiritual invigoration experienced in the way of duty: a. The appointment of spiritual strengthening; b. how it is experienced by Christ and by His disciples.The warning voice of their Master scarcely heard amidst the expressions of the disciples self-confidence.Divine and human care in provision against assaults at hand: 1. Christ is careful, and therefore free from care; 2. His disciples were careless, and therefore burdened with care and anxiety.Christ in His work of redemption overcame the unfaithfulness of His disciples: 1. Their unbelief in its presumption; 2. their unbelief in its despondency.The sudden and decisive turning-point: 1. Of destiny; 2. of feeling; 3. of the issue.The watchman and the sleepers: 1. God and men; 2. Christ and the disciples; 3. the spirit and the earthly cares.

II. The Way to the Mount of Olives.The fore-announcement of the Lord, and the unbelief of the disciples.The spirit of Christ and the spirit of Scripture of one accord in their judgment upon the weakness of believers.The promise of seeing them again in Galilee, bound up with the prediction of their coming fall: 1. A testimony of His supreme hope above His sorrows; 2. of His continued faithfulness to the disciples in their wavering.The assurances of Peter.His self-complacent boasts the token of his deep fall.Mark his presumptuous and boasted superiority: 1. To his enemies: 2. to the other disciples; 3. to the warning word of his Master.Strong professions, miserable apostacy.72The last unholy contention of the disciples.The measure of our false self-estimation the measure of our humiliation in life.Night and the offence.The strength of fidelity which can look beyond and overlook the offence of weakness, and turn it to salvation.The offence of weakness (Peter), and the offence of wickedness (Judas).

III. Gethsemane.The Mount of Olives and the Oil-Press (Gethsemane), symbols of the production and maturity of the Christian life: 1. The mount is a figure of the Church, in which the spiritual life grows; 2. the oil-press is a figure of suffering, through which the spiritual life is purged or set free.The three great things of eternal significance connected with the Mount of Olives: 1. The palm-entry into Jerusalem; 2. Gethsemane; 3. the ascension.Gethsemane the turning-point between the old and the new Paradise.The reserve and the familiarity of Jesus in His agony.The concealment of the agony: 1. It is altogether hidden from the world; 2. the greater number of His disciples see only the signs of this suffering; 3. the confidential ones only see it in amazement and trembling; 4. only God views Him stretched out, as a worm in the dust.The soul of Jesus oppressed by the distress of all, and bereft of the help of all.Or, the soul of the agonized treader of the wine-press (Isa 63:3); alone in His suffering, over whom all the billows roll (Psa 22:21; Isa 54:11); resigned entirely to God, and hidden in Him (Psa 27:5).How Christ in the garden overcame the sorrow of all the world: 1. Human sorrow, in its vain imaginations and despair; 2. devilish sorrow, in its betrayal and mockery.The conflict in the wilderness, and the conflict in the garden.The three great conflicts of Jesus: at the Supper, in Gethsemane, and on Calvary.Gethsemane and Calvary.The horror of Jesus in prospect of the kiss of Judas.The Judas-kiss evermore the bitterest cup of the Lord and of His Church.The world gave Him toil; His disciples gave Him trouble.The suffering of Christ the suffering of priestly sympathy with the misery of the world: 1. He feels its perfect woe; hence His suffering. 2. He experiences the whole power of sin in this woe; hence the dread assault and conflict. 3. He begins to expiate its whole guilt in this woe: hence His persevering prayer.Even in the agony of His soul He is the Christ: 1. The prophetic Revealer of all the depths of mans misery; 2. the high-priestly Expiator of them; 3. the kingly Deliverer from them.The severest suffering is but a cup: 1. Rigorously measured; 2. surrounded and adorned by the cup; 3. prepared, presented and blessed by the Father.Christ in the apparent annihilation of the work of His life: the seeming invalidation of His mission; the seeming dissolution of His company; the seeming succumbing of His disciples under grief, despondency, and self-reprobation; the seeming contempt of His love.His faithful heart the dove with the olive-branch high above the floods.Christ in His great conflict of prayer: teaches us to pray; makes our prayer acceptable; and becomes its Mediator.Prayer is most acceptable in its absolute submission to the will of God.The disciples as the outposts and watchmen of the Church.The sleep of the disciples; or, the death-like collapse which follows over-strained self-confidence.The two divisions of the disciples: a watch-company toward the world, and a watch-company around the Lord.The Lords request to His disciples a token of infinite humility.The three words of the Lord to the disciples: 1. Watch with Me; 2. watch for yourselves; 3. sleep on now (whether waking or sleeping, ye will sleep till the awakening of My resurrection).Watch and pray, because of: 1. Temptation; 2. weakness.The three witnesses of His transfiguration and His humiliation (of the glorious beams and the bloody sweat).The divine majesty with which the Lord comes out of His human sorrow.The strength and solidity which the soul acquires from communion with Christ in all the conflicts of life and death.

Selections from other Homiletical Commentators

I. The Way to the Mount of Olives.Starke:From Cramer: He is a true friend who warns of danger; but flesh and blood is too secure, and will not take warning, 1Th 5:3.How easily may even the best men lapse into sin! Jam 3:2.Osiander: The cross and tribulation a great offence to the weak.Professions: not to promise good is unbelief; to promise without earnest will is hypocrisy; to promise in reliance upon our own strength is presumption.Hedinger: Good-will must guard carefully against arrogance.Trust none less than thine own heart, Jer 17:9.Canstein: Nothing is so hidden from us as our own hearts.We never come to know thoroughly our own weakness and unsteadiness.The imagination which we have formed concerning ourselves prevents our seeing what we are and what we are not.Hard work it is to wean a man away from his false imaginations about himself.To contradict the voice of truth is the sum of shame.

Lisco:The Searcher of hearts.Peter trusts more the strength of his feeling than the word of Jesus.

Gerlach:The Lord quotes the language of Scripture oftener in His sufferings than in any other circumstances. So in the temptation in the wilderness, Mat 4:1-11.

Heubner:This prediction of the Lord shows His supreme peace and victory over self.The suffering Messiah was a riddle to them.Christ is the only bond of His people: take Him away, and all is dissolved.He would give them all a proof of His unlimited knowledge of mens hearts: that was of importance for their whole life.The over-hasty, the presumptuous, and the self-confident, are those whom God suffers to fall.There is a great difference between arrogance of flesh and alacrity of spirit.The honest humility with which the disciples relate their own faults.Warning to us all not to take offence at the Lord in anything.

II. Gethsemane:Starke:The transfiguration upon the high mountain; the humiliation in the deep valley.It is not wise for every one to reveal everywhere and indiscriminately his heart and all its impulses, Gen 22:5; for there are weak people, who cannot bear the strong.Osiander: We can disburden ourselves most confidently in the ears of out God when we have no one, or but few, near us.Canstein: Christ enters upon His passion with prayer; He carries it on and ends it with prayer; and so teaches us that our own sufferings cannot be overcome and made to subserve our salvation without much prayer.The three Apostles called in Gal 2:9 pillars: Peter, the first who opened to Jews and Gentiles the door of the kingdom of heaven; James, the first martyr; John, the longest liver, to whom the most glorious revelations were vouchsafed.The trials of Abraham, Paul, Luther (great saints, great trials).Canstein: The faithful God ministers trials according to the measure of the ability of those who are to bear them (1Co 10:13).When it is time to fight and to pray, we ought not to sleep.God lets His weak children for a long time see others in the conflict, before they themselves are exposed to the contest.The cup of Christs suffering has consecrated the cup of our cross.Trust not to men, Psa 118:7.Our best security against temptation is to watch and pray.The daily contest of the spirit with the flesh absolutely necessary, Gal 5:17.Thy will be done.We may pray for mitigation.When Jesus is suffering in His members, our eyes are, alas! commonly full of sleep.Perseverance in prayer without fainting, Luk 18:1.A faithful father warns his children of danger.He who feels safe in the time of danger may easily be ruined; he who is cautious and self-distrustful will escape.When one hour of trial is passed, we must prepare for another.When we in Gods strength have overcome the first assaults and terrors of death, all is more and more tolerable, until the cross itself is gloriously triumphed over.Jesus our Forerunner.Christ went freely and joyfully to meet His passion, for an example to us, Php 2:5.

Lisco:Heb 5:7. The threefold prayer reminds us of the threefold victory over Satan, when he tempted Jesus, Mat 4:1.

Gerlach:From Luther: We men, born and bound in sin, have an impure, hard, and leprous skin, which does not soon feel. But, because Christs body, His flesh and blood, is fresh, and pure, and sound, without sin, while ours are full of sin, we feel the terror of death in a far less degree from what He felt it. The disciples should watch with Him, and they should pray; but with Him they could not pray; in His mediatorial conflict no man could stand by and help Him.He desired the fellowship of these as the first-fruits of the men who were to be redeemed by Him.In this severe agony of the passion, the divine will ever more and more penetrates and exalts the human.

Heubner:It was a garden, as in Genesis 3Not all the disciples were fitted to be witnesses of this profound and mysterious humiliation of our Lord.Rambach: It is not expedient that the child of God should reveal to every one the depths of his heart.It is the highest grace to be companion of the most secret sorrows of Jesus.Jesus is the source of consolation and encouragement for all burdened and heavy-laden souls.The greater the anguish, the greater the joy.Rieger: And He went to a little distance. So the high-priest went into the Holiest.The Son of God bows down to the uttermost before His Father, to make us acceptable.O that we better learned the lesson to bow down before God!Jacobs wrestling in the night, Hos 12:4-5.Sleepiness and inconsiderateness among Christians, monitors of fall.Christ awakens out of sleep.The second petition takes for granted an answer of God, that His will was fixed on this (as indeed did the first); hence the more direct expression of resignation.In prayer we do not depend upon many and beautifully arranged words; the heart is the gr[illegible] thing (as in the prayers of Moses, David, Daniel, and Christ).The Holy One falls absolutely into the power of the unholy.Is at hand: the betrayal, now brought to its consummation, troubled the soul of Jesus afresh.There is a difference between the mere expectation, albeit certain, and the fulfilled reality.Kapff: Jesus suffering in Gethsemane: 1. Its depth; 2. its cause; 3. its fruit.

Footnotes:

[51]Mat 26:33. () . is omitted in A., B., C., D., etc., Lachmann, and Tischendorf.

[52]Mat 26:35.Codd. A., E., G., al., read the somewhat milder subj. [for ]. Probably a gloss.

[53]Mat 26:35.Several uncial Codd. add . Probably from Mar 14:31. [But implies here an extenuation of the guilt of Peter, as much as to say, Peter made these professions, but we all did the same, and have nothing to boast of. But Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Alford omit itP. S.]

[54]Mat 26:37.[Lange: zu trauern (schaudern) und zu bangen (beben) Doddridge complains that the words which our translators use here, are very flat, and fall short of the emphasis of those terms in which the Evangelists describe this awful scene. The verb is derived by some from , people, and the alpha privativum, hence, to feel lonely, solitary; expression of a sorrow that makes man unfit for company and shunning it, and pressing like a weight of lead upon the soul. F. H. Scrivener (A Supplement to the Authorized English Version of the N. T., London, 1845, vol. i. p. 304) thinks that no single Greek word can be more expressive of deep dejection than , and renders it: to be overwhelmed with anguish. Tyndale and Coverdale: grievously troubled. Conant less forcibly: troubled. Meyer teems to agree with Suidas definition of .= , and adds: Es bezeichnet die unheimliche Beunruhigung der Angst und Verlegenheit. I regret, that the scholarly work of Scrivener, just alluded to, has not sooner come to hand. It would have been of considerable assistance to me in the Critical Notes on the English Version.P. S.]

[55]Mat 26:39.The reading [for ] is probably a writing error. [Cod. Sinait. likewise reads .]

[56]Mat 26:40.[What! is an interpolation and, as Conant remarks, violates the tone of feeling and manner of the Saviour. The can best be rendered by then. Lange: So also. P. S.]

[57]Mat 26:42.Many Codd., A., B., C., etc., [also Cod. Sinait.], read here only without , which seems to be supplemented from Mat 26:39, and is omitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, [and Alford].

[58]Mat 26:42.Codd. B., D., etc., [also Cod. Sinait], omit the words: from me. [Lange puts them in brackets.]

[59]Mat 26:43.Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Tregelles, Alford], read with the best authorities, [including Cod. Sinait.] (again found) [instead of finds them again].

[60]Mat 26:44.A., D., K., omit . Lachmann puts it in brackets, Tischendorf omits it. [In the large ed of 1859 Tischondorf retains the words in the text, but Alford omits them. Cod. Sinait. has them, but between and , instead of before .P. S.]

[61][The quotation is verbatim after the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX., except that the imperative , strike, is changed into the future , I will strike, God who commands the striking into God who strikes Himself. P. S.]

[62][Comp. here Stier, Reden Jesu, vi. 176 sqq., who goes at length into the meaning of this prophecy, and especially the word , my fellow, my equal, i.e., the Messiah. Also Nast ad loc.P. S.]

[63][The difficulty derived from the Mishna, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests everywhere, were forbidden to keep fowls, because they scratched up unclean worms, is easily removed, first, in view of the inconsistency of the Talmud on this point (see Lightfoot), and secondly, by the consideration that such a prohibition could in no case affect the Roman residents, over whom the Jews had no power. The scarcity of cocks in Jerusalem is, however, intimated by the absence of the definite article before in all the four Gospels. Hence it should be omitted in the English Version, Mat 26:34; Mat 26:74-75; Mar 14:30; Mar 14:68; Mar 14:72; Luk 22:34; Luk 22:60-61; Joh 13:38; Joh 18:27. At any rate the whole history of Peters denial is evidently drawn from real life, and presents one of the strongest evidences for the originality and truthfulness of the Gospel records.P. S.]

[64][Dr. Wordsworth, following the ancient fathers and the older Protestant commentators, sees a providential and prophetical adaptation of the names of Scripture localities generally, and of Gethsemane in particular, to the events which occurred there. In this oil press, in which the olives were crashed and braised, Christ was bruised for oar sins, that oil might flow from His wounds to heal our souls. Comp. Matthew Henry: There He trod the wine-press of His Fathers wrath, and trod it alone. In like manner Wordsworth allegorizes on Bethlehem, the house of bread, where the bread of life was born; Nazareth, where He grew up as a branch; Bethsaida, the house of fishing, where He called the apostles; Capernaum, the house of consolation, where He dwelt; Bethany, the place of palm-dates, which speaks of the palms and hosannahs of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem; Bethphage, the house of figs, which is a memento of the withering of the barren fig-tree; the Mount of Olives, whence Christ ascended to heaven, to hold forth the olive branch of peace between God and man.P. S.]

[65][The Edinb. transl. has insignificance.P. S.]

[66][Not: passions, as in the Edinb. transl.P. S.]

[67][The Edinb. edition altogether misunderstand this passage, and translates: The issue (as if Ausfall was the same with Ausgang!) of this event … are illustrated by John in his own way. John does not illustrate these events at all, but passes them by in complete silence. But Lange illustrates this silence in his Leben Jesu, to which he here al ludes.P. S.]

[68][Origen explains the words: My soul is sorrowful unto death. Sorrow is begun in me, but not to endure forever, but only till the hour of death; when I shall die for sin, I shall die also for all sorrow, whose beginnings only are in me.P. S.]

[69][In German: krperliche Abspannung, which is just the reverse of corporeal intensity of feeling, as the Edinb, edition renders it.P. S.]

[70][Renan, in his Life of Jesus, Matthew 23, adds the sad memory of the clear fountains of Galilee, where He might have refreshed Himself; the vineyard and fig-tree, under which He might have been seated; and (hear, hear!) the young maidens who might perhaps have consented to love Him! Only a French novel-writer would profane this sacred scene by such erotic sentimentalism. Renan places the agony in Gethsemane several days before the night of the Passion, contrary to the unanimous testimony of the Synoptists as well as the inherent probability of the case. But his opinions on such subjects are worth nothing at all.P. S.]

[71][In German: Gemthserschtterung. Gemth is here, like the Greek (from , to rush on, to storm; to burn in sacrifice), the inmost soul, as the principle of life, feeling, and thought, especially as the seat of strong feeling and passion. The Edinb edition obliterates the meaning of the original by turning it into: unrest and amazement which is no translation at all. The next sentences are still more diluted and mutilated, or entirely omitted.P. S.]

[72][In German: Die starken Zusagen und die klglichen Absagen,a paronomasia which I cannot imitate in English.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

“Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. (32) But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. (33) Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. (34) Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. (35) Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.”

We shall very easily conceive, how likely it was, for the whole body of disciples to be offended, or as the original word is, scandalized, at the humiliation of Christ if we all along keep in remembrance, that notwithstanding, all the miracles Christ had wrought, and the discourses he had delivered to them; not one of them before the descent of the Holy Ghost, had any apprehension of any kingdom of Jesus, but an earthly kingdom. Even after he arose from the dead, they still harped upon the subject, Lord! wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? meaning the overthrowing the Roman power, under whom Israel was then in tribute. Act 1:6 . And though everyone of them (for Judas was now gone) as well as Peter, felt a confidence of attachment to Christ; yet certain it is, that When Christ was apprehended as he was soon after this by the Roman soldiers, all would have readily denied him, as Peter did, had the temptation been the same; neither but from Christ’s intercession for them could they have stood in faith, for the moment they all forsook him and fled.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 89

Prayer

Almighty God, thou who hast shown men great and sore trouble wilt revive them again, and their joy shall be greater than their sorrow as where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, so where death abounds, there shall be overflowing life, so much so, that the death shall not be spoken of but as a shadow upon an infinite firmament. Thou dost love us in Christ Jesus the Priest: he has bought us with his blood, and today we stand at his cross, full of gratitude, our lips eloquent with psalms of adoration and thankfulness, and our whole heart going out after thee in solemn and loving desire. Thou art the same, and thy years fail not: with our growing weakness thou art to us growingly strong, and if our eyes fail, thou dost increase the light according to their failure, so that in our soul there is the shining of everlasting day.

We know these things by our hearts, and can tell them only in feeble and unworthy words: there is no speech for thy goodness of the same pattern and scope whereby we can set it forth to our own hearing and our own vision. The dream is within, the vision is in the heart: we see with our love and hear with the inner ear, and when men ask us for words of publication, behold there is no speech upon our tongue: we can but burn within and feel thy speechless presence. Thou art good to us with both hands: the right hand of the Lord is full of power, his left hand is under us as a security and protection, thine eyes are lighted with love, the opening of thy mouth is as the dropping of honey upon our life, and all round about us, nearer than the living air, is thy presence, a great light, an eternal comfort, a sure and steadfast hope.

We have come to praise thee upon the harp of many strings, upon the organ, yea with trumpets and voices of the heart and soul. We would call upon all things that have breath to praise the Lord, we would demand, in addition to our solitary utterance of praise, the choral service of the universe, for thou hast done great things for us whereof we are glad. Thou dost come into the orchard of our life and do wonderful things. Thou dost sometimes blight the blossom and take away the little bud, so that the hope of the heart is chilled and slain. Sometimes thou dost come in the autumn, and with thine own hand pluck the ripe fruit and hide it in the Heavens. It is all thine, the tender little color, and the luscious fruit, the whole tree, root and branch is thine: it is not ours. So do we say when the blossom goes and the fruit is plucked, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord.” One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; another dieth in the bitterness of his soul and shall see pleasure no more. Thou dost cut down with mighty strength the life too frail for such power to strike it, and thou dost gather to thyself other lives like shocks of corn fully ripe. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Thou dost smite the mighty man in his eminence, thou dost cut down the cedar and call upon the fir tree to howl because the king of the forest is overthrown, and thou dost take away our father and mother, our wife and child, those that go back to our earliest years and make the foundations of our little history. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. He is the living One, and in him alone is immortality, and if thou dost take away, thou wilt well keep: none shall be able to pluck our loved ones out of the Father’s hand. Comfort all that mourn herein, and let their mourning and weeping be but for one night, and their joy for all the next day-eternal.

Let thy blessing come upon us according to the pain of our life and the need which we feel growing into a deep poverty and crying to thee in feebleness. Let our weakness be a plea, let our blindness be the reason of our prayer, find in our necessity the occasion for the exercise of thy grace. Pity us wherein we are little and weak and poor, blind and not able to see afar off, and according to the need of our life order thou the multiplication of thy comfort. Give us an insight, we humbly pray thee, into the inner mysteries, the holy depths of divine truth. May we see the realities of things, may ours be no surface looking, but a penetration into the soul and meaning of things as they exist and relate to the infinite.

The Lord comfort us with choice consolation, the Lord inspire us with new thought and inflame us with new light: the Lord work in us godly discontent with all present attainments and opportunities give us to cry for larger growth and nobler attainments and services.

Be with all for whom we ought to pray. Thou knowest why the seat is vacant, thou knowest where the father of the family is, or the eldest son, or the wanderer, or the prodigal that will not come to church. Thou knowest where the sinners congregate and the scorners sit. They are not here today, they do not wish to be here, they hate thy house, and they make use of thy name for unholy purposes yet is thy mercy greater than their sin, thy grace overarches their life as does the great Heaven the little earth. O Lord, continue thy mercy, keep back thy judgments, let the prayers of thy people, like a great wind, keep back the storm-cloud of thine anger.

O Lord, hear us, O Lord, help us, O Lord, forgive us wash us in the atoning blood, cleanse us by the power of thy Holy Spirit, and make our life richer, greater, grander in all holy aspiration and beneficent uses, day by day, till the sun set, and we pass on to other climes. Amen.

Mat 26:31-46

31. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written ( Zec 13:7 ), I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

32. But after I am risen (unheeded words!) again, I will go before you into Galilee.

33. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

34. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

35. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee (so Thomas had said, Joh 11:16 ), yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane (oil press), 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 (weighed down).

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 farther (about a stone’s cast), 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.

40. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing (ready and eager), but the flesh is weak.

42. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

43. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.

44. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

45. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

46. Rise, let us be going (not to flight but to danger): behold, be is at band that doth betray me.

The Culminating Sorrow

“Smitten,” but Shepherd still. Strokes do not change character. The Shepherd was not deposed from his tender function; he was scourged, smitten, oppressed, and grievously tormented, but he was still a Shepherd. “Scattered abroad,” but still the sheep of the flock. Understand that circumstances do not make or unmake you. You are not Christians because you are comfortable, you are not sheep of the flock because you are enfolded upon the high mountains and preserved from the ravening beast Sometimes the flock is scattered, sometimes the shepherd is smitten; but the shepherd is still the shepherd, the flock is still the flock, and the tender relation between the two is undisturbed and indestructible.

If I were a Christian only on my good behaviour, woe is me. If I belong to the flock only because of the day’s calm, or the richness of the pasture, and because of the plentifulness of all I need, then is my Christianity no faith at all: it is a thing of circumstances, it is subject to climatic changes: any number of accidents may come down upon it and utterly alter its quality and its vital relations. I stand in Christ, I am redeemed with blood; the work is done; where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. The church was just as much a church when she was in dens and in caves of the earth, destitute, tormented, afflicted, as when she roofed herself in and painted the roof with gay colours and lighted up the house with rare lights. Let us more and more understand that our election and standing are of God, and are not tossed about, varied and rendered uncertain, by the tumultuous accidents of time or by the sharp variations of a necessary and profitable discipline.

Jesus Christ stood always upon the written word. When the devil first tempted him, he answered, “It is written.” Now when the devil has returned to him with the whole host of hell embattled against his trembling life, he begins to quote the Scriptures once more. What could we do without the writing? We need something to refer to, to stand upon, to quote the positive and real word. When our mouth is filled with that, we feel as if we were equipped for battle. You must not have your Scriptures to extemporize when you need them suddenly: the Bible must be old, venerable, dwelling in your heart, ruling all your thinking, and must be quoted as a familiar expression, and not as a rare and curious saying with which the tongue is unacquainted, and to which it takes but unskilfully as to a tune not heard before. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” then, in the fight in the wilderness, you will be master, and in the night of smiting and scattering you will be able to speak of Resurrection and Reunion. Do not let us live in accidents, in transient circumstances and in variable and uncertain relations. We have a written word in which we may hide ourselves, we have a testimony cut up into sentences, so concise that a child can quote them, and written with so plain and keen a finger, that if they be quoted with the earnestness of the heart, the very tempter himself will reel under the shock of their quotation.

It is the Shepherd that is calm, though he is going to be “smitten.” the rod is lifted up that will fall heavily upon him, and whilst he yet sees it uplifted in the air, he says to the flock, “But after I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee.” This is not something unexpected or unforeseen: an ancient prophecy is about to be fulfilled, but after it is fulfilled in what we may term its harsher aspects and meanings, there will come the broad morning of Resurrection, and the infinite joy of renewed, continued, and endless communion.

I am afraid that some of us do but meanly live from day to day in this Christian life. In one sense that is right that is, so far as the supply of immediate and peculiar necessity is concerned; but as to its depth, serenity, solidity, and irrevocableness, it is not something buttressed up every day by some new act of masonry: it lies deeper than the granite at the heart of all things. Be peaceful, be quiet, be filled with the peace of God. The climate changes, but the sun is the same, and is daily relighted by the same hand.

Peter answered and said unto him, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” When men boast, such exaggeration is itself fall. If he had ended there, he would have ended as a fallen man. There is a time when even to speak is a vulgarity: there is a time when to contradict is black blasphemy: there are times when men ought at least to think in quietness, and to nurse their resolutions in the secrecy of unuttered prayer. Some virtues are vices that is to say, their exaggeration becomes vicious. So there were men who prayed so much that they never prayed at all. They lost the spirit of prayer, they did not know its meaning; it became an exercise in speech, in the utterance of language and involved sentences oft repeated, until the exercise became purely mechanical, and so the prayerful words were prayerless speeches, and God neither heard nor answered.

So there is a fast that becomes feasting, and there is a steadfastness that becomes bravado. Let us take care lest we exaggerate our virtues into vices.

Jesus Christ performed what we may call in some sense the last of his miracles. It was in sweet and tender harmony with the grand music of the occasion. Said he, “Verily I say unto thee, Peter, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” It was a mental miracle, an instance of that prescience of Christ which gave him his infinite superiority above all other teachers. We have seen how often he read the heart, and gave language to the unuttered thought, and brought the fire of shame to the cheek of men who supposed that their heart-thoughts were unread and unknown. Here Christ repeats the mental miracle of foretelling the mental condition of his senior disciple, and his moral lapse within a given period of time. How emphatic he makes it; there is music in the word “thrice,” it is a rhetorical word; all happily balanced rhetorical sentences have in them three members: so there is to be here an emphasis of completeness, harmony, and undeniableness of reality. Thrice. The bad man “walks,” “stands,” “sits” so it must ever be. Vice must take its little rhetorical curriculum, and finish its bad career according to the ancient and unchangeable rule. When Peter denied once, he might have recalled almost his breath, and denied that he had denied; but this boasting shall be humiliated, there shall be left no doubt or hesitancy on the part of Peter himself, that the denial was threefold, complete in its way infinite.

So verily it has been in the history of the whole world. We are not left in doubt as to our sin. It is thrice-sin, fold on fold, and to deny it is to aggravate it. There are no once-done sins, “Thou shalt deny me thrice.”

Peter said unto him, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.” It was honest ignorance: it was the worst kind of ignorance, the ignorance of one’s own heart. Until we know what our heart really is, we can have no conception of what Christ proposes to do. Young, strong, prosperous, flourishing, with the colour of health upon our cheeks, and with the energy of health in our step and our mien, we cannot understand Christ’s great speech to the heart. He must reduce us, humble us, grind us to powder, fill us with shame, drive us out to weep bitterly, and in that infinite rain of penitence he may say something to us that will lead us to God. Meanwhile he let the boastful man have the last word: to chide such ignorance was to waste energy and time. He allowed the disciples to have the last word. On other occasions he had the last word, but was this a time for chaffering, was this a season for the adjustment of relations, or for the assertion of supremacies? He allows the boaster to have the last word, thai; having his own word ringing in his ear, he may the more accurately and vividly remember it when the stroke falls and his tortuous lips utter the speech of denial.

“Then cometh Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane,” up to that time a local name. Just as the bread we have spoken about was ordinary, and suddenly became “body;” and the wine, the common red wine mixed with water, which suddenly under a touch and a look became “blood,” so this place called Gethsemane can never hence on through all the ages change its name. It was an olive-yard, and in it was the olive press. The olive was the emblem of peace. Under that great solemn passover moon there bent down One in infinite agony who is our Olive, our Peace. Let us repeat these words to the soul, till they become tender by gracious familiarity, “He is our Peace: he hath made both one.”

Then saith he unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” That is the time for a man to answer the question whether he has a soul. That is not a question for intellectual debate or metaphysical inquiry, or for the sharp exchange of skilfully chosen words. When such debate goes on, the soul may well have retired into some secret place to cry over the degradation to which it has been subjected by the superficial inquiry. There is a time when no other words will express a man’s consciousness and experience but… “my soul.” Speak to a man in those educational hours and a great pain goes through him like a dart of fire. Then dare you ask him if man has a soul? There are bodily troubles and there are troubles of the heart, and are there not griefs which are peculiarly agonies of the soul? For every blood-drop we are implicated in the fierce endurance and trial. Let not those come into this sanctuary who have no great woes, but into it there will come an innumerable and reverent host of hearts that have known the bitterness of sorrow and the grief of death. Do not suppose that the soul’s existence is to be proved by words. There will one day come into your life a pain which nothing but the soul could feel. Once felt it can never be forgotten. Wasted are those hours which we spend with men whose souls have never been tried. It is an exchange of words, a bantering of foolish sentences, one against the other. Let men meet who understand one another by the masonry of a common grief, and they will tell those who are outside how true it is, not only that man has a soul, but is one.

This is not a complaining voice. We have never heard the Master complain. He has stated his circumstances, he has told those who would follow him, without sufficiently counting the cost, that he had not where to lay his head, but he announced the circumstance with a cheerfulness of a divine content. Now he brings into his speech a tone we have never heard before. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Had he been doing wrong? No. Had he changed his course? No. Was he proposing to the world some new and forbidden line of liberty and delight? No. But the purpose of his own heart is ripening, and the divine decree is coming to the utterance of its last syllable, and the prophecy which has been the poetry and the light of the world is now about to pass into stern and solemn history, and in that transition this agony is felt.

Yet how human he is. “Tarry ye here,” said he, “and watch with me.” There are times when even a little child would be a defence for a strong man! There are hours of fear in which, could we but feel a child’s little touch, we should be men again! There is a loneliness which the soul cannot survive; it must fall before it like a victim, though, being true in itself, and gracious in its purpose, it will rise again, and the great multitude shall gather around it to maintain with it and through it eternal fellowship.

He would have with him the very men who were going to flee away from him. He could only build with such materials laid to his hand. It was rotten material sometimes we put out our hand to a yielding sod, thinking that perhaps it will not altogether give way till we get higher up through its uncertain help. These men were about to flee away from him, but he would just have them remain to give him such little comfort as was in the power of man to give under circumstances so tragic. You have been under the weight of long dark cold nights of loneliness, when a child’s little silvery laugh would have made you heroic as an army of soldiers. In such nights you have felt the need and the value of a little human sympathy. Oh the touch of a friend’s hand, the look of a loving eye, the utterance of a voice of trust and loyalty these would have been right eloquent in certain periods of intolerable silence!

“He went a little further and fell on his face.” There are weights that crush men down so! They do not then ask what is the proper attitude in prayer you will be told, you will be put into it, there is a force that will attitudinize you without any study on your part, a mighty terror force that will dash you on your face! In such circumstances ask a man as to the legitimacy and utility of prayer! Such are the circumstances for the answering of such questions. In one case you will discover whether man has a soul, in the other case you will discover whether it is any good to pray. The question is answered from within; the reply does not come as the answer to the long, connected, and subtle argument, but within you breathes the suppliant that will not be silenced, in your soul is the intercessor that will pray. Do not discuss these questions about the soul and prayer in cold blood and in cold words. Leave such great inquiries to be answered by the tragedies of your personal experience.

“And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed.” This is the Lord’s prayer! O my Father” why that is the prayer he taught us long ago just the same! What said he when we asked him, “Lord, teach us how to pray?” Said he, “Our Father.” Now, when he has to pray himself, what says he? “O my Father.” It is the same Jesus: He is the same yesterday, today, for ever. What, was God a Father still? When the Shepherd was being “smitten,” when the flock was being “scattered,” when the night was getting colder, deeper, darker, when in the wind was the breath of pursuing hell, was God still Father? By this standard let us try ourselves. If the great Ruler of the universe come to us in sunshine only, mighty, grand, majestic, royal, we have lived the wrong way: we should have lived up into tenderness and filial trust and gracious expectation, and the deep happy assurance that how dark soever be the clouds, they are the dust of our Father’s feet.

Now he is shut up and alone with God. There are times when we must keep our dearest companions at a little distance. There are seasons when a man must be as if he were the only man in God’s universe, and as though face-to-face speech with the Father could alone determine and overrule the crisis of agony. We pray a certain kind of prayer in the great congregation, a necessary and beautiful prayer, the expression of common praises and common wants. But there is another kind of prayer which none but God may hear. If it be heard by our mother even it will be spoiled. If we could know that the friendliest ear were overhearing it and catching the words before they got to God’s ear, we should feel as if the life-stream had been diverted and had changed its course and gone on a wrong career.

What are your troubles are they but transient aches and pains, small ailments for which the handiest doctor has an immediate remedy? Then you cannot follow into this great darkness of the passover-night. But is there bitterness of soul on any account whatsoever, real feeling in the innermost chambers, so to say, of the soul? then the Lord’s prayer is written here for our use according to the measure of our necessity. He will have the great harmony established; the great harmony of the universe takes all its utterance and expression from the divine will. The moment you have two wills in the universe, you break up its harmony: there can be in a harmonic universe but one will, and that is God’s; our will must fall into it, become part of it, and must express it in such phrase and accent as our circumstances enable us to realise.

Jesus Christ will now dispense with miracles: he could have performed a miracle by prayer, but he will not. This shall not be done by spears and swords and angelic hosts: it shall be a question of will. So the miracles might well have ended there, and have all sunk in the majestic cry, “Thy will be done.” There is no further prayer: that is the all-inclusive and all-culminating desire and petition. Yet the angels will come. We read elsewhere that an angel came and comforted him. Surely we have heard of that angel before where did we hear the rustling of those wings before? In the wilderness! “Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.” And here in Gethsemane, a bleaker wilderness, a drearier desert, when his soul was afire with an infinite agony, and when out of his skin there dropped as it were great drops of blood, behold an angel came and strengthened him!

The universe is one: who could live in a universe that was nothing but what he could see? What, the universe no bigger than my sight, my power of vision and capacity of intaking and realization? It were a mockery, not a universe. When you tell me the air is full of angels and the great blue heaven is an infinite church, and that all things live, that God is over all, blessed for ever you satisfy something that is in me, you answer an unuttered prayer!

Selected Notes

“Here, then, we have two subjects of contemplation distinctly marked out for us. 1. The irreparable Past. 2. The available Future. The words of Christ are not like the words of other men: his sentences do not end with the occasion which called them forth; every sentence of Christ’s is a deep principle of human life, and it is so with these sentences: ‘Sleep on now’ that is a principle; ‘Rise up, and let us be going’ that is another principle. The principle contained in ‘Sleep on now’ is this, that the past is irreparable, and after a certain moment waking will do no good. You may improve the future, the past is gone beyond recovery. As to all that is gone by, so far as the hope of altering it goes, you may sleep on and take your rest; there is no power in earth or heaven that can undo what has once been done.” (Robertson.) “Here seems to be a contradiction: he bids them rest, and yet by-and-by he says, ‘Arise, let us go hence.’ Some answer that he speaks by way of upbraiding and not of permitting; but Mark makes it plain, that after this speech, staying awhile, he stirred them up again, saying, ‘Let us go hence.’ For having bidden them sleep, he says, as after some interim granted, It sufficeth, and then the hour cometh, etc.” (Augustine.) “Even as water may be pierced with a weapon, and so likewise the fire and the air, yet they cannot be said to be wounded; so the body of Christ might be beaten, hanged up, and crucified, yet these passions in his body did lose the nature of passions, and the virtue of his body, without the sense of pain, received the violence of pain raging against him. The Lord’s body indeed had been sensible of pain if our body had been of the same nature to go upon the water, and not to make impression with our footsteps, and to go through doors that were shut. But seeing this nature is proper only to the Lord’s body, why is the flesh conceived by the Holy Ghost judged by the nature of a common body? He had a body indeed to suffer, but he had no nature to grieve.” (Hilary.)

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXII

THE BETHANY SUPPER; THE PASSOVER SUPPER; WASHING THE DISCIPLES’ FEET; PETER AND JUDAS AT THE LAST SUPPER

Harmony, pages 169-177 and Mat 26:1-25 ; Mat 26:31-35 ; Mar 14:1-8 ; Mar 14:27-31 ; Luk 22:1-16 ; Luk 22:21-38 , Joh 12:2-8 ; Joh 13:1-38 .

This section is taken from the events from our Lord’s great prophecy to his betrayal by Judas. The principal events in their order are: (1) Jesus predicts and the rulers plot his death; (2) the three great suppers at Bethany, the Passover, and the Lord’s Supper; (3) the farewell discourse of comfort to his disciples; (4) Christ’s great intercessory prayer; (5) Gethsemane.

Their importance consist not only in the signification of the events themselves, but also in the sharp contrasts of character in the light of the presence of Jesus, and their bearing upon the meaning of all the rest of the New Testament. The space devoted to them by the several historians is as follows: Matthew, Mark, and Luke give less than one chapter each; Paul a single paragraph; John four full chapters. Here we note the value of John’s contribution to this matter, with similar instances, and his great silences sometimes where the others speak, and the bearing of the facts on two points: Did he have the other histories before him when he wrote, and what one of the purposes of his writing? John’s large contribution to this matter, with similar instances for example, the early Judean ministry and the discourse on the Bread of Life in Capernaum, and his silences in the main concerning the Galilean ministry, clearly show that he did have before him the other histories when he wrote, and that one of his purposes was to supplement their story.

According to Dr. Broadus these intervening events between the prophecy and the betrayal are but successive steps through which our Lord seeks to prepare both himself and his disciples for his approaching death and their separation. They did prepare Christ himself but not his disciples, who did not understand until after his resurrection, nor indeed, fully, until after the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The Bethany supper. Bethany, the village, and Jerusalem, the city, are brought in sharp contrast. The Holy City rejects the Lord, and the little village entertains him by a special supper in his honor.

Two persons also are contrasted, viz.: Judas and Mary. This revealing light of places and persons was in Jesus. The revelations of Mary in her anointing were:

(1) Her faith in the Lord’s words about his approaching death, greater than that of any of the apostles. They were surprised; the great event came upon them as a surprise, but later they understood.

(2) It is a revelation of the greatness of her love, selecting the costliest and best of all she had without reservation to be used as an ointment for her Lord a preparation for his burial.

(3) It is a revelation of the far-reaching effect of what she did; as the ointment was diffused throughout the house, the fame of her glorious deed would be diffused throughout the world and to the end of time. Such love, such faith, no man has ever evinced.

This incident reveals Judas as one who had become a disciple for ambitious ends and greed. He, like Mary, is convinced now that Christ will not evade death, and that his ambitious desire of promotion in a worldly government will not be realized. The relation between Mary’s anointing and his bargain to sell his Lord arise from the fact that as he was treasurer of the funds, mainly contributed by the women who followed the Lord, and was a thief accustomed to appropriate to himself from this fund, and as Mary’s gift, in his judgment, should have been put into the treasury and thus increase the amount from which he could steal, he determined to get what he could in another direction. This treasury being about empty, and under such following as that of Mary was not likely to be increased, then he must turn somewhere else for money.

In the same way the light of the Lord’s presence revealed by marvelous contrast all other men or women who for a moment stood in that light. We would know nothing worth considering of Pilate, Caiaphas, and Herod, or the thieves on the cross, except as they stand revealed in the orbit of Christ’s light, in which they appear for a short time. On them that light confers the immortality of infamy; as in the case of others like Mary, it confers the immortality of honor.

The Passover supper. Our Lord’s intense desire to participate in this particular Passover arises from his knowledge of its relation to his own approaching death, he being the true Passover Lamb, the antitype, and because at this Passover supper is to be the great transition to the Supper of the New Covenant. Here the question arises: In the light of this and other passages, did he in fact eat the regular Passover supper? His words, “I will not eat it,” being only a part of a sentence, do not mean that he did not participate in the last Passover supper, but it means that he will not eat it again. That he did partake of this supper the text clearly shows. See the argument in Dr. Robertson’s note at the end of the Harmony. But the clause, “Until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Luk 22:16 ; Luk 22:29-30 ), needs explanation. Both the Passover supper and the Lord’s Supper, instituted thereafter, are shadows of substances in the heavens. There will be in the glory world a feasting, not on earthly materials, but on the spiritual food of the kingdom of God.

Our Lord washing the feet of the apostles. When we carefully examine Luk 22:24-30 and John’s account, we find that the disciples, having complied with the ablutions required by the Levitical law preparatory to the Passover, knew that when they got to the place of celebrating, somebody must perform the menial service of washing the feet which had become defiled by the long walk to the place. Hence a controversy arose as to greatness and precedence; each one, on account of what he conceived to be his high position in the kingdom, was unwilling to do the needed service. This washing of feet was connected with the Passover, an Old Testament ordinance, and not with our Lord’s Supper, a New Testament ordinance. A Southern theologian, Rev. John L. Dagg, preached a brief, simple, but very great sermon on this washing of feet, found in the Virginia Baptist Pulpit, an old book now out of print. That sermon gives two classes of scriptures, and analyzes this washing of feet, giving its lessons and showing how it cannot be a New Testament church ordinance, as follows: The two classes of scriptures are: (1) Those which refer to the purifications required before entering the Passover proper, or its attendant seven-day festival of unleavened bread, e.g., Num 9:6-10 ; 2Ch 30:2-4 ; 2Ch 30:17-20 ; Luk 22:14-30 ; Joh 13:1-26 ; Joh 18:28 . (2) Those referring to the ablution of feet, before an ordinary meal and as an act of hospitality, e. g., Gen 18:4 ; Gen 19:2 ; Gen 24:32 ; Gen 43:24 ; Jdg 19:21 ; 1Sa 25:41 ; Luk 7:38-44 ; Joh 12:2-3 ; 1Ti 5:10 , counting, particularly, I Samuel 25-41 with Luk 7:38-44 and 1Ti 5:10 .

The feast of Joh 18:28 is the feast of unleavened bread following the Passover supper. Here we need also to explain Joh 13:31-32 and the new commandment, Joh 13:34 , in the light of 2Jn 1:5 , where it is said to be not new.

(1) The going out of Judas to betray his Lord through the prompting of Satan, Jesus knowing it to be the last step before his person should pass into the hands of his enemies that would result in that expiatory death which would bring about his own glory, used the words, “Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him.”

(2) When Jesus says in Joh 13:34 , “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another,” it was indeed new to their apprehension at that time, but when very many years later, John, in his second letter, declares it to be not a new commandment, but one they had from the beginning, he means by the beginning, this declaration in Joh 13:34 . But since that time the Holy Spirit had come, and many years of intervening events in which the disciples had understood and practiced the commandment until it was no longer new, when John wrote his second letter.

Peter and Judas (it the last Passover. These two persons are revealed, in the light of Christ’s presence at this last Passover. Peter, standing in the light of Christ, is shown indeed to be a sincere man and true Christian, but one greatly ignorant and self-confident. He is evidently priding himself upon the special honor conferred upon him at Caesarea Philippi, and has no shadow of doubt about his own future fidelity. In this connection Christ makes a triple prediction, which is a remarkable one. This we find set forth on pages 176-177 of the Harmony. He predicted that Judas would betray him; that every one of them would be offended at him, and that Peter would deny him outright three times. What a remarkable prediction! that with those chosen ones before whom he had displayed all of his miraculous powers and with whom he had been intimately associated so long, and who had received such highly responsible positions and who had been trained by him, to whom he had expounded the principles of the kingdom of God that he would say to them, “All of you shall be offended in me this night.” It was very hard for them to believe that this could take place, and when he went beyond that to predict that Peter would deny him outright, Peter just couldn’t believe it.

In Luk 22:3-32 ; Job 1:6-12 ; Job 2:1-6 ; Joh 10:15 ; Joh 10:28-29 ; 1Jn 5:18 ; Jud 1:9 , are five distinct limitations of Satan’s power toward Christians, with the meritorious ground of the limitations. Looking at Luke’s account, Harmony, page 176 near the bottom: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you” “you” being plural, meaning all the apostles “by asking.” To give it literally, “Satan hath obtained you by asking that he might sift you as wheat.” That is one of the greatest texts in the Bible: “Satan hath obtained you apostles by asking that he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee,” using a singular pronoun and not a plural, “that thy faith fail not: and when thou art turned, strengthen [or confirm] thy brethren.” Thus is expressed one of the limitations of Satan’s power.

By looking at Job I we find that Satan has to make stated reports to God of all that he does, wherever he goes. I have heard ministers preach on that text “When the sons of God came, Satan appeared among them,” and they seemed to misunderstand altogether the signification of it. Satan did not make any appearance there because he wanted to, but because he had to. Not only good angels, but evil angels, are under the continual control of God, and they have to make stated reports to God. God catechized Satan: “Where have you been?” Satan replies, “Wandering up and down through the earth.” “Did you see my servant, Job?” “Yes.” “Did you consider him?” “Yes, walked all around him. Wanted to get at him.” “What kept you from getting at him?” “You have a hedge built around him, and I couldn’t get to him.” “What is your opinion of him?” “Why, I think if you would let me get at him I would show you there is not as much in him as you think there is.” Let the Christian get that thought deep into the heart, that Satan is compelled to come before God with the holy angels and make his report to God of every place he has been, of every Christian he has inspected and what his thoughts were about that Christian, what he wants to do with that Christian that he has to lay it all before God. That is the first limitation.

Let us take the second limitation: “Simon, Satan hath obtained you by asking.” The second limitation is that he can’t touch a Christian with his little finger without the permission of God. That is very comforting to me. Satan walks all around us, and it is in his mind to do us damage, for he would destroy us if he could, and if he can’t destroy us, he will worry us. So a wolf will prowl around a fold of sheep and want to eat a sheep mighty bad, but before Satan can touch that Christian at all he has to ask permission has to go to Jesus and ask permission.

The third limitation is that when he gets the permission, it is confined to something that is really beneficial to the Christian: “Satan hath obtained you by asking that he may sift you as wheat.” If he had asked that he might burn them like chaff it would not have been granted, but he asked that he might sift them as wheat. It doesn’t hurt wheat to be sifted. The more we separate the pure grain from the chaff the better. So you see that limitation. Satan made that request on this account: He thought God loved Peter and Jesus loved Peter, so that if Jesus sifted him he would not shake him hard. But Satan says, “I have been watching these twelve apostles. You let me shake them up.” And at the first shake-up he sifted Judas out entirely, and Peter got an awful fall. Don’t forget in your own experience, for the comfort of your own heart, that the devil can’t touch you except in the direction of discipline that will really be for your good.

The fourth limitation: Even when he obtains permission to act for God in a lesson of discipline, he can’t take the Christian beyond the High Priest’s intercession: “But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.” “Now I will let Satan take you in hand. You need to be taken in hand by somebody. You have very wrong notions. You think that a man’s salvation depends on his hold on Christ, while it really depends on Christ’s hold on him, and you are sure that if everybody else turns loose, you will stand like a rock till you die.” In other words, Peter says, “I keep myself.” Jesus was willing for Satan, by sifting Peter, to discover to him that if his salvation depended on his hold on Christ, the devil would get him in a minute. It depended on Christ’s hold on Peter. So we have that limitation that Satan is not permitted, even after he obtains permission to worry or tempt a Christian, to take him beyond the intercession of the High Priest; Christ prayed for Peter. We will, in a later discussion, see how he prays for all that believe on him, and all that believe on him through the word of these apostles, and he ever liveth to make intercession for us, and that is the reason we are saved unto the uttermost. He is able to save unto the uttermost because he ever liveth to make intercession.

The last limitation of Satan:

Satan cannot cause a Christian to commit the unpardonable sin. He can’t touch the Christian’s life.

When Satan asked permission to try Job, God consented for him to take away his property and bring temporal death to his children, but not to touch Job’s life. And John (1Jn 5:16 ), in discussing the two kinds of sin the sin which is not unto death and the sin which is unto death says, “When you see a brother sin a sin which is not unto death, if you will pray to God he will forgive him, but there is a sin which is unto death. I do not say that you shall pray for it.” Prayer doesn’t touch that at all. “And whosoever is born of God does not commit sin [unto death], and cannot, because the seed of God remains in him and he cannot sin it, because that wicked one toucheth him not.” Satan never has been able to destroy a Christian. As Paul puts it: “I am persuaded that neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Or, as Jesus says, in talking about his sheep, “My father is greater than all, and none can pluck them out of his hand.” To recapitulate: The first limitation of Satan he must make report statedly to God; second limitation he must ask permission before he touches a Christian; third limitation he can then only do to a Christian what is best for the Christian to have done to him; fourth limitation he cannot take a Christian beyond the intercession of the High Priest; fifth limitation he cannot make the Christian commit the unpardonable sin.

Let us set over against that the revelation of Judas in Joh 12:4-6 ; Luk 22:3-6 ; Mat 26:23 ; Luk 22:48 ; Mat 27:3-5 ; Act 1:16-20 , showing the spiritual status, change of conviction, and trace the workings of his mind in selling and betraying Jesus, his subsequent remorse, despair and suicide, with no limitations of Satan’s power in his case. When we carefully read in the proper order the statements concerning Judas in Joh 12:4-6 , we behold him outwardly a disciple, but inwardly a thief. In the subsequent references to him (Luk 22:3-6 ; Mat 26:23 ; Luk 22:48 ; Mat 27:3-5 ; Act 1:16-20 ), the whole man stands clearly before us. Evidently he expected, when he commenced to follow Christ, that he would be the Messiah according to the Jewish conception a king of the Jews and a conqueror of the world and that there would come to him high position and great wealth as standing close to the Lord, but when subsequent developments made it plain to him that Christ’s kingdom was not to be of this world, and that his enemies were to put him to death, and that neither worldly honors nor wealth would come to his followers, then he determined to sell and betray his Lord. We are indeed surprised at the small price at which he sells his Lord and himself, but our only account for it is that he was under the promptings of Satan, and as Satan, having used a man and wrecked him, leaves him to his own resources, it is quite natural that remorse and despair should come to Judas. If there be something worth having in the spiritual kingdom, he has lost that. He has gained nothing by betraying and selling his Lord, and now in his despair, there being no limitation of Satan’s power over a lost soul, he is goaded to suicide. We cannot account for Judas and leave Satan out.

Arminians apply the doctrine of apostasy to both Judas and Peter. They say that Peter was truly converted and utterly fell away from the grace of God, and after the resurrection was newly converted. They say that Judas was a real Christian and fell from grace, and was finally lost. Though Adam dark, the noted Methodist commentator, contends that Solomon was a Christian and apostatized and was lost, he contends that Judas, after his apostasy, repented and was saved.

Somewhere about 1875 there appeared a poem in the Edin- burgh Review, which gave this philosophy of the betrayal of Judas: It affirms that Judas was a true Christian and did not mean to bring about the death of Christ, but thought that if he would betray Christ into the hands of his enemies that the Lord would at the right time, by the display of his miraculous power, destroy his enemies and establish his earthly kingdom. But when he found that the Lord refused to exercise his miraculous power to avert his death, then he was filled with remorse that he had precipitated this calamity. The poem is a masterly one, but attributes to Judas motives foreign to any revelation of him in the New Testament. The New Testament declares him to be a thief, and that what prompted him to sell the Lord was the waste of the ointment on Jesus that might have been put into the treasury, which he not only disbursed, but from which he abstracted what he would.

It is seen in Luk 22:32 that Peter did establish the brethren. “When once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.” The word convert in the King James Version, “when thou art converted,” does not mean “when thou art regenerated.” It is used there in its etymological sense. Here is a man going through temptation. He has a wrong notion in his mind. “Now, when thou art turned, establish thy brethren.” He is to establish them on the same point where he has been wrong, and got into trouble by it, and now he is to consider that the other brethren will have the same weakness, and he must, as a teacher, confirm them upon that weak point.

If we turn to 1 Peter we will see how he did establish the brethren on that very point. He thought then he could keep himself that he could hold on to Jesus, while weak-kneed people, weak-handed people, might turn loose, but he would not. Now, Jesus says, “When you are turned from that error, establish your brethren on that very point.” In 1Pe 1 , he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens for you, who, by the power of God are guarded through faith.” How long and unto what? “Unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” “You who are kept through the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last day.”

You have learned a great lesson if you will take into your heart all of the thoughts in connection with Peter that we have been discussing here, for every point that you can get clear in your mind that touches the devil, will be very helpful to you.

On page 177 of the Harmony we come to this statement: “And he said unto them, When I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoes, lacked you anything?” They said, “Nothing.” By reading Mat 10 and Luk 10 you will find that the Lord there ordains that they that preach the gospel should live by the gospel: “The laborer is worthy of his hire.”

You don’t have to furnish out of your own pocket the expenses of your living while you are preaching for Jesus Christ. Ha is to take care of you. You are to live of the gospel.

And now he puts a question, “When I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoes, lacked you anything?” A great deal is involved in that. Christ promised to take care of them. “I send you out like no set of men were ever sent before on such a mission in the world.” A soldier does not go to war on his own charges. The government takes care of him: “I send you out that way.”

But this commission was temporarily suspended at this Passover: “And he said unto them, but now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet: and he that hath none let him sell his clothes and buy a sword. [He that hath no sword, let him sell his clothes and buy a sword.] For I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he was reckoned with the transgressors: for that which concerneth me hath fulfillment. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords, and he said unto them, it is enough” (Luk 22:36-38 ).

Now, I will give you some sound doctrine. Christ had ordained that they who left everything and committed themselves with absolute consecration to his service, that he would take care of them, and he established and ordered that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Now he comes to a time when he is going to reverse that: “There is just ahead of you and very near to you a separation from me, and as much as you are separated from me, i.e., as long as I lie in the grave dead, you will have to take care of yourselves. If you have a purse, take it, and you will not only have to take care of yourselves, but you will have to defend yourselves. If you haven’t a sword, buy one.” But that suspension was only for the time that he was in the grave.

Peter applied it both too soon and too late. This is a peculiarity of Peter. See my sermon in my first book of sermons called, “From Simon to Cephas.” “Simon” means a hearer, and “Cephas” means established a stone. But Peter here was both too short and too long in getting hold of what Christ meant. He was too short in this, that he used that sword before Christ was separated from him. He cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. He was not to depend on the sword and not to defend himself as long as the Master was with him. As long as Jesus is alive, we don’t use our swords to take care of ourselves. When Jesus is dead, we may. Peter was too short. He commenced too soon and used the sword. Now I will show that be was too long. After Christ rose from the dead, Peter says, “I go a fishing.” In other words, “I go back to my old occupation; I must make a living, and my occupation is fishing, and times are getting hard. I go back to my fishing.” It did not apply then, because Jesus was risen and alive. So he took that too far. He commenced too soon, and he carried, it too far.

Whoever opposes ministerial support, and I mean by ministerial support the support of a man who consecrates himself in faith, who does like Peter said they did, “Lord, we left all to follow thee,” and whoever opposes the ordinance of Jesus Christ, that they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel, virtually put themselves under a dead Christ. They virtually say that Jesus has not risen from the dead.

They go under this temporary commission: “He that hath a purse, let him take it, and a wallet, let him take that, and he that hath no sword, let him take his coat and sell it and buy one to defend himself with. Let the preacher do like other people do.” They that take that position virtually deny the resurrection of Christ, and virtually affirm that Jesus Christ is not living. Just as soon as Jesus rose from the dead he said, “Now you can put that sword away, Peter. There was a time when you could defend yourself and make your own living, and that was while I was dead.” But we believe that Christ is now alive. He is risen indeed: “I am he that was dead) but am alive to die no more.”

The man who believes that God has called him to preach ought to burn the bridges behind him.

A deacon got up once, when we were ordaining a preacher and said, “I am leaving it to the presbytery here to ask the things on doctrine, but I have a question to ask: ‘Do you, in seeking this office and submitting to this ordination, burn every bridge between you and the secular life, or do you leave that bridge standing, thinking in your mind that if you don’t make a living you will go back and take up the secular trade?’ ” “Well,” the candidate said, “I will have to study about that.” The deacon replied, “I will have to study about voting for your ordination until you are ready to answer that question.” One of the sharpest sentences I ever made in my life was a declaration that:

No man on earth that God called to preach and who burned absolutely all the bridges behind him and really trusted in Jesus Christ to take care of him, ever failed of being taken care of.

That is a hard saying and a broad one, but it is the truth. And whenever a preacher is disposed to question that, let him remember the words of Jesus Christ, “I sent you out without purse or wallet, or sword. You just took your life into your hands. You went out as sheep among the wolves. Did you lack anything?” You won’t lack anything that is good for you. Sometimes you will get mighty hungry. I don’t say you won’t get hungry. Sometimes you will get cold. I don’t deny that.

But I do affirm before God that whoever puts himself unreservedly upon the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and keeps himself on that, either God will take care of him, or it is the best for him to die, one or the other. Never any good comes from doubting.

QUESTIONS 1. From what great division is this section taken?

2. What are the principal events in their order?

3. What is their importance?

4. What space devoted to them by the several historians?

5. What value of John’s contribution to this matter?

6. According to Dr. Broadus what successive steps do we find in this group of events?

7. Did they prepare Christ himself but not his disciples for his approaching death?

8. What two places are revealed in sharp contrast by the Bethany supper?

9. What two persons are also contrasted?

10. In whom was this revealing light of places and persons?

11. What revelations of Mary in her anointing?

12. What revelation of Judas and the relation between Mary’s anointing and his bargaining to sell our Lord?

13. Show how the light of our Lord’s presence revealed others also.

14. Explain our Lord’s intense desire to eat this particular Passover (Luk 22:15 ).

15. Explain “I will not eat it” (Luk 22:16 ).

16. Explain “until it be fulfilled, etc.” (Luk 22:16 ; Luk 22:29-30 ).

17. What was the occasion of the foot-washing in Joh 13 ?

18. Was it connected with the Passover or the Lord’s Supper?

19. What sermon on it is commended?

20. What two classes of scriptures cited and what are the lessons?

21. What was the feast of Joh 18:28 ?

22. Explain Joh 13:31-32 ; Joh 13:34 in the light of 2Jn 1:5 .

23. What two persons are revealed in the light of Christ’s presence at this last Passover?

24. Analyze the revelation of Peter.

25. What triple prediction did Christ set forth in this connection, and what makes it a remarkable prediction?

26. Give five distinct limitations of Satan and the scriptures therefore.

27. Correlate and analyze the scriptures on Judas.

28. How do Arminians apply the doctrine of apostasy to both Judas and Peter and what was the reply?

29. What was the explanation of Judas’ betrayal of our Lord, in the Edinburgh Review)

30. What the meaning and application of Luk 22:32 and what the evidence from his letter that Peter did this?

31. What is the law of ministerial support?

32. What was the reason of its temporary suspension at this Passover?

33. How long was the suspension?

34. How and wherein did Peter apply it too soon and too late?

35. What does one who opposes ministerial support virtually say, and what the lesson for the preachers?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

Ver. 31. All ye shall be offended because of me ] Why? what had that righteous one done? Nothing but that his cross lay in their way, whereat they stumbled shamefully, and left him to wonder that he was “left alone,”Isa 63:5Isa 63:5 . Adversity is friendless ( ), saith one heathen (Ovid); Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides, saith another. Job found his friends like the brooks of Tema, which in a moisture swell, in a drought fail. Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.

For it is written, I will smite ] This our Saviour purposely subjoineth, for their support under the sense of their base deserting him. A foul sin it was, but yet such as was long since set down of them; not without a sweet promise of their recollection, “I will turn my hand upon the little ones,” Zec 13:7 ; or, I will bring back my hand to the little ones ( At reducam manum meam ad parvulos ), as Tremellius readeth it.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

31. ] (emphatic) seems to be used as distinguishing those present from the one, who had gone out.

. ] see note on ch. Mat 11:6 . The word is here used in a pregnant meaning, including what followed, desertion, and, in one case, denial.

] This is a very important citation, and has been much misunderstood; how much , may appear from Grotius’s remark: “Tantum abest ut Zachari verbis directe Christum putem respici, ut multo magis credam agi inibi de aliquo non bono pastore,” &c. But, on the contrary, if we examine Zechariah 11-13., we must I think come to the conclusion that the shepherd spoken of Mat 11:7-14 , who is rejected and sold , who is said to have been pierced ( Mat 12:10 ), is also spoken of in ch. Mat 13:7 . Stier (Reden Jesu, vi. 176 ff.) has gone at length into the meaning of the whole prophecy, and especially that of the word , ‘my fellow,’ and shewn that the reference can be to no other than the Messiah . The citation agrees verbatim with the LXX-A, except that is changed into God who commands the striking , into God who Himself strikes .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 26:31 . , then, on the way through the valley between the city and Olivet, the valley of Jehoshaphat (Kedron), suggestive of prophetic memories (Joe 3 , Zechariah 13, 14), leading up, as well as the present situation, to the topic. , all; one false-hearted, all without exception weak. , in what is to befal me. . . So near is the crisis, a matter of hours. The shadow of Gethsemane is beginning to fall on Christ’s own spirit, and He knows how it must fare with men unprepared for what is coming. : in Zec 13:7 , freely reproduced from the Hebrew.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 26:31-35

31Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’32But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” 33But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” 34Jesus said to Him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” 35Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too.

Mat 26:31 “You will all fall away” This states clearly that Jesus’ disciples will abandon Him in His hour of need (cf. Mat 26:56.) Only John stayed with Him and Peter followed at a distance. The rest fled!

“for it is written” This is a quote from Zec 13:7. It is interesting that the first eight chapters of Zechariah are quoted often in the book of the Revelation, while the last six are often quoted in the Gospels. It is YHWH who strikes the Shepherd (cf. Isa 53:6; Isa 53:10; Rom 8:32). This was always God’s plan of redemption (cf. Act 2:23; Act 3:18; Act 4:28; Act 13:29). See SPECIAL TOPIC: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN at Mat 24:14.

“sheep” Sheep became the animal metaphor used for the followers of Christ.

1. Mat 7:15 (false sheep)

2. Mat 9:36; Mat 26:3; Mar 14:27 (scattered flock)

3. Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24 (lost sheep of Israel)

4. Mat 10:16; Luk 10:3 (lambs among wolves)

5. Mat 18:12; Luk 15:6 (parable)

6. Mat 25:32-33 (sheep and goat judgment)

7. Mar 6:34 (sheep with no shepherd)

8. Joh 10:1-18 (Jesus as the Good Shepherd)

9. Joh 21:16-17 (Peter, feed my lambs and sheep)

10. 1Pe 2:25 (Isa 53:6, sheep going astray)

Mat 26:32 “after I have been raised” See Special Topic at Mat 27:63.

“I will go ahead of you to Galilee” This post-resurrection meeting is mentioned several times (cf. Mat 26:32; Mat 28:7; Mat 28:10; Mat 28:16-20; 1Co 15:6; and John 21). This should have been a great encouragement to the disciples, but they apparently did not understand.

Mat 26:33 “Even though all may fall away” Peter’s presumption is clearly seen. This is much like Mat 16:22-23, where Peter denies the Lord’s prediction.

Mat 26:34 “Truly I say to you” This is literally “amen,” which originally meant “to be firm,” but came to mean “I agree” or “I affirm.” Jesus used this term uniquely to begin significant statements. See Special Topic at Mat 5:1.

“a rooster crows” This occurred between 12:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. It must have been a Roman rooster because the Jews did not allow them in the holy city. There has been some speculation that there was a Roman trumpet signal called “The Crow of the Rooster,” which was sounded at the end of the watch at 3 a.m. However, this is still uncertain.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.

1. Why did the religious leaders want to kill Jesus?

2. What about the chronological problems among the four Gospels? Is the Bible in error?

3. Is Judas responsible for his action? What did he do? Why did he do it?

4. What is the significance of the Lord’s Supper?

5. Did Judas take the Lord’s Supper?

6. Why was the prediction of the disciples’apostasy recorded?

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY FOR Mat 26:36-75

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

be offended = stumble.

because of = in. Greek. en.

this night = in or during (Greek. en. App-104.) this very night.

it is written = it standeth written.

I will smite, &c. Reference to Zec 13:7. See App-107 and App-117. .

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

31.] (emphatic) seems to be used as distinguishing those present from the one, who had gone out.

.] see note on ch. Mat 11:6. The word is here used in a pregnant meaning, including what followed,-desertion, and, in one case, denial.

] This is a very important citation, and has been much misunderstood; how much, may appear from Grotiuss remark: Tantum abest ut Zachari verbis directe Christum putem respici, ut multo magis credam agi inibi de aliquo non bono pastore, &c. But, on the contrary, if we examine Zechariah 11-13., we must I think come to the conclusion that the shepherd spoken of Mat 11:7-14, who is rejected and sold, who is said to have been pierced (Mat 12:10), is also spoken of in ch. Mat 13:7. Stier (Reden Jesu, vi. 176 ff.) has gone at length into the meaning of the whole prophecy, and especially that of the word , my fellow, and shewn that the reference can be to no other than the Messiah. The citation agrees verbatim with the LXX-A, except that is changed into -God who commands the striking, into God who Himself strikes.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

The story of Peters denial of his Master is recorded in all four of the Gospels. There are some differences of expression in each version, so it will not be tautology if we read all four of them; and if we read them attentively, we shall get a clear view of the whole incident.

Mat 26:31-33. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

This was a very presumptuous speech, not only because of the self-confidence which it displayed, but also because it was a flat contradiction of what the Master had just said All ye shall be offended because of me this night. Peter thought he knew better than Christ did, so he said, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

Mat 26:34. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow,-

The cock-crowing was a recognized mark of time; it was just before the rising of the sun This night, before the cock crow,-

Mat 26:34-35. Thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.

Here, again, he contradicts his Master straight to his face.

Mat 26:35. Likewise also said all the disciples.

Mat 26:57-58. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priests palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.

Mat 26:69-75. Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

Now let us read Marks account, which will specially interest you if you remember that, probably, Mark wrote under the direction of Peter, and, no doubt, received many of his facts from Peter. You will notice how severe is this description of the whole scene; it is just snob an one as the chief actor in it would be sure to give as he recalled his fall and restoration.

This exposition consisted of readings from Mat 26:31-35; Mat 26:57-58; Mat 26:69-75 Mar 14:53-54; Mar 14:66-72 Luk 1:54-62; and Joh 18:15-18; Joh 18:25-27.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 26:31. , all ye) Our Lord had before foretold the crime of a single traitor.-, shall be offended) So that your faith in Me shall totter exceedingly. The same word occurs in Rom 14:21.-, it is written) The disciples might conclude that the prediction was about to be fulfilled that night, from the conjunction of the smiting of the shepherd, and the scattering of the sheep.-, I will smite) sc. with the sword, put by metonymy for the Cross, concerning which it was not the part of the prophets to write more expressly. In Zec 13:7, the LXX.[1141] have , , smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. God smote Jesus, since He delivered Him to be smitten.-, shall be scattered) The whole protection of the disciples, before the advent of the Paraclete, consisted in the presence of Jesus; who being smitten, they were dispersed.- , the sheep) The disciples were representatives of the whole flock which they were afterwards to collect.

[1141] So the Ed. of Grabe and Breitinger from the Cod. Alexandr. The text of Reineccius has , .-E. B.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

The King again Prophesying: Peter Protesting

Mat 26:31-32. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.

Observe our Lord’s habit of quoting Scripture. He was able to speak words of infallible truth, yet he fell back upon the Inspired Record in the Old Testament. His quotation from Zechariah does not seem to have been really necessary, but it was most appropriate to his prophecy to his disciples: “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered, abroad.” Jesus was the Shepherd who was about to be smitten, and he foretold the scattering of the sheep. Even those leaders of the flock that had been first chosen by Christ, and had been most with him, would stumble and fall away from him on that dread night; but the Shepherd would not lose them, there would be a reunion between him and his sheep: “After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.” Once again he would resume, for a little while, the character of their Shepherd-King, and with them he would revisit some of their old haunts in Galilee, ere he ascended to his heavenly home. “I will go before you,” suggests the idea of the Good Shepherd leading his flock after the Eastern manner. Happy are his sheep in having such a Leader, and blessed are they in following him whithersoever he goeth.

Mat 26:33. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

This was a very presumptuous speech, not only because of the self-confidence it betrayed, but also because it was a flat contradiction of the Master’s declaration. Jesus said, “All ye shall be offended because of mo this night;” but Peter thought he knew better than Christ, so he answered, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” No doubt these words were spoken from his heart; but “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Peter must have been amazed, the next morning, as he discovered the deceitfulness and wickedness of his own heart, as manifested in his triple denial of his Lord.

He who thinks himself so much stronger than his brethren, is the very man who will prove to be weaker than any of them, as did Peter, not many hours after his boast was uttered.

Mat 26:34. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

Jesus now tells his boastful disciple that, before the next morning’s cock-crowing, he will thrice deny his Lord. Not only would he stumble and fall with his fellow-disciples, but he would go beyond them all in his repeated denials of that dear Master whom he professed to love with intenser affection than even John possessed. Peter declared that he would remain true to Christ if he were the only faithful friend left; Jesus foretold that, of all the twelve, only Judas would exceed the boaster in wickedness.

Mat 26:35. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

Here again Peter contradicts his Master straight to his face. It was a pity that he should have boasted once after his Lord’s plain prophecy that all the disciples would that night be offended because of him; but it was shameful that Peter should repeat his self-confident declaration in the teeth of Christ’s express prediction concerning him. He was not alone in his utterance, for likewise also said all the disciples. They all felt that under no circumstances could they deny their Lord. We have no record of the denial of Christ by the other ten apostles, although they all forsook him and fled, and thus practically disowned him. Remembering all that they had seen and heard of him, and especially bearing in mind his most recent discourses, the communion in the upper room, and his wondrous intercessory prayer on their behalf, we are not surprised that they felt themselves bound to him for ever. But, alas! notwithstanding their protests, the King’s prophecy was completely fulfilled, for that night they were all “offended”, or “caused to stumble” (R.V. margin), and Peter thrice denied his Lord.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

All: Mat 26:56, Mat 11:6, Mat 24:9, Mat 24:10, Mar 14:27, Mar 14:28, Luk 22:31, Luk 22:32, Joh 16:32

I will: Isa 53:10, Zec 13:7

and the: Job 6:15-22, Job 19:13-16, Psa 38:11, Psa 69:20, Psa 88:18, Lam 1:19, Eze 34:5, Eze 34:6

Reciprocal: 2Sa 17:2 – I will smite Job 6:21 – ye see Mat 5:30 – offend Mat 13:21 – is Mat 28:6 – as Mar 1:2 – written Mar 2:20 – be taken Joh 13:37 – why Joh 16:1 – General Joh 18:4 – knowing

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

6:31

While on their way to the mount of Olives Jesus said many things to his apostles. Chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17 of John were spoken as they were going, but Matthew records only what is in verses 31-35. Shall be offended or be caused to stumble. It means that something was going to happen that would cause them to falter in their devotion to Christ. This lack of devotion was to be manifested by the fact of their deserting him and fleeing. Jesus said it was written and we may read the prediction in Zec 13:7.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 26:31. All ye. Not without a contrast to Judas who had gone.

Shall be offended; made to stumble, fall away.

In me, i.e., His betrayal and sufferings, this night, would be made by them an occasion of stumbling, a snare; they would forsake and deny Him.

For it is written (Zec 13:7). Our Lord, knowing what would come, knew also that it was designed to fulfil this prophecy.

I will smite the Shepherd, etc. In the prophecy: Smite, a command. This change suggests that the coming sufferings were not only at the hands of men, but in some proper sense inflicted by God Himself; God smote Him instead of His people (comp. Isa 53:4-10). The Shepherd is Christ, and in the original prophecy meant the Messiah (comp. Zec 11:7-14; Zec 12:10).

And the sheep of the flock; the Apostles, but with a wider reference also to the Jewish people.

Scattered abroad. This occurred both in the case of the disciples, and of the Jews, after they had rejected the smitten Shepherd.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here our Saviour acquaints his disciples, that by reason of his approaching sufferings, they should all of them be so exceedingly offended, that they would certainly forsake and leave him; which accordingly came to pass.

Learn thence, That Christ’s dearest friends forsook him, and left him alone in the midst of his greatest distress and danger.

Observe, 2. What was the cause of this their flight, it was the prevalency of their fear.

Thence note, How sad it is for the holiest and best of men to be left under the power of their own fears in a day of temptation.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

JESUS PREDICTS THE FALL OF PETER AND THE DISPERSION OF THE APOSTLES

Mat 26:31-35; Mar 14:27-31; Luk 22:31-38;Joh 13:36-38. N.B. They are all still at the supper-table except Judas, who, at nightfall, went away alone and not alone, for Satan went with him. Simon Peter says to Him, Lord, whither art Thou going? Jesus responded to him, Whither I go, thou art not able to follow Me now; but shall follow Me hereafter. Peter says to Him, Lord, wherefore am I not able to follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thee. Peter absolutely and sincerely meant all he said, and yet in a few hours denied Him, illustrating the horrific instability of unsanctified humanity. After Peter received the fiery baptism, he was more than a match for earth and hell, living a hero and dying a martyr. What an admonition is Peters case to all to get sanctified!

Mat 26:31. Then Jesus says to them, All you will be offended in Me this night. For it has been written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. (Zec 13:7) The application of this is very plain and simple, as it was fulfilled in Gethsemane about three hours after this utterance. And after I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. Jesus had repeatedly predicted to them that He would meet them in Galilee, His native land and that of most of His apostles, whither they all went soon after His resurrection, and He met them on the bank of the Galilean Sea, after a night of toil in dragging their nets through the waters; but then, to their unutterable surprise, pursuant to His mandate, casting the net on the right side of the ship, they caught one hundred and fifty-three large fish. He also met them on one of the mountains of Galilee, not named.

Peter, responding, said to Him, If all shall be offended in Thee, I will never be offended. Peter was no hypocrite. He meant all he said; yet before the crowing of the cock that very night, he denied that he knew Him.

Luk 22:31. The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan sought after you, to sift you like wheat. Here the pronoun you is humas, the plural number, including not only Peter, but all of the apostles. All the depravity in human nature belongs to Satan, because he put it there in the fall. All sin is the crop of Satans own sowing. So long as there is anything in you which Satan can sift out, you are not ready for heaven. Satan could not sift Jesus, because when he came to Him, he found nothing in Him belonging to him. After the apostles were all sanctified at Pentecost, Satans sifting was fruitless toil, as the celestial flame had consumed all the chaff, straw, cheat, cockle, and trash, leaving nothing but the pure wheat, ready for the Lords mill. But I prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. You is in the singular number, meaning Peter alone, as the especial subject of the Saviors prayer in this case, lest he might be gobbled up by Satan. Jesus here tells them, You will all be offended in Me this night. This word is from scandalon, a stumbling-block, showing that they all ran over a great stumbling-block, which jostled them exceedingly, and Peter, the most sanguine of all, became more seriously upset than any of his comrades. This word, however, does not convey the idea of a total apostasy, but a stumbling and temporary backsliding, the prayer of Jesus prevailing, so that the faith, though terribly tried, did not utterly let go. And you, having turned, then strengthen your brethren. When thou art converted, E. V., is too strong a rendering of epistrepsas, which simply means having turned, being in the active voice; i. e., Having turned from your backsliding, strengthen your brethren. Peter was the senior apostle, his house in Capernaum being headquarters of Jesus during the two and a half years of His ministry in Galilee. Therefore he wielded a very potent influence over his brethren, who, of course, being jostled by his backsliding, would need confirmation by his confession and testimony. And he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with Thee to prison, and to death. Mar 14:30 : And Jesus says to him, Truly I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crows twice, thou shall deny Me thrice. And he continued to say the more positively, If it may be necessary for me to die along with Thee, I will not deny Thee. And all the others said likewise. You see how sanguine Peter was, feeling perfectly sure; and yet when the emergency came he failed. A significant illustration of the bold utterances of unsanctified Christians, believing indubitably that they will do just what they say; but signally failing, because they have an indwelling enemy stronger than they.

Luk 22:35-38. And He said to them, When I sent you out without purse, valise, and sandals, did you lack anything? And they said, Nothing. Then He said to them, But now, let the one having purse take it, likewise also valise; and let every one not having a sword, sell his cloak and purchase one. For I say unto you, that it behooveth that which has been written yet to be fulfilled in Me, And He was numbered with the transgressors [Isa 53:12]; and those things concerning Me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said to them, It is sufficient. While our Savior was with them on the earth, He miraculously fed, clothed, and protected them when it was necessary. Consequently they could go without these provisions, incident to human life, indiscriminately. But now that He is going away to leave them, they must take heed and give the necessary attention to the temporalities essential to their physical support and protection. The Orientals wear two garments the cheiton, interior, and the himation, exterior. The outer garment they frequently carried while traveling and laid aside when at labor, keeping it for night and storms. Jesus here tells them, if necessary, to sell the himation and buy a sword. I never could understand why He told them to take a sword till I traveled in that country and saw the necessity of carrying weapons. I did not carry any, as I did not know how to use them; but a sanctified preacher in our company carried a revolver, our dragman also being armed with a revolver and a dagger. In some places we were compelled to hire an armed escort to keep the robbers off. Why were you compelled to do it? Our guide refused to go without the armed escort. Going round in Jerusalem, men, as a rule, had no visible weapons; but traveling through the country, all we met were armed with guns, swords, or huge clubs, almost as large as an American rifle, and convenient to kill a man with a single stroke. The guide-books advise all travelers to go armed, but not to use their weapons, their utility being that of intimidation, as robbers abound everywhere, who do not content themselves by simply taking your money, but take everything you possess, leaving you utterly destitute of clothing, baggage, etc. In that day there were no firearms, the sword being the most common weapon of defense; also regarded as a badge of itinerancy. You see, when they pointed out these two swords, He said they were sufficient. The presumption is that the sword was a prudential, peace, and safety provision, for the intimidation of robbers and for personal security in case of emergency, as persons openly avowing the absence of all protecting weapons in their peregrinations would soon fall a prey to the robbers. Along the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho, where the traveler (Luke 10) was attacked by the robbers, the Roman Government had a garrison of armed men to protect the travelers, as the robbers were so troublesome.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

26:31 {8} Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

(8) Christ, here taking more care of his disciples than of himself, forewarns them of their falling away, and provides them with some comfort.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus’ prediction of the disciples’ abandonment and denial 26:31-35 (cf. Mar 14:27-31; Luk 22:31-38; Joh 13:31-38)

Jesus evidently gave this prediction before He and His disciples left the upper room (cf. Luk 21:31-38; Joh 13:36-38). Matthew and Mark probably placed it where they did in their Gospels to stress the gravity of the disciples’ defection and Peter’s denial. [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 540.] Matthew presented Jesus as knowing exactly what lay ahead of Him. He was not a victim of fate, but He deliberately approached His death as a willing sacrifice and prepared His disciples carefully for the trauma of that event.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

"Then" (Gr. tote) here expresses a logical rather than a temporal connection with what precedes. Jesus emphasized that the disciples would desert Him very soon, that very night. They would find Him to be a source of stumbling (Gr. skandalon, cf. Mat 11:6). Jesus’ arrest would trip them up, and they would temporarily stop following Him faithfully. They still did not understand that the Messiah must die. By quoting Zec 13:7 freely Jesus was telling them again that He would die and that their scattering from Him was something within God’s sovereign plan. This did not excuse their failure, but it prepared them for it and helped them recover after it.

In Zec 13:1-6 the prophet spoke of a day when, because of prevailing apostasy, the Shepherd would be cut down and His followers would scatter. The sheep in the prophecy are the Jews, many of whom would depart from the Shepherd, but a third of whom would remain. The disciples constituted the core of this remnant that Zechariah predicted God would bless in the future (Zec 13:7-9).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)