The Weakened Christ Strengthened

The Weakened Christ Strengthened

(No. 2769)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 9, 1902.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
5, 1881.

"And there appeared an angel unto Him from Heaven, strengthening Him."
Luke 22:43.

I SUPPOSE that this incident happened immediately after our Lord's
first prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. His pleading became so
fervent, so intense, that it forced from Him a bloody sweat. He was,
evidently, in a great agony of fear as He prayed and wrestled even unto
blood. We are told, by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that
He "was heard in that He feared." It is probable that this angel came
in answer to that prayer. This was the Father's reply to the cry of His
fainting Son who was enduring an infinity of sorrow because of His
people's sin and who must, therefore, be Divinely upheld as to His
Manhood, lest He should be utterly crushed beneath the terrible weight
that was pressing upon His holy soul.

Scarcely had our Savior prayed before the answer to His petition came.
It reminds us of Daniel's supplication and of the angelic messenger who
was caused to fly so swiftly that as soon as the prayer had left the
Prophet's lips, Gabriel stood there with the reply to it! So, Brothers
and Sisters, whenever your times of trial come, always take yourselves
to your knees. Whatever shape your trouble may take–if, to you, it
should even seem to be a faint representation of your Lord's agony in
Gethsemane–put yourselves into the same posture as that in which He
sustained the great shock that came upon Him. Kneel down and cry to
your Father who is in Heaven, who is able to save you from death, who
will prevent the trial from utterly destroying you, who will give you
strength that you may be able to endure it and will bring you through
it to the praise of the glory of His Grace.

That is the first lesson for us to learn from our Lord's experience in
Gethsemane–the blessing of prayer. He has bidden us pray, but He has
done more than that, for He has set us the example of prayer and, if
example is, as we are sure it is, far more powerful than precept, let
us not fail to imitate our Savior in the exercise of potent, prevalent,
repeated supplication whenever our spirits are cast down and we are in
sore distress of soul. Possibly you have sometimes said, "I feel so
sorrowful that I cannot pray." No, Brother, that is the very time when
you mustpray. As the spices, when bruised, give forth all the more
fragrance because of the bruising, so let the sorrow of your spirit
cause it to send forth the more fervent prayer to the God who is both
able and willing to deliver you! You must express your sorrow in one
way or another, so let it not be expressed in murmuring, but in
supplication! It is a vile temptation, on the part of Satan, to keep
you away from the Mercy Seat when you have most need to go there–but
do not yield to that temptation! Pray till you can pray and if you find
that you are not filled with the Spirit of supplication, use whatever
measure of the sacred bedewing you have–and so, by-and-by, you shall
have the baptism of the Spirit and prayer shall become to you a happier
and more joyful exercise than it is at present. Our Savior said to His
disciples, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death," yet
then, above all times, He was in an agony of prayer and, in proportion
to the intensity of His sorrow was the intensity of His supplication.

In our text, there are two things to note. First, our Lord's weakness.
And, secondly, our Lord's strengthening.

I. First, then, let us meditate for a little while upon OUR LORD'S
WEAKNESS.

That He was exceedingly weak is clear from the fact that an angel came
from Heaven to strengthen Him, for the holy angels never do anything
that is superfluous. They are the servants of an eminently practical
God who never does that

which it is unnecessary for Him to do. If Jesus had not needed
strengthening, an angel would not have come from Heaven to strengthen
Him. But how strange it sounds, to our ears, that the Lord of Life and
Glory should be so weak that He should need to be strengthened by one
of His own creatures! How extraordinary it seems that He who is "very
God of very God," should, nevertheless, when He appeared on earth as
Immanuel, God With Us, so completely take upon Himself our nature that
He should become so weak as to need to be sustained by angelic agency!
This struck some of the older saints as being derogatory to His Divine
dignity, so some manuscripts of the New Testament omit this passage–it
is supposed that the verse was struck out by some who claimed to be
orthodox, lest, perhaps, the Arians should lay hold upon it and use it
to bolster up their heresies. I cannot be sure who struck it out, but I
am not altogether surprised that they should have done so. They had no
right to do anything of the kind, for whatever is revealed in the
Scriptures must be true, but they seemed to shudder at the thought that
the Son of God should ever have been so weakened as to need the support
of an angelic messenger to strengthen Him.

Yet, Brothers and Sisters, this incident proves the reality of our
Savior's Manhood. Here you can perceive how fully He shares the
weakness of our humanity–not in spiritual weakness, so as to become
guilty of any sin–but in mental weakness, so as to be capable of great
depression of spirit. And in physical weakness, so as to be exhausted
to the last degree by His terrible bloody sweat. What is extreme
weakness? It is something different from pain, for sharp pain evidences
at least some measure of strength, but perhaps some of you know what it
is to feel as if you were scarcely alive– you were so weak that you
could hardly realize that you were actually living! The blood flowed,
if it flowed at all, but very slowly in the canals of your
veins–everything seemed stagnant within you. You were very faint, you
almost wished that you could become unconscious, for the consciousness
you had was extremely painful. You were so weak and sick that you
seemed almost ready to die. Our Master's words, "My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even unto death," prove that the shadow of impending
dissolution hung darkly over His spirit, soul and body, so that He
could truly quote the 22nd Psalm and say, "You have brought Me into the
dust of death." I think, Beloved, that you ought to be glad it was so
with your Lord, for now you can see how completely He is made like His
brethren in their mental depression and physical weakness, as well as
in other respects.

It will help you to get an idea of the true Manhood of Christ if you
remember that this was not the only time when He was weak. He, the Son
of Man, was once a Babe and, therefore, all the tender ministries that
have to be exercised because of the helplessness of infancy were also
necessary in His case. Wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a
manger, that little Child was, all the while, the mighty God, though He
condescended to keep His Omnipotence in abeyance in order that He might
redeem His people from their sins. Doubt not His true Humanity and
learn from it how tenderly He is able to sympathize with all the ills
of childhood and, all the griefs of boyhood which are not so few or so
small as some people imagine!

Besides being thus an Infant and gradually growing in stature just as
other children do, our Lord Jesus was often very weary. How the angels
must have wondered as they saw Him, who sways the scepter of universal
sovereignty and marshals all the starry hosts according to His will, as
He, "being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well" at Sy-char,
waiting for the woman whose soul He had gone to win and, wiping the
sweat from His brow and resting Himself after having traveled over the
burning acres of the land! The Prophet Isaiah truly said that "the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints
not, neither is weary." That is the Divine side of His glorious Nature.
"Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the
well." That was the Human side of His Nature. We read that "He did eat
nothing" during the forty days' temptation in the wilderness and, "He
afterwards hungered." Have any of you ever known what it has been to
suffer the bitterness of hunger? Then remember that our Lord Jesus
Christ also endured that pang. He, whom we rightly worship and adore as
"God Blessed Forever," as the Son of Man, the Mediator between God and
men, hungered! And He also thirsted, for He said to the woman at the
well, "Give Me to drink."

In addition to this, our Savior was often so weary that He slept, which
is another proof of His true Humanity. He was so tired, once, that He
slept even when the boat was tossing to and fro in a storm and was
ready to sink. On one occasion we read that the disciples "took Him
even as He was in the boat," which seems to me to imply even more than
it says, namely, that He was so worn out that He was scarcely able to
get into the boat, but, "they took Him even as He was," and there He
fell asleep. We know, moreover, that "Jesus wept"–not merely once, or
twice, but many times. And we also know what completes the proof of His
Humanity–that He died. It was a strange phenomenon that He, to whom
the

Father has given, "to have life in Himself," should have been called to
pass through the gloomy shades of death, that He might in all points be
made like unto His brethren and so be able to fully sympathize with us!
O you weak ones, look how weak your Lord became that He might make you
strong! We might read that familiar passage, "though He was rich, yet
for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be
rich," in a slightly different way–"though He was strong, yet for your
sakes He became weak, that you, through His weakness might be strong."
Therefore, Beloved, "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His
might."

What was the reason for the special weakness of our Savior when in the
Garden of Gethsemane I cannot now go fully into that matter, but I want
you to notice what it was that tried Him so severely there. I suppose,
first, it was contact with sin. Our Savior had always seen the effects
of sin upon others, but it had never come home to Him so closely as it
did when He entered that garden, for there, more than ever before, the
iniquity of His people was made to meet upon Him– and that contact
aroused in Him a holy horror! You and I are not perfectly pure, so we
are not as horrified at sin as we ought to be, yet sometimes we can
say, with the Psalmist, "Horror has taken hold upon me because of the
wicked that forsake Your Law." But for our gracious Savior–listen to
the Inspired Words, they are none of mine–to be "numbered with the
transgressors," must have been an awful thing to His pure and holy
soul! He seemed to shrink back from such a position and it was
necessary that He should be strengthened in order that He might be able
to endure the contact with that terrible mass of iniquity!

But He had, in addition, to bear the burden of that sin. It was not
sufficient for Him to come into contact with it– but it is written,
"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And as He began to
fully realize all that was involved in His position as the great
Sin-Bearer, His spirit seemed to droop and He became exceedingly weak.
Ah, Sir, if you have to bear the burden of your own sin when you appear
before the Judgment Seat of God, it will sink you to the lowest Hell!
But what must Christ's agony have been when He was bearing the sin of
all His people? As the mighty mass of their guilt came rolling upon
Him, His Father saw that the Human soul and the Human body both needed
to be upheld, otherwise they would have been utterly crushed before the
atoning work had been accomplished.

Contact with sin and the bearing of sin's penalty were reason enough to
produce the Savior's excessive weakness in Gethsemane, but, in
addition, He was conscious of the approach of death. I have heard some
people say that we ought not to shrink from death, but I believe that
in proportion as a man is a good man, death will be distasteful to him.
You and I have become, to a large extent, familiarized with the thought
of death. We know that we must die–unless the Lord should come
soon–for all who have gone before us have done so–the seeds of death
are sown in us and, like some fell disease, they are beginning to work
within our nature. It is natural that we should expect to die, for we
know that we are mortal. If anybody were to tell us that we should be
annihilated–any reasonable and sensible man would be horrified at the
idea–for that is not natural to the soul of man. Well, now, death was
as unnatural to Christ as annihilation would be to us! It had never
come to be a part of His Nature. His holy soul had none of the seeds of
death in it and His untainted body–which had never known any kind of
disease or corruption, but was as pure as when, first of all, "that
holy thing" was created by the Spirit of God–that also shrank back
from death! There were not in it any of the things which make death
natural and, therefore, because of the very purity of His Nature, He
recoiled at the approach of death and needed to be especially
strengthened in order to meet "the last enemy."

Probably, however, it was the sense of utter desertion that was preying
upon His mind and so produced that extremity of weakness. All His
disciples had failed Him and presently would forsake Him. Judas had
lifted up his heel against Him and there was not one of all His
professed followers who would faithfully cleave to Him. Kings, princes,
scribes and rulers were all united against Him–and of the people,
there were none with Him. Worst of all, by the necessity of His
expiatory Sacrifice and His Substitution for His people, His Father,
Himself, withdrew the Light of His Countenance from Him and, even in
the garden, He was beginning to feel that agony of soul which, on the
Cross, wrung from Him that doleful cry, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?" And that sense of utter loneliness and desertion, added
to all that He had endured, made Him so exceedingly weak that it was
necessary that He should be specially strengthened for the ordeal
through which He had still to pass.

II. Now, in the second place, let us meditate for a little while upon
OUR LORD'S STRENGTHENING. "There appeared an angel unto Him from
Heaven, strengthening Him."

It is night and there He kneels, under the olives, offering up, as Paul
says, "prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him
that was able to save Him from death." While wrestling there, He is
brought into such a state of agony that He sweats great drops of blood
and, suddenly, there flashes before Him, like a meteor from the
midnight sky, a bright spirit that had come straight from the Throne of
God to minister to Him in His hour of need.

Think of the condescension on Christ's part to allow an angel to come
and strengthen Him. He is the Lord of angels as well as of men. At His
bidding, they fly more swiftly than the lightning flash to do His will.
Yet, in His extremity of weakness, He was succored by one of them! It
was a wondrous stoop for the infinitely-great and ever-blessed Christ
of God to consent that a spirit of His own creation should appear unto
Him and strengthen Him.

But while I admire the condescension which permitted one angel to come,
I equally admire the self-restraint which allowed only one to come,
for, if He had so pleased, He might have appealed to His Father and He
would at once have sent to Him "more than twelve legions of angels."
No, He did not make such a request. He rejoiced to have one to
strengthen Him, but He would not have any more. Oh, what matchless
beauties are combined in our blessed Savior! You may look on this side
of the shield and you will perceive that it is of pure gold. Then you
may look on the other side of it, but you will not discover that it is
brass, as in the fable, for it is gold all through! Our Lord Jesus is
"altogether lovely." What He does, or what He refrains from doing
equally deserves the praises of His people.

How could the angel strengthen Christ? That is a very natural enquiry,
but it is quite possible that when we have answered that question as
well as we can, we shall not have given a full and satisfactory reply
to it. Yet I can conceive that, in some mysterious manner, an angel
from Heaven may have actually infused fresh vigor into the physical
constitution of Christ. I cannot positively affirm that it was so, but
it seems to me a very likely thing. We know that God can suddenly
communicate new strength to fainting spirits and, certainly, if He
willed it, He could thus lift up the drooping head of His Son and make
Him feel strong and resolute again.

Perhaps it was so, but, in any case, it must have strengthened the
Savior to feel that He was in pure company. It is a great joy to a man
who is battling for the right against a crowd who love the wrong, to
find a comrade by his side who loves the Truth of God as he loves it.
To a pure mind, obliged to listen to the ribald jests of the
licentious, I know of nothing that is more strengthening than to get a
whisper in the ear from one who says, "I, too, love that which is
chaste and pure, and hate the filthy conversation of the wicked." So,
perhaps, the mere fact of that shining angel standing by the Savior's
side, or reverently bowing before Him, may in itself have strengthened
Him.

Next to that, was the tender sympathy which this angelic ministration
proved. I can imagine that all the holy angels leant over the
battlements of Heaven to watch the Savior's wondrous life. And now that
they see Him in the garden and perceive, by His whole appearance, and
His desperate agony, that death is drawing to Him, they are so
astonished that they crave permission that at least one of their number
shall go down to see if He cannot carry succor to Him from His Father's
house above. I can imagine the angels saying, "Did we not sing of Him
at Bethlehem when He was born? Did not some of us minister to Him when
He was in the desert and among wild beasts, hungry after His long fast
and terrible temptation? Has He not been seen of angels all the while
He has been on earth! Oh, let some one of us go to His relief!" And I
can readily suppose that God said to Gabriel, "Your name means, The
Strength of God–go and strengthen your Lord in Gethsemane," "And there
appeared an angel unto Him from Heaven strengthening Him." And I think
that He was strengthened, at least in part, by observing the sympathy
of all the heavenly host with Him in His season of secret sorrow. He
might seem to be alone as Man, but as Lord and King, He had on His side
an innumerable company of angels who waited to do His will–and here
was one of them, come to assure Him that He was not alone, after all.

Next, no doubt, our Savior was comforted by the angel's willing
service. You know, dear Brothers and Sisters, how a little act of
kindness will cheer us when we are very low in spirit. If we are
despised and rejected of men. If we are deserted and defamed by those
who ought to have dealt differently with us, even a tender look from a
child will help to remove our depression! In times of loneliness it is
something even to have a dog with you, to lick your hand and show you
such kindness as is possible from him. And our blessed Master, who
always appreciated and still appreciates the least service rendered to
Him–for not a cup of cold water, given to a disciple in Christ's name,
shall lose its reward–was cheered by the devotion and homage of the
ministering spirit that came from Heaven to strengthen Him! I wonder if
the angel worshipped Him–I think that He could do no less and it must
have been something to worship the blood-red Son of God. Oh, that any
of us could have paid Him such homage as that! The time for such
special ministry as that is now

over, yet my faith seems to bring Him back here, at this moment, just
as if we were in Gethsemane. I adore You, blessed eternal God–never
more Godlike than when You did prove Your perfect Manhood by sweating
great drops of blood in the awful weakness of Your depression in the
Garden of Sorrow!

Perhaps, too, the angel's presence comforted and strengthened the
Savior as being a sort of foretaste of His final victory. What was this
angel but the pioneer of all the heavenly host that would come to meet
Him when the fight was over? He was one who, in full confidence of His
Lord's victory, had flown before the rest to pay homage to the
conquering Son of God, who would tread the old dragon beneath His feet!
You remember how, when Jesus was born, first there came one angel who
began to speak of Him to the shepherds, "and suddenly there was with
the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
The first angel had, as it were, stolen a march upon his brethren, and
got there before them, but, no sooner was the wondrous news proclaimed
through Heaven's streets, than every angel resolved to overtake him
before his message was completed! So, here again is one that had come
as an outrider to remind His Lord of His ultimate victory–and there
were many more afterwards to come with the same glad tidings–but, to
the Savior's heart, that angel's coming was a token that He would lead
captivity captive and that myriads of other bright spirits would crowd
around Him and cry, "Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be you lifted
up, you everlasting doors; that the King of Glory, fresh from His
blood-red shame, may enter into His heavenly and eternal inheritance!"

Yet once more, is it not very likely that this angel brought the Savior
a message from Heavenl The angels are generally God's messengers, so
they have something to communicate from Him and, perhaps, this angel,
bending over the Savior's prostrate form, whispered in His ear, "Be of
good cheer. You must pass through all this agony, but You will thereby
save an innumerable multitude of the sons and daughters of men who will
love and worship You and Your Father forever and forever. He is with
You even at this moment. Though He must hide His face from You because
of the requirements of justice that the Atonement may be complete, His
heart is with You and He loves You always." Oh, how our Lord Jesus must
have been cheered if some such words as these were whispered into His
ears!

Now, in closing, let us try to learn the lessons of this incident.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, you and I may have to pass through great
griefs–certainly ours will never be so great as those of our Divine
Master–but we may have to follow through the same waters. Well, at
such times, as I have already said, let us resort to prayer and let us
be content to receive comfort from the humblest instrumentality. "That
is too simple an observation," you say. It is a very simple one, but it
is one that some people have need to remember. You remember how Naaman
the Syrian was healed through the remark of a little captive girl and,
sometimes, great saints have been cheered by the words of very little
people. You remember how Dr. Guthrie, when he was dying, wanted "a
child's hymn"? It was just like he–great, glorious, simple-minded
child-man that he was. He said what you and I must sometimes have felt
that we needed–a child's hymn–a child's joyful song to cheer us up in
our hour of depression and sorrow!

There are some people who seem as if they would not be converted unless
they can see some eminent minister. Even that will not suit some of
them–they need a special revelation from Heaven. They will not take a
text from the Bible– though I cannot conceive of anything better than
that–but they think that if they could dream something, or if they
could hear words spoken in the cool of the evening by some strange
voice in the sky, then they might be converted. Well, Brothers and
Sisters, if you will not eat the apples that grow on trees, you must
not expect angels to come and bring them to you! We have a more sure
word of testimony in the Bible than we can have anywhere else. If you
will not be converted by that Word, it is a great pity–it is much more
than a pity, it is a great sin! If your Lord and Master condescended to
receive consolation from an angel whom He had Himself created, you
ought to be willing to gather comfort from the feeblest speech of the
poorest person–from the least of the people of God when they try to
cheer you.

I have known an old professor say of a young minister, "It is no use
for me to hear him, for he has not had the experience that I have had,
so how can he instruct or help me?" O Sirs, I have known many old
saints get more comfort out of godly boys than they did from those of
their own age! God knows how, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,
to perfect praise and I have never heard that He has done that out of
the mouths of old men! Why is that? Because they know too much! But the
children do not know anything and, therefore, out of their mouths the
praise of God is perfect. So let us never despise God's messengers,
however humble they may be.

The next lesson is while you should be thankful for the least
comforter, yet, in your times of deepest need, you may expect the
greatest comforters to come to you. Let me remind you that an angel
appeared to Joseph when Herod was seeking Christ's life. Then, later,
angels appeared to Christ when the devil had been tempting Him. And
now, at Gethse-mane, when there was a peculiar manifestation of
diabolical malice, for it was the hour of the powers of darkness–then,
when the devil was loose and doing his utmost against Christ–an angel
came from Heaven to strengthen Him. So, when you are in your heaviest
trials, you shall have your greatest strength. Perhaps you will have
little to do with angels till you get into deep trouble and then shall
the promise be fulfilled, "He shall give His angels charge over you, to
keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest
you dash your foot against a stone." They are always ready to be your
keepers, but, in the matter of spiritual strengthening, these holy
spirits may have little to do with some of you until you stand foot to
foot with Apollyon and have to fight stern battles with the Evil One
himself. It is worthwhile to go through rough places to have angels to
bear you up! It is worthwhile to go to Gethsemane if there we may have
angels from Heaven to strengthen us! So, be of good comfort, Brothers
and Sisters, whatever lies before you. The darker your experience is,
the brighter will be that which comes out of it. The disciples feared
as they entered the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration, but when
they had passed right into it, they saw Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in
Glory! O you who are the true followers of Christ, fear not the clouds
that lower darkly over you, for you shall see the brightness behind
them and the Christ in them! And your spirits shall be blessed.

But if you are not believing in Christ, I am indeed grieved for you,
for you shall have the sorrow without the solace–the cup of bitterness
without the angel–the agony, and that forever, without the messenger
from Heaven to console you! Oh, that you would all believe in Jesus!
God help you so to do for Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE22:14-46.

Verses 14-16. And when the hour was come, He sat down and the twelve
Apostles with Him. And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to
eat this Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will
not any more eat thereof, until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.
And it is fulfilled, for Christ Himself is the Lamb of our Passover.
His blood has been shed and sprinkled. His people have been brought up
out of their Egyptian bondage and, by faith, they feed upon Him and are
glad. How sweetly the Passover melted away into the Lord's Supper and
how graciously did our Savior thus teach us that, as a rule, He does
not make violent changes in the development of His people's spiritual
life, but He leads them on gradually from one stage to another! There
may be, sometimes, very sudden elevations, but, as a general rule, we
go from strength to strength, a step at a time, and the Truth of God is
revealed to us little by little.

17, 18. So He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and
divide it among yourselves for I say unto you, I will not drink of the
fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God shall come. This was the
Passover cup–the cup with which they concluded the paschal supper. At
such times they also usually began to chant a Psalm in happy unison.
Just at that point, Christ interjected the first part of the
celebration of the new ordinance–the Lord's Supper, into which the
paschal supper was to melt.

19. So He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto
them, saying, This is My body, which is given for you. This do in
remembrance of Me. It was clearly impossible that He could have meant
that bread to be literally His body, because His body was there at the
table! Therefore, the misunderstanding, or misrepresentation of the
Church of Rome is altogether without excuse. Our Savior plainly
intended to say, "This bread represents My body; it is an emblem, a
symbol, of My body." If this had been spoken concerning the bread after
Christ had been dead and gone, and not before, there might have been
some warrant for the teaching of the Papists, but there cannot be any
such warrant, as He used the words while He was sitting there with His
Apostles. Let us be careful not to lose the true meaning of Christ's
words while we combat the false interpretation that has been given to
them.

20. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new
testament in My blood, which is shed for you. He could not have meant
that, literally, that cup was the New Covenant–I never heard of
anybody who thought He did. Why, then, take one part of the ordinance
literally, if not the other? But our Lord did mean that the contents of
that cup represented the blood which seals and ratifies the Eternal
Covenant on which our hopes are built.

21. But, behold, the hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the
table. Lamentable circumstance–sad index of what often still occurs!
The worst traitors to Christ are not outside, but inside the visible
Church. There they have the best opportunity for doing mischief. There
they can give the unkindest cut of all. God grant that none of us may
be among that miserable number!

22. And truly the Son of Man goes as it was determined, but woe unto
that man by whom He is betrayed! The fact that it was determined in the
eternal decrees of God, that Christ should die, did not at all diminish
the responsibility of all who had a share in bringing about that death.
Learn, Beloved, to believe firmly in Divine Predestination without
doubting human responsibility. Even though you may not be able to show
how these two things agree, do not be anxious about that matter! Be
satisfied to believe what you cannot understand. Both these things are
true and they are, both of them, in this verse.

23. 24. And they began to enquire among themselves which of them it was
that should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them,
which of them should be accounted the greatest. What a strange thing
that it should have been so! Is there any such strife among us here? If
so, how utterly unworthy are we to be the disciples of such a Master as
our Lord Jesus Christ!

25, 26. And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are
called benefactors. Butyou shallnot be so: but he that is greatest
amongyou, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that
serves. You know, Brothers, that it always will be so. If a man tries
to be great in the Church, somehow or other his Brothers generally
think very little of him! But he who is willing to serve–whose one
ambition it is to lay himself out for the Glory of his Master, and for
the general good–that man usually has a great deal more honor than he
would have expected to receive. The way to be great in the Church is to
be serviceable to all around us, to be meek and lowly, to be willing to
wait upon others. We have good reason for being the servants of our
Brothers and Sisters when we remember the humble position that our Lord
Himself assumed.

27. For which is greater, he that sits at the table, or he that serves?
Is it not he that sits the table? But I am among you as He that serves.
He served in the very humblest capacity, for did He not even wash the
disciples' feet? And if He, who was the greatest of all, thus
condescended to perform the lowliest service, who among us shall be so
lifted up as to suppose that no common work is good enough for him?
Brethren, we must be humble, or else we shall be humbled! And let me
remark that the latter experience is by no means a pleasant one, while
the former experience is most sweet and gracious. God give us the Grace
to be humble!

28-30. You are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And
I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as My Father has appointed unto Me; that
you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Yes, there are thrones and a
Kingdom for those who are faithful to the King of kings! But there is
something else to think of beside that kind of glory, for notice our
Savior's next words.

31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have
you, that he may sift you as wheat. And between us and the Kingdom
there will be struggles and dangers–and watchfulness and wrestling
prayer will be required of us. And here is our only hope of escape from
the perils of the way, as it was with poor Peter–

32-34. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and when
you are converted, strengthen your Brothers. And he said unto Him,
Lord, I am ready to go with You, both into prison, and to death. And He
said, I tell you, Peter, the cock shallnot crow this day, before you
shall thrice deny that you know Me. Though Peter did not really know
himself, Christ knew him. That is one of our comforts–that the Lord
Jesus Christ foresees all future ill and so provides against it. He
looks down into our nature and deals with us as we need to be dealt
with. It is well for us that we are in His hands.

35-40. And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip,
and shoes, lacked you anything? And they said, Nothing. Then said He
unto them, But now, he that has a purse, let him take it, and likewise
his scrip: and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy
one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be
accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned among the transgressors: for
the things concerning Me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here
are two swords. And He said unto them, It is enough. And He came out,
and went, as He was known, to the Mount of Olives; and His disciples
also followed Him. And when He was at the place, He said unto them,
Pray that you enter not into temptation. Or, "into trial." We do not
often enough present that petition, "Lead us not into tempta-

tion." We are not able to bear temptation if it goes beyond a certain
point–and it is a greater mercy to escape temptation than it is to
pass through it and to overcome it. I mean, of course, only in some
respects. We may ask to be delivered from the Evil One if we must be
tempted by him, but our first prayer should be that we may not enter
into temptation.

41, 42. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and
kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if You are willing, remove
this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done. We can
read these words in a calm, quiet tone, but they were uttered by our
Lord with an intensity of agony which we can scarcely call up before
our mind's eyes. So terrible was that agony that our Savior became
utterly weak and faint through the intensity of His pleading.

43. 44. And there appeared an angel unto Him from Heaven, strengthening
Him. And being in an agony Heprayed more earnestly. More and more
intense was that brief prayer as His supplication was continued.

44. And His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. Luke was a physician, you know, so he was the most likely
one to record this phenomenon. It has happened–so we have been
told–to some other persons in intense fright or agony, that their
sweat has been tinged with blood. But we never remember reading or
hearing of anyone but our Lord of whom it could be said, "His sweat
was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

45. And when He rose up from prayer, and was come to His disciples, He
found them sleeping for sorrow. Great sorrow may have quite opposite
effects upon different men. You have, perhaps, sometimes noticed that
intoxication produces upon some men exactly the opposite effect to that
which it produces upon others–some become irritable and noisy, while
others become taciturn and quiet. It is also quite a matter of fact
that great sorrow has various effects upon different minds. In the
Savior's case, it aroused Him to an awful agony of earnestness in
prayer. In the disciples case, it sent them to sleep.

46. And said unto them, Why do you sleep? Rise andpray, lest you enter
into temptation. The great trial for them, as well as for their Lord,
was close at hand. It was late at night and they were drowsy and
sleepy, yet no time is amiss for supplication. Prayer is never out of
season and never unnecessary. We never know when temptation is near, so
let us pray without ceasing to Him who is able to preserve us from
temptation, or to deliver us out of it.