Our passage this morning is part of our Lent series and it's the story of Gethsemane and the culminating arrest of our Lord in Gethsemane. Matthew 26, 36 to 56. Then Jesus went with them, that is with his disciples, to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, for the second time he went away and prayed, "'My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.' And again he came and found them sleeping, and their eyes were heavy, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep, and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, Greetings, Rabbi, and he kissed him. Jesus said to him, friend, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so? That hour Jesus said to the crowds, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. So here we are given a glimpse of a sacred and agonizing moment in the life of our Lord. It is Thursday night. Jesus and his disciples have finished their Passover celebration and walked out of the city, across the Kidron Brook, to the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means oil press. And here it's as if Jesus is put into the press and is slowly crushed for our iniquities. His agonizing anticipation of the cross has reached a near fatal crescendo. And he needs to pray. He says, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. And then he fell on his face and prayed, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." It wasn't his physical death which troubled him so deeply, of course, but rather because he was staring into the tear of his father's wrath for the sins of men. The intensity of literally billions of eternal hells crashing down upon him in a matter of a few hours. It may seem strange that this crisis occurred not when they later sentenced him to death, nor when they nailed him on the cross, but the night before, in Gethsemane, before he was even arrested. Jonathan Edwards gives us a brilliant insight into why this was. He says that once Jesus was in their custody, it would have looked like the choice was out of his hands. He had to make his choice while he still had a choice. So that he could, so that all people could see that no one took his life from him, but he laid it down on his own accord. From our human perception, this is the last moment with which he had still the freedom to abandon the project and could choose to move forward freely. There are numerous other times when Jesus went off to pray, but only here does he take with him some of his disciples. and specifically James and John and Peter, the one who was about to deny him. After a while Jesus pauses his prayer and returns to the disciples and yes, they're asleep. Instead of supporting him in his hour of trial, they have added to his grief. And they've added to the enormous mountain of human guilt for which he was preparing to die. Instead of lending aid to the Savior as he faced unspeakable trauma, the apostles just rubbed salt into his wounds. They slept when they should have prayed, they abandoned him when they should have stood with him, they denied him when they should have honored him. Couldn't you watch with me for just one hour? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." And when he says that, he's not talking about the body's need for sleep. He has the same bodily need for sleep, but he's not dozing off during prayer. He's not talking about how in our flesh we are What he's talking about is how in our flesh we are so out of touch with what's happening, so oblivious to the spiritual battle that's raging around us, so blind to the eternal importance of the moment that there's no urgency to rouse them from their sleepiness. Why is it that I cannot Stay awake sometimes when I sleep, when I pray. Why is it that there's so many other things that I can do without getting sleepy? I don't get sleepy when I'm eating ice cream. I don't get sleepy when there's a bear on my porch. But it's easy to get sleepy when I pray. Peter wasn't dozing off. The same Peter who was dozing here wasn't dozing off a few minutes later when a mob appeared with clubs and spears. Which are actually enemies far less dangerous than the spiritual forces that were assaulting them at Gethsemane. Mostly, sleepiness in prayer is a heart problem, not a body problem. You know why the disciples were so sleepy? It's because they really hadn't listened to the Lord's warnings about this moment coming. Jesus did so much to try to prepare them, but they were unresponsive. They didn't prepare, and so they weren't ready. Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation, he says. They should have been, instead of sleeping, they should have been praying, Father, I know that something terrible is going to happen to Jesus. He keeps telling us about it. Help us to stand firm. Help us not to deny Him. Help us not to flee from Him. Help us to trust and not panic. Help us not to give in to the temptation to think that everything is spiraling out of control. Help us not to indulge in fear and cowardice. But instead, they slept. And even after he pled with them, they still fell asleep two more times. It happened three times, of course, just to emphasize the failure. But in spite of this, he will never fail them. Notice that Jesus doesn't appeal to the disciples for help. No, he says, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The salvation part, Jesus does all by himself. It's all of him and none of us. You remember the story of Moses. when there was a battle going on between the Israelites and the Amalekites. And his friends Aaron and Hur came alongside of him and held up his hands in prayer so that he was able to press on and God gave them victory. But when we read that story to the children in Sunday school, Aaron and her get a little bit of the glory for standing with Moses and helping him persevere in prayer. But not in the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane. No one stood with him. No one shares the glory with Jesus. He did it all himself. that no man may boast. While he was still speaking, Judas came, and a great crowd with him from the chief priests and the elders, and they were carrying swords and clubs. Luke 22.3 tells us that the devil entered into the heart of Judas. And this was a devilish deed. To kiss Jesus, acting like he loved him when really he was sticking a knife in his back. There are some, you see, who kiss Jesus as a way of attacking him. There are some who kiss Jesus who are actually his enemies. agents of the devil. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. John 18.10 tells us that it was Peter, as we mentioned last week, Peter pulling out his earthly weapon and cutting off the ear of a servant of the high priest named Malchus. What was Peter trying to do? Well, I think Stuart Briscoe was right when he said that Peter was not trying to cut off the ear of Malchus. Rather, Peter was trying to divide Mal from Cus. Fortunately, Jesus sovereignly prevented the injury from dividing Malchus into two, and then he reattached the ear. Still, Peter is not listening. He's still refusing what Jesus told him about going to Jerusalem to die. He's still resisting the will of God, still kicking against the goads. Even Christ's powerful words, get behind me, Satan, hadn't yet sunk in. And so Jesus had to put Peter in his place yet again. Put your sword away, Peter. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. This rebuke, I think, was not just for Peter. This rebuke was for every king, and every army, and every government, and every overzealous Christian who has tried to use earthly force to advance the kingdom of God. And it's not just about swords. It's about every form of human coercion. Threats, humiliation, cursing, all of it. In my opinion, there are a lot of Peters in the Christian church today. There's a lot of blindness on this issue. What does Jesus have to do to tell us that his kingdom does not advance by the sword or any form of human coercion? And yet, Earthly fighting comes so naturally to us, it's very hard for us to give it up and trust that spiritual warfare is much more powerful and much more consistent with the way of Christ. Peter wanted to die for Jesus. Jesus wanted Peter to stay awake and pray. It was the kind of warfare Peter wasn't yet skilled in. Unlike Peter, Jesus was ready for this moment. He had spent the night praying. He had spent his whole life reading about this time in the scriptures, preparing for what was coming. Isaiah 53, he was despised and rejected by men. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before cheers of silence so he opened not his mouth. By oppression, he was taken away, though he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. He'd been reading that, and many like it, since he was a child, and now he was ready. In the end, not only does Jesus repudiate Peter's attack, but he graciously undoes it. Matthew doesn't tell us that Jesus healed the ear Peter had cut off. We get that detail from the good doctor, Dr. Luke in 2251. At that hour, Jesus, we're told, said to the crowds, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. You see, after rebuking Peter for his use of the earthly sword, Jesus takes up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and he goes after their ears in a very different way. The disciples wanted to fight. But they weren't very comfortable with the approach Jesus was taking. Even after three years, they still had much to learn. And then we're told, all the disciples left him and fled. And really, if you think about it, this is such an encouraging verse. These men who kept falling away from the Lord, who then kept falling asleep when it was time to pray, who relied on their swords instead of their prayers, who then fled away from the Lord in fear when things got hot. These very same men shortly thereafter were transformed into men whose prayers made the room shake. who stood fearlessly before these same authorities and proclaimed Christ's truth, even if it led to their death. If these cowards could become the giants of faith and the giants of power that they later became, how much hope is there for us. though we will never experience anything close to the intensity of our Lord's trial. His experience here validates our experience of sorrow, trauma, and feeling deeply troubled. Our Lord himself experienced this kind of thing. Not only does this validate our experience of sorrow, but His example instructs us as to what we are to do when we experience great distress. We are to pray and keep praying. And we are to ask our friends to sit with us in prayer. This implies that we ought to cultivate friendships so that we will have friends who could stand with us and pray with us in times of anguish. It also suggests that we should be close enough to others to stand with them and pray with them in their dark hour. Some people, however, refuse to even contemplate the thought that they will ever face a dark night of the soul. They can't let go of their dream of a smooth and easy life, so they can do nothing to prepare for the storms which will inevitably come. And we can't walk away from this passage without appreciating the one who was crushed for our iniquities in Gethsemane and then Golgotha. Jesus proved here that when it comes to his beloved people, he will not waver. He will not break. He will never buckle under pressure. He will never bend in his commitment. He will never turn his back on his people. There is not even a shadow of turning with him. It was your salvation driving Christ to follow through. He was determined to purchase your soul, to win you as His prize, to make you His own. He is not just a Christ. He is your Christ. And this is how committed He is to your welfare. He proved it by giving Himself over to be crushed. And because he did so, we not only stand as innocent before the judge of all, but we have an unimaginable inheritance waiting for us in heaven, which will make these afflictions seem light in comparison. And as we walk through this life, no matter what we go through, we always know that Jesus has already been there. He's experienced all the trauma of this life. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4. Let us pray. Oh Lord, it is hard for us to read these words about the trauma that our Lord experienced. but we also find it greatly comforting that he would stop at nothing in order to pay the price that needed to be paid for our redemption. But Lord, we pray that just as he was shaken by this pressure, Lord, that we would be shaken by His love. And by His sacrifice. These things, O Lord, are so much bigger than anything we have going on in our lives. So much bigger than any of our troubles. So much bigger than even our earthly joys and pleasures. And Lord, we know that These are the things that really matter. And we pray that you would help us. As we go away from here, Lord, not to quickly forget, but that this Christ that we've met here would go with us and that we would be ever mindful of his presence and the cost that he paid for us. Thank you now for the privilege of coming to the table he set for us and partaking of his body and his blood. Please be with us, O Lord, in it. Please show yourself to us. Please allow us to partake of the fellowship of his sufferings. even as we eat His body and drink His blood. We pray in His precious name. Amen.