FALLING ASLEEP IN THE GARDEN

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 2, 2022 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: February 2, 2022 from Luke 22:39-46

Theme: The seriousness of our Lord’s agony highlights our need to keep awake to God’s grace.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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We come to a very holy passage of Scripture. It’s Luke’s description to us of our Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. After having His final Passover meal with them before going to the cross, we’re told;

Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Luke 22:39-46).

This is a familiar story. Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels also tell us about it. It’s very interesting to see how Luke abbreviates the story—only telling us the basics of our Lord’s time in the Garden. But then, it’s also remarkable to notice the things that Luke’s Gospel tells us that the others do not:

• Only Luke names the place as the Mount of Olives—and specifically states that it was the place where the Lord habitually went.
• Only Luke mentions the remarkable story of the angel that came and ministered to the Lord in His suffering—and the sweat that fell from His brow like great drops of blood.
• Only Luke tells us that the disciples were sleeping “from sorrow”.
• And while the other Gospels mention the fact that the Lord had come to His sleeping disciples to tell them to stay alert and pray lest they fall into temptation, only Luke tells us that He first told them this at the beginning. Only Luke’s telling of the story both begins and ends with that remarkable command to pray—’book-ending’ the story, as it were with the appeal to them that they may not fall into temptation.

The uniqueness of Luke’s telling of the story is not accidental. The Holy Spirit led him to concentrate and compact the story in such a way as to emphasize the astonishing agony of our Lord in the context of the inexplicable sleepiness of the disciples. It’s a story of, first, the call to pray for strength, then of the agony, and finally of the call to pray again for strength.

And that puts a unique emphasis on this passage. In the way that Luke tells it, the seriousness of our Lord’s agony highlights our own need to pray and keep awake and alert to God’s grace toward us. How can we be indifferent to God’s saving grace—knowing the high price the Lord Jesus paid to make us His own!

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; looking at this passage, notice …

1. HIS FIRST CALL TO PRAY (vv. 39-40).

He had just finished His ‘upper room’ experience with His disciples. During that time, He prayed for them in the wonderful words we find in John 17—His ‘High Priestly’ prayer for them. And when this dinner-time conversation was over, we’re told in verse 39, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.” Together—without the disciples fully understanding it—they went to the place where our Lord would be betrayed, arrested, and handed over to be crucified.

The place was the Garden of Gethsemane; but here, Luke calls it the Mount of Olives. It was a very public place—just on the other side of the Kidron Valley from the city of Jerusalem. You can visit the spot today; and you can imagine what it must have been like on that evening for the small band of men to walk across the valley to the garden of the olive groves. And do you notice that Luke explained that our Lord was ‘accustomed’ to going to that place? That’s a very important part of the story. In John 18:2, we’re told that that’s where the betrayer Judas would lead the detachment of troops to arrest Jesus; because

Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples (John 18:2).

If anyone else knew that they were about to be betrayed to death, they would have gone into hiding. They certainly wouldn’t have gone to the place where their enemies knew they would be. But when the time came for our Lord to suffer for us, He didn’t hide from His enemies. He went right to the place that He was accustomed to going—right to the place where He knew that He would be taken away to be crucified for us.

And it was then that the first call to pray was given to His disciples. Verse 40 says, “When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” ‘Temptation’ to do what? Well; He had already made it clear that Peter would deny Him three times. And in John 16:32, He had made it clear to them that they would all be scattered, “each to his own”, and would leave Him alone at the time of His arrest. It was a temptation to turn away from Him in His time of suffering for our sins.

This leads us, then, to …

2. HIS AGONY IN THE GARDEN (vv. 41-44).

As the other Gospels tell us, He had left eight of His disciples at the entrance to the garden, and went further into the garden with only Peter, James, and John. We’re told in verse 41, “And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed …” This would have meant that those three disciples—the ones who had been closest to Him in His ministry—would have been close enough to witness His agony and to hear His prayers to the Father.

Notice His prayer. Verse 42 has it that He prayed, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” The phrase “this cup” would have been a figure of speech for the trying experience that He must undergo—the ‘cup’ from which He must drink. He once asked a couple of His ambitious disciples—the ones who asked to sit at His right and left hand—“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink …?” (Mark 10:38); meaning the cup of His suffering for sins. And perhaps we should see this cup in the light of what we’re told in Psalm 75:8;

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup,
And the wine is red;
It is fully mixed, and He pours it out;
Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth
Drain and drink down (Psalm 75:8).

It’s the cup of God’s righteous judgment for sin. And the Lord was about to take that cup and drink it on our behalf. He asked that if there was any other way, that this cup could be taken away from Him. It was because, in the drinking of it, our Lord—the sinless Son of God—would bear the unspeakable weight of the guilt of all the sin of humankind, and for the first time in all eternity become separated from His Father who cannot look upon sin. In His sinless humanness, our Lord would naturally recoil from the horror of the cross and from the burden of our sin. And yet, in obedience to the will of the Father, He took that cup on our behalf—He of whom it says in Hebrews 5:7-9;

in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-9).

Luke tells us two more stories that highlight the depth of our Lord’s agony on that night. Some ancient manuscripts of Luke’s Gospel do not contain these stories; but many others do. They are also found in almost all of the modern English translations. We’re told in verse 43, “Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.” This would have been like the story of how angels came and ministered to Him after His 40 days of testing in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11). Perhaps He was once again being tormented and tested by the devil—tempted to flee and hide from the horror of the cross. This would certainly show us something of our Lord’s humanity in His agony—that He needed an angel to come to Him and strengthen Him at such a time. But it also shows us something of the grace of the Father; because it would have been only from the throne of heaven that the angel would have been sent.

The second story is found in verse 44; where we’re told, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”. Dr. William Hendriksen wrote that

… it is natural that Luke as a physician would inquire into and record this occurrence of hematidrosis. It took place while Jesus, suffering intensely, was engaged in fervent prayer. It must be borne in mind that the human nature of Jesus was sinless, and therefore very sensitive. When these factors—extreme anguish, earnest supplication, unparalleled sensitivity—are combined, the resulting strain can easily cause subcutaneous capillaries to dilate to such an extent that they will burst. And when this happens, as it is almost bound to do, in the vicinity of sweat glands, blood and sweat will be exuded together. This can happen over a large part of the body. The thick drops or clots of blood, imparting a reddish color to the beads of perspiration, will then trickle down to the ground.1

What a picture this is of our Lord’s agony for us! Such agony highlights the contrast of …

3. HIS SECOND CALL TO PRAY (vv. 45-46).

Just imagine our Lord’s exhaustion after such a time of prayer. But as verses 45-46 tell us, “When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.” Sorrow, perhaps, at hearing the intensity and agony of our Lord’s prayer. It exhausted them. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

It would be then that the betrayer came with the troops; and our Lord was arrested; and the disciples all scattered … but for a time.

* * * * * * * * * *

It was a terrible thing for those disciples to have fallen asleep during the time of our Lord’s suffering in the Garden. But we can hardly blame them. The intensity of the moment might have drained the energy out of us too. And yet now that His sacrifice for us has been made, let’s make sure that we don’t sleep in the light of its completion. It’s crucial that you and I—as followers of Jesus—always live faithfully in the light of the high cost He paid to save us.

One of the men who were sleeping as our Lord prayed in agony was Peter. And later on, in his first letter, he wrote to believers like you and me and said;

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:13-22).

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1William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), p. 983.

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