Christ's Agony in the Garden
Matthew 26:36-39
Then comes Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, Sit you here, while I go and pray yonder.…


I. WE DWELL MORE ON THE BODILY ANGUISH OF OUR LORD THAN THE METAL. We figure to ourselves the external woes of which flesh was the subject rather than those griefs which were within the soul. We must not, forget that others besides Christ have died the most cruel deaths with fortitude. The bodily sufferings of Christ were but an inconsiderable part of His endurances. It was in soul rather than in body that our Saviour made atonement for transgression. You must be aware that anguish of soul more than of the body is the everlasting portion which is to be swarded to sinners; so we may expect that the soul-agony of a surety or substitute would be felt more than the bodily. Indeed, in the garden there was no bodily suffering, no spear, nails.

II. EXCEEDING SORROWFUL UNTO DEATH The soul cannot die, yet so exceeding was Christ's sorrow that He could speak of it as nothing less than actual death. The soul was the sin-offering.

1. We would have you be aware of the enormous cost at which you have been ransomed.

2. It gives preciousness to the means of grace thus to consider them as brought into being by the agonies of the Redeemer. Will you trifle with them?

3. Having spoken not only of the exceeding sorrowfulness of Christ's soul, but of the satisfaction which that sorrowfulness yields, I would not conclude without a vision of His glorious triumphs.

(H. Melvill, B. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

WEB: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go there and pray."




Christ's Agony
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