SUNDAY EDITORIAL

WORD OF WISDOM
PRAYER ~ Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or formal. It is a "beseeching the Lord" (Exodus 32:11); "pouring out the soul before the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:15); "praying and crying to heaven" (2 Chronicles 32:20); "seeking unto God and making supplication" (Job 8:5); "drawing near to God" (Psalm 73:28); "bowing the knees" (Ephesians 3:14).

Source: Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Christ, who is a true man, is about to suffer the punishment which we should have suffered for forsaking God, is forsaken by His own. He has a terrible conflict with the horror and fear of the curse of God: out of which He, since He escaped as a conqueror, causes us not to be afraid of death any more.

The weight of woe was literally crushing out the Savior's life. He had wished His chosen disciples to be near Him in His woe; and yet, as it advanced, He felt that He must retire even from them, and be alone with Himself and His Father.

He who made atonement for the sins of mankind, submitted Himself in a garden of suffering, to the will of God, from which man had revolted in a garden of pleasure. Christ took with Him into that part of the garden where He suffered His agony, only those who had witnessed His glory in His transfiguration. Those are best prepared to suffer with Christ, who have by faith beheld His glory.

The words used show the most entire dejection, amazement, anguish, and horror of mind; the state of one surrounded with sorrows, overwhelmed with miseries, and almost swallowed up with terror and dismay. He now began to be sorrowful, and never ceased to be so till He said, It is finished. He prayed that, if possible, the cup might pass from Him. But He also showed His perfect readiness to bear the load of His sufferings; He was willing to submit to all for our redemption and salvation.

He communicates to them His sorrow, in order to arouse them to sympathy; not that He was unacquainted with their weakness, but in order that they might afterwards be more ashamed of their carelessness. This phrase expresses a deadly wound of grief; as if He had said, that He fainted, or was half-dead with sorrow.

Somewhere on the western foot of Olivet lay the garden, named from an oil-press formerly in or in it then, which was to be the scene of the holiest and sorest sorrow on which the moon, that has seen so much misery, has ever looked. Truly it was 'an oil-press,' in which 'the good olive' was crushed by the grip of unparalleled agony, and yielded precious oil, which has been poured into many a wound since then. Eight of the eleven are left at or near the entrance, while He passes deeper into the shadows with the three. They had been witnesses of His prayers once before, on the slopes of Hermon, when He was transfigured before them.

Out of the darkness He reaches a hand to feel for the grasp of a friend, and piteously asks these humble lovers to stay beside Him, not that they could help Him to bear the weight, but that their presence had some solace in it. His agony must be endured alone, therefore He bade them tarry there; but He desired to have them at hand, therefore He went but 'a little forward.' They could not bear it with Him, but they could 'watch with' Him, and that poor comfort is all He asks. No word came from them. They were, no doubt, awed into silence, as the truest sympathy is used to be, in the presence of a great grief. [While seeking heavenly aid in this hour of extremity, our Lord also manifested His desire for human sympathy. All the eleven apostles were with Him in the garden, and the three most capable of sympathizing with Him were stationed nearer to Him than the rest.]

The nervous prostration of Jesus was such as to endanger His life, and the watching of the apostles may have been doubly needful. Not only did He require their sympathy, but He may also have looked to them to render Him assistance in the case of a physical collapse.

According to this example of Christ, we must drink of the bitterest cup which God puts into our hands; though nature struggle, it must submit.

Are we in a state of slumber when others ask us to watch and pray?

God's Blessings to each of you,
LJG/rECj


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