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sin, if there is to be forgiveness (Lev. 17: ID- Monday, August 23. Mark 14:27-31. . The shadows are growing deeper.' Our Lord had already announced that one of them, should betray Him, now He tells them that they shall all stumble and be scattered from Him. Shall not one of the whole twelve prove absolutely true? No, not one. But Jesus looks beyond the gloom to the brighter day when He shall be raised up and gather them again in beloved Gal ilee. Peter is very sure that he will not stumble though all the rest do. Alas for his self-confidence! he will fall worst of all. He grows more vehement in his assesrtions of immovable loyalty, “I will not deny thee.” But he did. Have we never? “Let him that thinketh he standeth »take heed lest he fall.” Tuesday, August 24. Mark 14:32-34. And now Gethsemane! One of the pro- foundest and most significant passages in the Word. We cannot sound all its depths in these Notes. Let every reader ponder it deeply for himself and then come back to it again and again. The three whom Jesus took with him into the deeper shadows of Gethsemane are the same three whom He took with Him up into the Mount of Trans figuration : if He takes us with Him up into the Mount of Transfiguration, we may be sure that He will take us with Him into Gethsemane. Jesus longed for human sym pathy: He did not get it, He trod the wine press alone. Even the innermost circle slept while the Saviour agonized and prayed. There is something unutterably awful to contemplate in the absolute loneliness of the Saviour. He was in a state of great men tal and spiritual anguish. . It was not mere dread of the immeasurable physical agony that was just a few hours ahead of Him. Far more than that, His sinless spirit was beginning to feel most heavily the burden of man’s guilt, and His heart that clung
with unparalleled love to God was beginning to feel the tearing agony of separation from the Father that our sin necessitated. An awful storm of bewilderment and agony swept over the Saviour’s whole being (v. 33) . His heart was on the point of break ing (ef. Luke 22:41); as indeed it did break at .the last on the cross. It was all for each of us that He suffered thus (Is. 53:5, 6). He bade- the three watch while He pressed still further into the shadows of the Gar den : He wanted human company and sym pathy, but still more He wanted to be alone with God. There are those who would have us think that the Gospels contain myths and legends and not an accurate rec ord of historical facts. Certainly the story told here could never have been fabricated. It is beyond honest question truth, not fic tion. Wednesday, August 25. Mark 14:35, 36. What a sight! The Holy One of God on His face in prayer before Him! The prayer is differently recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke. Doubtless He said all that is recorded, and one evangelist gives one part of the prayer and another another. He prayed that “the cup (or hour) might pass along from Him.” It was not a prayer for deliverance from the cross—from that, though He dreaded it, He never drew back (John 12:27, 28). Moreover we are dis tinctly taught in the Bible not only that the Father always heard Him (John 11:41, 42), but that He was heard in this specific case (Heb. 5 :7) ; and, when a prayer is heard, the very thing asked is granted (1 John 5:14, 15). Jesus got just what He asked in this case, the cup He was then drinking (death) passed on or away, the hour passed along till the next day. He was saved from death in the Garden and strengthened to go to His atoning death on the cross. Satan’s plot to kill Him in the Garden was foiled. He was dying of agony then and there (v. 34) , and God strengthened Him (Luke 22: 43),.and He went to the cross and accom plished His- work.
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