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THE KING’S BUSINESS
as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And all this He bore for us, “He was wounded for our trans gressions, He was bruised for our iniqui ties: the chastisement o f our peace was upon H im ; and with His stripes we are healed.” How can we ever complain against any weight o f persecution or sor row that we have to endure for Him? How can we do anything but rejoice that we are counted worthy to share His suffer ings? Rising strengthened and triumphant by prayer, He came to His disciples and found them sleeping. In amazement He says, “Why sleep ye ? arise, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Oh, how often must He say that to us when we are sleeping when we ought to be praying, and when temptations overtake us that we can only overcome by prayer. Is He not saying it to the whole church today* “Why sleep ye?” Oh, that the church would hear His question and awaken and pray. Thursday, March 9 . Luke 22 : 47 - 53 . W e have considered -this same incident in our notes upon Matthew 26:47 and fol lowing, and Mark 14:43 and following, and it might be* well to look up the notes on those passages. Our Lord had scarcely ceased asking the disciples why they slept when a mob headed by Judas drew near to arrest Him. Probably Judas had led these soldiers and the posse o f the temple police first to the house where he had left Jesus and the disciples,' and, finding that they had departed thence, he led them to the garden where, as he well knew, Jesus was wont to go with the disciples for retire ment and prayer. How calloused the heart o f Judas had become. He had often sat beneath the shadows o f those old olive trees listening to the words of loving coun sel that fell from the lips o f Him who spake as never man spake. He had often heard the voice o f Jesus raised in prayer to God in that place, but now he is so overmastered by greed and the power o f Satan-to whom he had given himself up, that he leads the band over Kedron and up to that sacred spot to arrest Jesus. Each
Wednesday, March 8 . Luke 22 : 39 - 46 .
It is from Luke alone that we learn that Gethsemane was a place where Jesus was in the habit o f going for prayer. There is today a garden orchard on the Mount of Olives that is claimed to be the very spot and there is a very strong probability that this claim is true. Quite likely it was a garden" or olive orchard that was owned by some one who was friendly to our Lord and it had been placed at His disposal as a place o f retirement for prayer for Himself and His disciples. From, verse 39 we learn that Jesus resorted there not merely on a rare occasion such as this, but it was His habit to go there for solitude and prayer. From various passages in the brief record that we have o f His life we are taught that He prepared for great crises by prayer. But this was the greatest crisis o f all and He felt that not only He needed prayer, but that His disciples needed it too. Unfor tunately the disciples did not heed His exhortation, “ Pray that ye enter not into temptation,” and so when the trial came, while He triumphed because o f this night o f prayer, the disciples failed because they slept when they ought to pray. It is also from Luke alone that we learn o f the details o f the intense agony o f that hour. The sorrow that was crushing Him was not merely the recoil from death (though being the Prince o f Life no other man ever recoiled from death as He did), but it was the weight o f man’s sin that was crushing Him. He, the absolutely sinless One, with a keenness o f conscience such as no other man ever knew, because every other con science has been dulled by sin, and yet Himself in the place o f the sinner with all the weight o f the world’s sin upon Him. Furthermore, He loved the Father, His whole being was knit to the Father’s being . by a love such as no other man ever knew, and yet He was being separated from, the Father in taking the sinner’s place. There is a depth o f agony here that no depth of imagination can fathom, His heart was breaking under the strain, as- it did finally break on the cross. His very sweat became
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