A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture/LXIX. The Agony of Jesus in the Garden
3. Our Lord knew beforehand how many souls would be eternally lost in spite of His bitter Passion and Death, because they would not believe in Him and would not love Him. This knowledge made the chalice most bitter, and tortured His Sacred Heart, for He loved men’s immortal souls so dearly that He had come down from heaven to save them from eternal damnation. This was why He sighed and prayed in such an agony; it was not for Himself alone, but for His brethren, so many of whom, whatever He might do, would cast themselves into hell. He was willing to be bound, scourged, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the Cross to save the souls which were made to His own image; and yet He knew that for very many His Precious Blood and His Sufferings would be wasted. This it was that caused the keenest anguish to the Heart of Jesus, all on fire with love for men!
How to bear suffering. Look at out dear Lord, suffering such agony of soul for love of us! There He lies, with His Face on the ground, groaning in spirit and trembling in His agony. Around Him is the darkness of night, and within His Heart unspeakable woe. He is alone. His disciples are asleep, and nowhere can He find consolation! Now what did Jesus do in this time of extreme affliction and abandonment? He prayed to His heavenly Father, and resigned Himself entirely to His will. Thus should we do. If we are in grief, or fear, or need, we ought to turn to God, from whom alone we can obtain comfort and help, and humbly submit ourselves to His holy will.
The Qualities of prayer. Our Blessed Lord’s example teaches us also how we ought to pray. In the Garden of Gethsemani He prayed with devotion, — humility, — confidence y — submission to Gods will, — and perseverance: 1. with devotion; for He prayed from the very bottom of His Heart, and retired a little way from His apostles so that He might pray undisturbed; 2. with exterior and interior humility; for He fell on His Face, humbling Himself in the dust before the majesty of His Eternal Father; 3. with confidence; for He began His prayer with the loving words: “My Father”; 4. with submission to the will of God; for He left the granting of His petition entirely in the Hands of His heavenly Father: “Not as I will”, said He, “but as Thou wilt”; 5. with perseverance; for He said the same prayer over and over again. Even though He received no visible answer to His petition, He did not leave off praying, but rather “prayed the longer”.
Watchfulness. In the midst of His agony Jesus thought more of His own than of Himself. He went back several times to His disciples and urgently exhorted them to watch and pray, that they might not enter into temptation. This exhortation given by our Lord such a short time before His Death is a very important one, and applied not only to the apostles, but to all Christians. You have been told over and over again that prayer is necessary; but prayer alone is not sufficient, unless it be united to watchfulness. Watch and pray! This is what Jesus, the great Searcher of hearts, tells us we must do. We are very weak and very prone to evil; so we must keep a careful watch over our thoughts and imaginations, over the movements and desires of our hearts, and over our senses, especially over our eyes. By so doing we shall either avoid what is sinful, or else be able to overcome it in its very beginnings. By watchfulness we shall escape many temptations, and come victorious out of those struggles with sin which are unavoidable.
Could the chalice have passed? Yes! Satisfaction could have been made to the divine justice without such terrible suffering on the part of our Blessed Lord; for each act of expiation, each suffering of Jesus, He being God, had an infinite value. His very smallest suffering would therefore have been sufficient to pay off the whole debt of sin and appease the justice of God. But what was sufficient to reconcile us to God, was not sufficient to cleanse us inwardly from sin and make us keep from sin. Not only has the guilt of sin to be removed, but sinful man, who is steeped in evil, must be completely cured. What would the satisfaction made for us by our Divine Lord avail us, if we still loved and cherished sin in our hearts, and persisted in sinning more and more till we died in our sins? Nothing! Thus the bitter chalice did not pass, and our Blessed Lord suffered indescribable agony in Soul and Body, in the first place, to put before our eyes in a startling manner the evil and horror of sin. Isaias (55, 4 &c.) had said of Him: “Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows; and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we "are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside unto his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The scourges which tore the Flesh of Jesus, the thorns which lacerated His Sacred Head, the nails which pierced His Hands and Feet, in short, all the tortures which He endured for our sake, teach us more impressively than could anything else what a terrible evil sin is, and what a heavy punishment it deserves. Who can contemplate the Sufferings of Jesus without being moved to contrition and hatred of sin? Who does not feel constrained to love God, when he remembers that the Father gave His Son, and the Son gave His Life for our sakes? This brings us to the consideration of the second reason why the chalice was not removed. Our Blessed Lord drank its bitterness to the very dregs, to kindle the fire of divine love in the hearts of men. There is no one sufficiently degraded not to appreciate, and in a measure to feel grateful for, any sacrifice made for his sake. “Oh, immeasurable love and goodness of God”, says the Church on Holy Saturday, “who to redeem a slave hast delivered up Thine own Son!” It almost looks as if the Father loved man more than He loves His Son, in that He delivered Him up so that we might be saved! And the Incarnate Son of God Himself gave up all for us, and sought out sufferings which He would endure, to prove to us the excess of His Love by the very excess of His Sufferings! Nothing could better reveal the love of God for us than the Sufferings and Death of the Son of God. Even the angels in heaven, on whom God has so lavishly poured proofs of His love, if they wish to contemplate the highest possible proof of God’s goodness, must cast down their glances to this earth of ours, where the Creator suffered for the creature, and He who was offended died on the Cross for those who had offended Him. St. Paul writes thus with reference to Christ’s Passion: “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and sacrifice to God, for an odour of sweetness” (Eph. 5, 2). What has been said may be briefly summed up thus: The divine justice could have been satisfied with a lesser expiation, and thus the chalice would have been removed from our Lord; but that which would have satisfied the divine justice was not sufficient to satisfy the divine love which knew no measure in its desire to draw us away from sin, and move our hearts to a grateful love in return.
Application. It was for you that Jesus endured His agony and shed His Precious Blood on the Mount of Olives. The Eternal God suffered for you, ungrateful, sinful creature that you are! Will you not for the future try to love Him more, and serve Him better?
Think what grief of soul your sins caused your Divine Saviour! And yet you pay so little heed to your sins, and have so very little sorrow for them. Reflect on the number and grievousness of your sins, confess your ingratitude and indifference, and ask our dear Lord — for the sake of His bitter agony — to instil into your heart a great hatred of sin. Let us now kneel down and make a good act of contrition!
Chapter LXX.
JESUS IS APPREHENDED AND BOUND.
(Mat. 26, 47 — 56. Mark 14 43—49. Luke 22, 47 — 54. John 17, 3 — 12.]
WHILE Jesus was yet speaking, Judas[1] came with a great crowd of soldiers[2] and servants from the chief priests and ancients. Now the traitor had given them a sign, saying: “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is He; hold Him fast!” As soon as he saw Jesus, he approached Him, saying: “Hail, Rabbi!” and he kissed Him[3]. Jesus said to him: “Friend[4], whereto art thou come? Judas, dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
Then, advancing towards the troop, He said: “Whom seek ye?” They answered: “Jesus of Nazareth”. He said to them with a look of majesty: “I am He!” At the sound of His Voice they started back, and fell[5] to the ground as though they had been struck by lightning. When they had raised themselves up, He asked them again: “Whom seek ye?” They spoke as before: “Jesus of Nazareth”. He answered: “I have told you that I am He. If, therefore, you seek Me, let these[6] go their way.”[7] They then laid hold of Him.
The apostles, seeing this, asked their Lord if they might not strike with the sword in His defence. But Peter [8], without waiting for permission, struck a servant of the High Priest, called Malchus, and cut off his right ear. Then Jesus said to Peter: “Put up thy sword into the scabbard. Thinkest thou[9] that I cannot ask My Father, and He will give Me presently more than twelve legions[10] of angels? How then shall the Scriptures[11] be fulfilled that so it must be done?” So saying, He touched the ear[12] of Malchus and healed him. He then held out His Hands, and they bound Him[13] and led Him away. Then the disciples all fled [14], leaving Him alone in the hands of His enemies.
COMMENTARY.
The Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before our Blessed Lord gave Himself up into the hands of His enemies, He manifested His Godhead in several ways: i. By casting His enemies to the ground by His words: “ I am Hel” The power of these simple words sufficed to fell to the ground a whole troop of rough soldiers and servants who were thirsting to capture Him. Jesus required no help from outside, no legions of the heavenly host; His word alone sufficed to render his enemies powerless, and their weapons harmless; for it was the word of Him who “shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall slay the wicked’’ (Is. 11, 4). By thus overthrowing the troop and bidding them rise again, our Lord proved that no human force, but only the excess of His love could chain Him. He manifested His Divinity 2. in the effect produced by His command that His disciples should be left untouched. Although He was Himself a captive in the hands of the ruffians who had seized Him, He spoke to them as a Master to his slaves, as a conqueror to those he had vanquished; and they, full of hatred as they were both towards Himself and His doctrine, obeyed Him without demur, and did not dare to lay a finger on any of those men who, after their Master’s death, were destined to spread His doctrine over the face of the earth. They did not even venture to touch Peter, or take vengeance on him for attacking and wounding Malchus. Was not this a wonderful thing? Our Blessed Lord manifested His Divinity 3. by His miracle, which instantaneously cured the wounded Malchus; 4. by calling God His Father, who was ready at His request to send legions of angels to His aid; and 5. in the proof afforded of His Omniscience by the way in which His disciples, through their cowardice and flight, fulfilled that which He had foretold of them: “All you shall be scandalized in Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed.’’
1. His Goodness to Judas was also divine. He did not refuse his treacherous kiss: He suffered His sacred Face to be touched by the lips of this vile traitor, and He even called him: “Friend!” “I have always treated you as My friend”, He meant to imply, “why therefore do you come now at the head of My enemies, and betray Me to them by a kiss!” This loving treatment on the part of our Lord was to the ungrateful traitor a last hour of grace. Jesus gave him to understand that He still loved him in spite of his vile crime, and was ready to forgive him even now, if he would repent; but Judas resisted this last grace, and remained hardened and unmoved.
2. His Goodness to the eleven Apostles. Full of loving care for them, though willing Himself to be taken captive and led away to death, He desired to assure freedom and life to His disciples. His enemies might rage against Himself, but they must not lay a finger on those whom He loved, and it was only on this condition that He gave Himself into their hands. Oh, how loving is the Heart of Jesus!
3. His Goodness to Malchus. He exercised His Omnipotence and healed Malchus, who, like his master, Caiphas, was one of our Lord’s bitterest enemies, and who had pressed forward so as to be the first to seize Him. Jesus has taught us not only by His word, but by His example, that we are to return good for evil, and to love even our enemies.
The voluntary and vicarious Sufferings of our Lord Jesus. Jesus gave Himself up to His enemies, of His own will. He went to meet them, encouraged them to seize Him, and offered His Hands to be bound. He gave up His liberty, to atone to God for our abuse of the liberty He has given us. He gave Himself up as a prisoner, to save us from the everlasting prison of hell. He let Himself be bound, that we might be delivered from the bonds of sin and Satan.
The malice, ingratitude and depravity of Judas. Our Blessed Lord had loaded this man with benefits and graces. He had chosen him to be an apostle; He had let him witness His miracles and the holiness of His life; He had imparted to him His divine doctrine; He had borne with him patiently and warned him lovingly, had washed his feet and given him His own Body and Blood to be his Food; and yet he repaid his Master’s love with the basest treachery, placed himself at the head of His enemies, feigned friendship for Him, called Him Master, and betrayed Him with a kiss! But Christians behave quite as basely and ungratefully when they make an unworthy Communion!
Application. When we contemplate Jesus, bound and taken prisoner, we feel as if we could cry out to these Jews: “Hold! How can you bind the Hands of Him Who has shed such blessings on you! Unbind Him, for He is your God Who delivered you from the bondage of Egypt, Who went before you in a pillar of cloud, and led you into the Promised Land. Woe to you if you lay a hand on Him!” Thus would we fain cry out, but faith says to us: “Spare your indignation! The Jewish servants and pagan soldiers could not have held and bound Jesus if it had not been for your sins! Be not angry with those men, for they knew not what they did; but rather be angry with yourself and your sins, and bear in mind that, each time you sin, you are forging new bonds to bind Jesus and lead Him away to death!”
You are quite right to detest the black ingratitude of Judas; but remember how often you too have been ungrateful to your Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Bear in mind, especially, that every mortal sin is a shameful act of ingratitude towards God, your Father, and a dark act of treachery towards Jesus, your Redeemer.
Chapter LXXI.
JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS.
[Mat. 26, 57. Mark 14, 53. Luke 22, 54. John 18, 13.]
THE troop of soldiers and servants first led Him bound[15] before Annas[16], a former High Priest, and the father-in-law of Caiphas, the High Priest of that year. Annas questioned[17] Jesus concerning His disciples and His doctrine. Jesus calmly told him that He had spoken openly[18], and he might question those who had heard Him. Then one of the servants who stood by gave Jesus a blow[19], saying: “Answerest thou the High Priest so?” Jesus meekly[20] replied: “If I have spoken ill, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why strikest thou Me?”
Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiphas[21], who had meanwhile assembled the Great Council of the Jews. Now he and the whole council would willingly have found some pretext for putting Jesus to death; but they could find none, although many false witnesses[22] had appeared against Him.
At last there came two false witnesses who affirmed that they had heard Jesus saying He would destroy the Temple, and after three days build it up again. But they still contradicting each
- ↑ Judas. He came in the capacity of leader of the troop (Luke 22, 47), the strength of which was out of proportion to its purpose; but the enemies of our Lord were determined that Jesus should not escape by any neglect on their part. The troop consisted of the Temple guard, and the armed servants of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin.
- ↑ Soldiers. “With swords and lanterns". They carried lanterns to make sure that Jesus should not escape them in the darkness of the night.
- ↑ Kissed Him. A kiss is the token of love, faithfulness and reverence; but Judas made use of it for purposes of treachery. The hypocrite did not wish to appear a traitor in the eyes of Jesus and His apostles, but our Lord let him know at once that He saw through his hypocrisy.
- ↑ Friend. I have always treated you as My friend, and yet now you come to Me with the vile purpose of betraying Me ! You abuse the token of friendship to betray the Messias! Our Lord wished to move the hard heart of Judas by these words, and to bring him to realise the vileness of his deed. Judas might even then have been saved if he had contritely implored our Lord’s forgiveness; but, in spite of all, he remained obstinate, and returned defiantly to the band of soldiers and servants.
- ↑ And fell. All fell flat on the ground, and Jesus remained alone standing in the midst of His powerless enemies. He could have fled had He wished it; but He remained where He was, and having commanded the troop of ruffians not to injure His apostles, He gave Himself into their hands.
- ↑ These. The apostles.
- ↑ Their way. He implied by these words that they were at liberty to seize Him, and therefore encouraged them to lay hands on Him.
- ↑ Peter. His love for Jesus made him rash.
- ↑ Thinkest thou. If I wished to resist by force the violence which is about to be done to Me, many thousands of angels would come to My aid; so I do not need your help.
- ↑ Twelve legions, i. e. twelve times 6,000.
- ↑ The Scriptures. The Old Testament Scriptures, which by their prophecies and types so clearly show that the Redeemer must suffer and die. It is the will of My Father that I should suffer, and therefore I give Myself up, of My own will, into the hands of My enemies.
- ↑ The ear. And, by a wonderful miracle, completely restored his ear to its right place.
- ↑ Bound Him. Like a criminal! Truly this was a deed which cried to heaven for vengeance ! Picture to yourself how roughly and cruelly these soldiers and servants treated our Divine Saviour! They were exasperated at having been cast to the ground by the very sound of His Voice, and now they vented their rage on Him who so patiently gave them His Hands to be bound. They thrust Him here and there, abused Him, and secured Him as tightly as they could with their chains and ropes.
- ↑ Fled. When they saw that Jesus would not hear of resistance, and even voluntarily gave His Hands to be bound, they lost all courage, and fled in a panic, lest they too should be seized. But Peter and John did not quite forsake Him, but “followed Him afar off" so as not to lose sight of Him, and to learn what would become of Him. Pear and love struggled within their hearts. Love drew them on to follow Jesus, while fear kept them from following Him too closely. Peter, who but a few hours before had declared that he would lay down his life for Him, now discreetly kept at a distance!
- ↑ Led Him bound. What a tale of ignominy and ill-treatment is contained in these few words! Both the soldiers and the chief priests’ servants knew how intensely their employers hated Jesus, and that the best way to gain favour with them was to maltreat our Blessed Lord. They bound His Hands together tightly and cruelly, and having put a rope round His neck dragged Him by it into the city, abusing and maltreating Him all the way. The road to Annas' house took about half an hour to traverse, and during that half-hour our Lord, according to tradition, fell to the ground seven times in consequence of the inhuman treatment to which He was subjected.
- ↑ Annas. The Romans were in the habit of setting up and deposing the High Priests in the most arbitrary manner. At the time of our Lord’s Death there were therefore several High Priests, for even those who were deposed kept the title. Caiphas was the fourth High Priest since Annas’ deposition, but Annas still exercised great influence, for Caiphas had married his daughter, and Caiphas himself had no strength of character. Annas and Caiphas both lived on Mount Sion, about a hundred and seventy yards apart. To reach the house of Caiphas they had to pass that of Annas, so the troop led Jesus there on the way, both to curry favour with him, and because the Sanhedrin had not yet had time to assemble at the High Priest’s house.
- ↑ Questioned. Although he had no authority to put the questions. His interrogation was, moreover, superfluous, as both the disciples and doctrine of Jesus must have been well known to him.
- ↑ Openly. Our Blessed Lord attempted no defence; He merely appealed to the many impartial witnesses before whom He had openly preached.
- ↑ A blow. Annas, who hated our Lord, allowed this man’s brutal conduct to pass without even reproof.
- ↑ Meekly. In order to bring the ruffian to a sense of his injustice.
- ↑ To Caiphas. Annas was in a great dilemma, for he could not answer our Lord’s calm words; and, moreover, he had no authority to pass sentence on Him. The only thing he could do was to have our Blessed Lord’s bonds replaced, and send Him to Caiphas, at whose house part of the Sanhedrin had assembled as soon as the news of the capture of Jesus had reached its members. It was now about three o’clock in the morning, yet the chief priests and Pharisees were but too willing to give up their night’s rest in order to gratify their hatred of Jesus.
- ↑ False witnesses. They had already made up their minds to put Jesus to death, but they called witnesses in order to preserve some appearance of justice, and to enable them to pass a legal sentence; for, by the Jewish law, sentence of death might not be pronounced unless the offence of the accused were proved by the unanimous testimony of at least two witnesses. If the testimony of witnesses did not agree, the evidence was adjudged false (see the story of Susanna, Old Test. LXXVI).