Daily Thought
Today’s Daily Thought –
It is John who recalls with inspired guidance, clarity, and detail the words spoken by the Lord Jesus as the little group made their way from the upper room to the slopes of Olivet. Matthew passes over those precious truths, though spoken in his hearing. His mind is focussed, as so often in his Gospel, on Old Testament prophecy applied on this occasion by the Lord to the events about to take place that night, Matt. 26. 31; Zech. 13. 7.
We have no eye-witness account of the Lord’s Gethsemane experience. John was the evangelist closest, but the Lord had gone that stone’s cast further. John and his two companions slept, and in his Gospel he does not mention the agony of the olive press. The Spirit of God has, however, left us a record through the pens of the other Gospel writers and we find ourselves transfixed, overwhelmed, almost with a sense of intrusion as we hear the Son addressing the Father ‘with strong crying and tears’, ‘If it be possible . . . nevertheless . . . thy will be done’, Matt. 26. 39, 42. Gethsemane is truth for the heart, not the head. Its depths are imponderable, its mystery inexplicable, and its detail unforgettable, as in the words of hymn writer JAMES MONTGOMERY:
Gethsemane can I forget?
Or there Thy conflict see,
Thine agony and blood-like sweat,
And not remember Thee?
The Lord had taken Himself to where He knew Judas would find Him, for, ‘Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples’, John 18. 2. Events now begin to move quite swiftly. We watch the ‘great multitude with swords and staves’ emerge from the darkness and we witness with contempt the traitor’s kiss. We admire brave Peter’s efforts to defend his Lord, being unaware that more than twelve legions of angels, ready and prepared, waited for the briefest word of command.
Again, we notice Matthew’s interest in the fulfilment of Old Testament scripture. In verse 54 and again in verse 56 he recalls the theme of the prophets that the Promised One would be despised and rejected. He found none to take pity or give comfort, Ps. 69. 20; they all ‘forsook him, and fled’.
Yesterday’s Daily Thought –
ORDER YOUR OWN COPY FROM THE BOOK STORE: