My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand."

- Matthew 26:36-46

Over the past several readings, Jesus has been in Jerusalem, in the days before His Passion and Crucifixion. He has told His disciples of the end of the age, and His Second Coming. He has prepared them for the time in which we now live, as we await His return. He has told them what is to come. At the Last Supper, He told them all that one of them would betray Him. On Saturday, we read of Jesus' institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, conveying the sacrifice He is making, and their participation in His life. Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." He told them that He would not drink wine again until He drank it new "in My Father's kingdom." They sang a hymn, and went to the Mount of Olives where they stay during the Passover. Jesus said, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 'I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter said he would never stumble, but Jesus told him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." But Peter claimed he would die with Jesus first. All swore the same as Peter.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." Well, here is the moment in the garden, the time when all the weight of this particular time falls upon Jesus -- that is, the very human Jesus, who feels the tremendous pressures of this choice He has made. His response is to pray, and so should all of ours; this is a moment of this teaching and witness for us.

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." Here is Jesus' inner circle, Peter and James and John Zebedee. They are the friends and disciples who were witnesses to His Transfiguration. He calls on His friends, His disciples, His closest circle. He reveals His deepest distress. How can we find stronger words than this? "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." The "exceedingly" here is meant to express a word in which Jesus reveals a kind of grief that is all-encompassing in the Greek, something that has completely engulfed or surrounded Him, even to the point of death.

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Here is yet again the response of Jesus. He asks His friends to keep away with Him, to watch -- separates Himself again and prays so vehemently that He falls on His face. The human Jesus responds, while His divine nature knows what there is for Him to do. He prays. My study bible says, "According to His divine nature, Jesus knows He must drink the cup. As man, He wishes the chalice to pass, for it is a mark of humanity to abhor death and struggle against it. He prays if . . . possible the suffering be taken from Him. Thus, He gives abundant proof that His flesh is true flesh, but without sin. Through Jesus' body is the temple of His divinity, we do not attribute to His divinity the properties of the humanity united to it: the Passion, the suffering and death."

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Here is, in some sense, the first betrayal. His friends cannot respond to His request to stay and watch with Him. There is an added note here, added to Jesus' words of disappointment, and that is His love for them, His concern. They must pray for their own sake, to stay away from temptation to stumble, to falter. Again, we see the conflict, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." This is another reason to stay in a prayerful state, to keep on the road on which we need to stay. My study bible has another important note here, which I will quote: "Watch and pray is a key to Christian spirituality and our struggle against temptations. Hereby Jesus' soul is strengthened and He faces death courageously. For, while the divine will of the Father and the Son is one, the Lord becomes obedient to the Father in His humanity [my italics]. In contrast to Jesus' vigilance, His disciples sleep. Since body and soul are united, the spirit is paralyzed by a lethargic body. A willing spirit, recognizing the weakness of the flesh, knows it needs God's presence and power. True faith is nourished by ardent, vigilant prayer."

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Jesus prays three times in this same way. Continually, it is the same experience: although they want to remain awake, they cannot. He is, in this sense, alone. The three times of prayer teach us about emphasis, and continual effort. Three times might as well be seven, to my mind, or seventy times seven. St. Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing. But we get the picture, the emphasis on His human nature, aligning with the Father, praying in dialogue.

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand." Jesus knows where He is going, He knows what is to happen. His night of prayer and agony has been a shoring up of His willingness to do what He knows must be done, the divine will of the Father, the sacrifice that is for all -- "for many for the remission of sins." Thereby, ultimately, for love. It is Jesus who leads the way, who rouses the ones who slept and could not keep awake with Him in His time of exceeding sorrow, even to the point of death.

The human Jesus keeps coming back to me, and I think that we have to understand the dynamic of this incarnate God and its impact on the world and all of our cultures. Jesus is both God and man. He's not a man with a tremendous stoic sort of courage, in which emotions pass from Him like they've never touched Him. He's not an all-powerful god who uses thunderbolts or who promises certain things depending on our slavish sacrifices and his personal whims. Jesus is an altogether different sort of reality coming into our midst to teach us about what is truly of God, but most especially about God's love for us. He became so completely one of us. Before God asks of us what God will, in order to bring His kingdom more deeply and truly and fully into this world, God comes to us as one of us -- as fully, deeply, powerfully one of us with all the emotions attached. As one who will go through all the trials we may have to face in our lives as well, and who leads the way with His example of prayer for us. When we look at Jesus, we see love in action: a God incarnate as human, making a great sacrifice for all of us, who loves His Father, but also is a son, to a loving mother and guardian father, with disciples who are also friends and brothers and sisters. Let's remember His example of prayer in all circumstances, that prayer isn't a matter of just asking for what we want, but also of relationship, of dialogue -- something that keeps us on the right path, and helps us to stay away from the temptations that lead us off course. How can love get deeper than this? What makes Him really different? He died. For us; for me and for you. So that we may live, and have life in abundance.