Part 11 (1/2)
It was when ”he was gone out” that Christ called the disciples by a new name, and gave them a new commandment. In both of them John took a special interest which he showed long after. That name was ”Little Children.” The word which Christ used had a peculiar meaning. This is the only time we know of His ever using it. It was an expression of the tenderest affection for His family, so soon to be orphaned by His death.
When John wrote his Epistles, he often used the same word, whose special meaning he had learned from his Lord, to show his own love for his fellow-Christians.
The new commandment was this--”That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The command itself was not new, for it had been given through Moses, and repeated by Christ, ”Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But Christ gave the disciples a new reason or motive for obeying it. They were to love one another because of His love for them. As John grew older he became a beautiful example of one who obeyed the command. In his old age he urged such obedience, saying, ”If G.o.d so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
Through the door of the Upper Room left ajar by three Evangelists, we catch glimpses of the group around the table of the Last Supper. Through it as opened wide by John we hear the voice of Jesus as He utters His farewell words. He comforts His disciples and tells of heavenly mansions. He gives His peace in their tribulations. He promises the Holy Spirit as a Comforter. He closes His address, even in this hour of sadness and apparent defeat, with these wonderful words, ”Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
And now as John still holds open the door, we hear the voice of prayer, such as nowhere else has been offered. It is ended. There are moments of silence, followed by a song of praise. Then John closes the door of the Upper Room, which we believe was opened again as the earliest home of the Christian Church. There we shall see him again with those who, because of his experience with his Lord in that consecrated place, gave him the name of ”The Bosom Disciple.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: IN GETHSEMANE _Gustave Dore_ Page 163]
_CHAPTER XXIV_
_With Jesus in Gethsemane_
”He went forth with His disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden.”--_John_ xviii. 1.
”Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto His disciples, Sit ye here while I go yonder and pray.”--_Matt._ xxvi. 36.
”And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, ... and He saith unto them, ... abide ye here, and watch.”--_Mark_ xiv. 33, 34.
”And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed.”
_v._ 35.
John was our leader to the Upper Room. And now he guides us from it, saying, ”Jesus ... went forth with His disciples.” That phrase ”went forth” may suggest to us much more than mere departure. The banquet of love was over. The Lord's cup of blessing and remembrance had been drunk by His ”little children,” as He affectionately called them. He was now to drink the cup the Father was giving His Son--a mysterious cup of sorrow. It was probably at the midnight hour that Jesus ”went forth” the last time from Jerusalem, which He had crowned with His goodness, but which had crowned Him with many crowns of sorrow.
Other Evangelists tell us that He went ”to the Mount of Olives,” ”to a place called Gethsemane.” John shows us the way thither, and what kind of a place it was. Jesus went ”over the ravine of the Kidron,” in the valley of Jehoshaphat. At this season of the year it was not, as at other times, a dry water-bed, but a swollen, rus.h.i.+ng torrent, fitting emblem of the waters of sorrow through which He was pa.s.sing. Whether the name Kidron refers to the dark color of its waters, or the gloom of the ravine through which they flow, or the sombre green of its overshadowing cedars, it will ever be a reminder of the darker gloom that overshadowed John and His Master, as they crossed that stream together to meet the powers of darkness in the hour which Jesus called their own.
The garden of Gethsemane was an enclosed piece of ground. We are not to think of it as a garden of flowers, or of vegetables, but as having a variety of flowering shrubs, and of fruit-trees, especially olive. It might properly be called an orchard. On the spot now claimed to be the garden, there are several very old gnarled olive-trees. Having stood beneath them, I would be glad to believe that they had sheltered my Lord. But I remember that when the prophecy concerning Jerusalem was fulfilled, the most sacred trees of our world were destroyed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT _Old Engraving_ Page 164]
Who was the owner of that sacred garden? He must have known what happened there ”ofttimes.” Perhaps, like the ”goodman of the house” in Jerusalem, he was a disciple of Jesus, and provided this quiet retreat for the living Christ, in the same spirit with which Joseph of Arimathaea provided a garden for Him when He was dead. To these two gardens John is our only guide. From the one he fled with Peter in fear and sadness: to the other he hastened with Peter in anxiety followed by gladness.
When at the foot of Hermon, Jesus left nine of His disciples to await His return. Now one was no longer ”numbered among” them, as Peter afterward said of him ”who was guide to them that took Jesus.” At the entrance to the garden Jesus paused and said to eight, ”Sit ye here while I go yonder and pray.” So had Abraham nineteen hundred years before, pointing to Mount Moriah, visible from Olivet in the moonlight, said ”unto his young men, Abide ye here ... and I and the lad will go yonder and wors.h.i.+p.”
That very night Jesus was to ascend that very Mount on His way as a sacrifice, without any angel to stay the sacrificial hand.
At the garden gate there was no formal farewell, but a solemn final charge, ”Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” Jesus knew that the hour had come in which should be fulfilled Zechariah's prophecy. Sadly He had declared in the Upper Room, ”All ye shall be offended because of Me this night; for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”
He dreads to be entirely alone. He longs for companions.h.i.+p. He craves sympathy. In whose heart is it the tenderest and deepest? There is no guessing here. The names are already on our lips. Answer is found in the home of Jairus and on Hermon. Those whom He had led into the one, and ”apart” onto the other, He would have alone with Him in the garden. So ”He taketh with Him Peter and James and John.” These companions of His glory shall also be of His sorrow.
As Jesus advanced into the garden, the three discovered a change in Him--a contrast to the calmness of the Upper Room and the a.s.surances of victory with which He had left it. He ”began to be sore amazed and sorrowful and troubled,” and ”to be very heavy.” We have seen John apparently quicker than others to detect his Lord's thoughts and emotions. We imagine him walking closest to His side, and watching as closely every change of His countenance and every motion that revealed the inward struggle. And so when Jesus broke the silence, he was somewhat prepared to hear Him say to the three, ”My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS _Old Engraving_ Page 176]
The moment had come when He must deny Himself even the little comfort and strength of the immediate presence of the three. So saying, ”Tarry ye here and watch with Me,” He turned away. They must not follow Him to the spot of His greatest conflict. There He must be alone, beyond the reach of human help, however strong or loving. Even that which He had found in the few moments since leaving the garden entrance must end.
Their eyes followed Him where they might not follow in His steps. It was not far. ”He went forward a little.” ”He was parted from them about a stone's cast”--probably forty or fifty yards. This separation implies sorrow. They were near enough to watch His every movement as He ”kneeled down” and ”fell on His face to the ground” They were near enough to hear the pa.s.sionate cry of love and agony, ”O, My Father.” This is the only time we know of His using this personal p.r.o.noun in prayer to His Father.
He thus showed the intensity of His feeling, and longing for that sympathy and help which the Father alone could give.