As Jesus crossed the Cedron and entered the garden of Gethsemane for the last time, in the dark night of that preparation day, no human heart could sympathize with Him. No, to all His disciples it was the day of deepest disappointment. None knew the Father but the Son. None knew what was in the heart of God our Father but He, God is love, and God had sent His Son that man might be brought into the eternal sabbath of rest. This was the purpose of God; and this was the preparation day, fore ordained from all eternity, in which that work should be accomplished; yes, finished that very day. A work that should rend the veil, and remove every obstacle, should open the way for you and me and every guilty sinner that believes God into His own eternal rest—a sabbath that can never be broken—eternal rest based entirely on the work accomplished on that preparation day.
Never was there a day like this before; never can there be another like it throughout the ages of eternity. Every promise, and every sacrifice; yea, all the dealings of God with man had reference to this preparation day. All this was known to Jesus. And when they had sung a psalm they went out and went into the Mount of Olives. Now what was it that pressed upon the heart of Jesus? What was there so terrible before His soul? He said unto them, “ 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.” (Matt. 26:31.) It was not merely what He was about to endure in all the mocking, and cruel torment, that men could inflict; but, as the shepherd, though equal with God—His fellow, yet He must be smitten by Jehovah. Oh, think of the holy, holy, holy Son being made a curse beneath the smiting of Jehovah. Must this be accomplished on the preparation day? He would need and would look for sympathy, but all would forsake Him. And all to bring us into rest. How tenderly He said, “Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.” Oh, look at Him there, “And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” What a cry that the cup might pass from Him! And what subjection to the Father’s will. The Lamb must be killed. He gave Himself up.
None but the Father knew how He loved the church, when He thus gave Himself up for it. Deep was the sorrow and anguish of His heart when He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Hear Him: “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.” In Matthew it is, when He had gone a little way from them, He “fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” In Mark, He said: “Abba, Father.” My Father, Abba Father. He appeals to all the endearing affection of that eternal relationship. But He could not be heard. He said: “Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered; they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man: a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” (Psalm 22:4-6.) Oh, the depths into which our precious holy Jesus sank on that preparation day! But there was no other way by which the guilty sinner could be brought into the sabbath of God.
And what was the sympathy of His chosen three? He found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy. But nothing changed His changeless love. Three times did He thus go and cry to the Father, His Father. Three times did He return to find His most devoted disciples asleep. Yes, such is even devotedness, when put to the test. And if such is devotedness, what is mere profession?
A little noise is heard in the garden. The dreadful cup must be drunk. Here comes a very apostle of profession, at the head of a band of men, with swords and staves, from the religious authorities of Israel. Hear what he says: “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed him,” or covered Him with kisses. Such is man, whether it be a devoted disciple, or a false apostle. Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou must do the whole work alone on that preparation day!
In John, at this trying hour, the Godhead shone out for a moment: as “Jesus, said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground.” And now the last act of Jesus before He was bound was to heal His enemy’s ear. Peter could sleep when he ought to have been watching, and he would fight when the hour had arrived to be yielding. But Jesus was perfect in His deepest humiliation. He who had made all things gives Himself up to be bound.
We now enter on another stage of sufferings of Jesus on the preparation day. He is bound by His own people, and they take Him, the holy, holy One, as a criminal. They led Him first to Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas the high priest. We have not much account of what He suffered before him. We read that he sent Him bound unto Caiaphas, the high priest. (John 18:13-24)
Now mark the sufferings of Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, before His own high priest.
What He suffered at his hands was as the Captain of our salvation. Just an example of what His followers have ever had to suffer if the pretended priesthood have had the power, whatever the name by which that priesthood was known. Surely no just charge could be made against the pure and spotless One. And the priest tried to entangle Him in His words. “ Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them,” &c. (John 18:19-21.)
What a revelation of man: “ Now the chief priests and elders, and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death.” (Matt. 26:59.) How often have the priests of Rome, pagan and papal, done the same thing. What parallels we might give from the history of God’s real saints. Mark, the sole object of the Jewish Sanhedrin was the death, of the Holy One, Jesus, No false witnesses could be found to agree. Driven to the last extremity, the high priest adjures Him by the living God, that He should tell them whether He was the Christ the Son of God. How blessed the answer of Him who is the truth. “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” The high priest ought to have known that the Messiah would come exactly in this manner, as may be seen in Dan. 7:9-14; Mic. 5:1-3. The word of God was perfectly clear, and the Christ of God stood before him; but he knew it not. All was blasphemy to the high priest. And what was the thought of chief priests, elders, and Sanhedrim? “ They answered and said, He is guilty of death.” (Matt. 26:66.) All that He had said was the exact truth. Man has no heart for the truth.
Mark well how religious man treated the Lord of glory. “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands (or with rods).” This gave much torment and extreme suffering. Ah, what would be said in our day if a highwayman was treated as they treated the Holy Son of God, against whom no charge of sin could be brought?
We read further in Luke 22 That the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, “Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?” And in the midst of all this unparalleled outrage and inhuman cruelty, and anguish, and suffering, was there no human heart to pity or sympathize? No; as we read in Psalm 142:4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” But what of Peter who really in his heart loved Jesus; Peter, who sincerely thought and said he would die for Jesus. What was he doing when Jesus was blindfolded and cruelly smitten by brutal Jews. Plush, whilst we tell it; he was denying Jesus, with cursing and swearing. Can we desire a greater proof that we cannot trust in ourselves, or our love, or our promises? We have now seen in this first trial of Jesus, what the man under law is with all his privileges. The Jew stands thus before us on the preparation day; he had every possible privilege: the oracles of God and His prophets had foretold these sufferings of the Messiah Never in the history of the Jew had he made greater professions of zeal for the religion of his fathers. The law commanded him to love God with all his heart. And now God incarnate, visible in humanity, humbled, in love to man, love to them: Jesus was delivered up into his hands. And the full character of the most favored man was fully revealed. What is in man came out in all its envy, malice, and hatred, against the Son of God. The chief priests seem to have been the worst. How strange, the greater the pretensions, and the more highly esteemed amongst men, the greater the wickedness and hatred to God.
Thus the midnight hours of the preparation day passed on. Deeper sorrows yet awaited our adorable Lord. Let us trace them; for all hearts must be tested on this preparation day. The whole multitude now arise and lead Him bound, again to tramp the dark streets of Jerusalem. They are taking him to Pilate. They are determined He shall be given up to the Gentile power. They long that He shall die the most cruel and shameful death. Let us follow, and see if the Gentile is better than the Jew.