'And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as

it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground' (Luke 22:44).

Here the beloved physician records the symptoms of extreme exhaustion.

The Saviour had reached the edge of death itself.  The truth is that Christ

realized that this extreme physical prostration might be fatal.  Unless He

received supernatural aid He knew that He would die before he reached the

cross.  For the passing of this cup He prayed.  He prayed that He might be

spared to finish His Work; and, blessed be God, He was heard for His piety.

The fatal seizure was stayed, but weakness was His condition all the

remaining hours of His sufferings.  So weak was He that the rough soldiers

transferred His cross to the back of Simon, a Cyrenian.  So weak was

His physical frame that those who knew best what to expect were surprised to

find Him so soon dead (John 19:31 -37).  Glory be to God.  We rise from this

study rid of an incubus*.  There is no need to plead extenuating

circumstances for the Son of God at any moment of His life, suffering or

death.  Never for a single instant did He, that spotless One, 'savour of the

things that be of men'.  Never did He make a petition that was not in full

harmony with the Word of God.  Immediately before Gethsemane the Lord had

said to Peter:

*

incubus = a person or thing that oppresses, like a nightmare.

'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift

you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not'

(Luke 22:31,32).

Are we to believe that within a few moments Peter would have had the

opportunity to have said to the Son of God, 'physician heal Thyself'?  Never!

John's Gospel does not record the actual agony in the garden, but immediately

following the betrayal that took place there, he tells us that the Lord said,

'the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?' (John 18:11).

Let us read Gethsemane in the light of John 12:27,28:

'Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? (Shall I say), Father,

save Me from this hour (from -- ek, the same as "from death" of Heb.

5:7).  No! it is for this cause I am come to this hour.  (I will say)

Father, glorify Thy name'.

In an exhaustive treatise on the physical causes of the death of Christ, W.

Stroud, M.D. writes:

'Excessive fear and grief debilitate and almost paralyse the body,

whilst agony or conflict is attended with extraordinary strength.

Under the former, the action of the heart is enfeebled, perspiration

whenever it occurs is cold and scanty.  Under the latter the heart acts

with great violence, and forces a hot, copious, and in extreme cases, a

blood sweat through the pores of the skin.  In the Garden of

Gethsemane, Christ endured mental agony so intense, that had it not

been limited by Divine interposition, it would probably have destroyed

His life without the aid of any other sufferings'.

In the temptation in the wilderness, Satan would have triumphed, had

the Saviour taken the short way to the throne.  Likewise, it would have been

a triumph for Satan had the Saviour died in the Garden.  He prayed that such

a bitter disappointment may be removed from Him, so that He might accomplish