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for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. 12: 2).
If Heb. 5: 7 be interpreted to mean that the Saviour prayed to be delivered from the
awful death that awaited Him on the cross, it will certainly read discordantly with
John 12: 27, 28:
"Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? (shall I say?) Father, save Me from
this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour, (No, I will say) Father, glorify Thy
name."
How does the apparent drawing back of Gethsemane harmonize with the words of
John 10: 17, 18?
"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My
Father."
John 17: precedes the garden of Gethsemane. In that sublime chapter the Saviour
reviewed His life's work, and said:
"The hour is come . . . . . I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
"When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook
Cedron, where was a garden" (John 17: 1, 4; 18: 1).
Are we to believe that the strong confidence of chapter 17: was followed by a
temporary drawing back in chapter 18:? The Saviour knew intimately what awaited
Him at the end of His journey:
"He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matt. 16: 21).
He knew all that the prophets had written concerning His crucifixion and death:
"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets
concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the
Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall
scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again"
(Luke 18: 31-33).
To suggest that in the garden of Gethsemane the awfulness of Calvary just began to
dawn upon the Saviour, is a contradiction of all that is written of Him. He knew, even to
the fact that He should be "spitted on". We certainly read of the disciples, when they
were on their way to that last visit to Jerusalem, that they were amazed and afraid, but the
Saviour assured them by telling them that He knew already all that could and should be
done unto Him (Mark 10: 32-34).
Let us return to Heb. 5: and read the passage afresh. Let us go to the end of verse 7,
and note, whatever it was that formed the burden of the Saviour's prayer, He was heard.
To "hear" prayer is equivalent in many cases to "answer".
"Now we know that God heareth not sinners" (John 9: 31).