“The place called Gethsemane” is a hallowed place: let us tread reverently. But let us enter the Garden and learn what Christ would teach us of prayer, for prayer is a sacred art and needs much teaching and practice.
Real praying always costs a Gethsemane. Praying through is always a victory over pressure. No soul was ever converted or sanctified who did not pray his way through the pressure of sins, doubts and fears. And do not our hearts tell us that the outstanding reason for fruitless living is our slowness and unwillingness to enter the Garden of intercession in behalf of others?
Not every disciple is an intercessor. Among these eleven were two groups. To one group Jesus said, “Sit ye here,” and to the other group He said, “Watch with me.” And there were eight of the “sitters” to three of “watchers.” Let our hearts be hushed, Christian believers, and let our Lord ask us these questions: Is that not a true ratio today? In which class do I belong?
A step further. Not every intercessor is watching with Jesus. No wonder (Is it?) that our churches are so spiritually unprogressive and without the glory of the Presence! The eight sit without the Garden, and the three who enter go to sleep! Let out beloved Zion weep over her sleeping intercessors.
The place of prayer is a place of danger, if we fail to pray. “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Jesus did not wish mere human comradeship in the Garden, nor did He take the three on into the Garden that they might minister to Him. Jesus rather entered Gethsemane to win the victory by prevailing prayer, and He took the three disciples along to inspire them to prevailing prayer by His own example. But when he returned they were asleep. The three had a victory to gain in that hour but they did not gain it. When the betrayer came the three fled as quickly as the eight. Prayerlessness is the gateway to temptation.
Conquering the flesh is the path to prayer victories. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” reveals the greatest prayer hindrance, “the flesh.” By this term we are not to understand the carnal nature. It is our own proper human nature, as weakened by The Fall, that waylays us as we journey to the Garden of intercession. The early disciples who became monks to avoid contact with the world’s sin greatly erred; but they recognized truly that a certain self-denial of “the flesh” did accelerate the battles of prayer, there must be a consecration of the body to the will of God. “Neither count I my life dear unto myself,” was Paul’s way of stating it.
Who will watch with Jesus in intercession?
--George E. Failing
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