Recalling Gethsemane we sing to Jesus,
"Thyself the path of prayer hast trod."
The most sacred path of prayer in all the world was in Gethsemane. It was only "a stone's cast" in length. The Lord trod it six times in passing between the place where He said to the three, "tarry ye here," and that where He "kneeled down and prayed." One angel knows the spot. Would that he could reveal it unto us.
Christ before Pilate (Ecce Homo)—H. Hofmann
[Page 182]
When Jesus was praying and the three were sleeping, Judas reported himself at the High-Priestly Palace, ready to be the guide of the band to arrest his Master. There were the Temple-guard with their staves, and soldiers with their swords, and members of the Sanhedrin, ready to aid in carrying out the plot arranged with the betrayer. It was midnight—fit hour for their deed of darkness. The full moon shone brightly in the clear atmosphere; yet they bore torches and lamps upon poles, to light up any dark ravine or shaded nook in which they imagined Jesus might be hiding. If any cord of love had ever bound Judas to his Master, it was broken. That very night he had fled from the Upper Room, which became especially radiant with love after his departure. To that room we believe he returned with his murdering band. But the closing hymn had been sung, and the Passover lamps extinguished two or three hours before. The consecrated place was not to be profaned with murderous intent. Another place must be sought for the victim of hate and destruction.
John in his old age recalled precious memories of it, because Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples. But he had a remembrance of another kind. It is when speaking of this midnight hour that he says, "Judas also which betrayed Him knew the place." Thither he led his band—to Gethsemane.
"Lo, he that betrayeth Me is at hand," said
Jesus to the three, as He saw the gleams of the torches of the coming multitude. His captors were many, but His thought was especially on one—His betrayer. Again John reads for us the mind of Jesus, as he did when the "Lord and Master washed the disciples' feet." He would have us understand the calmness of the fixed purpose of Jesus to meet without shrinking the terrible trial before Him, and to do this voluntarily—not because of any power of His approaching captors. "Knowing all things that were coming upon Him," He "went forth" to meet them—especially him who at that moment was uppermost in His thought. John now understood that last, mysterious bidding of the Lord to Judas, with which He dismissed him from the table—"That thou doest, do quickly." He now "knew for what intent He spake this unto him." It was not to buy things needed for the feast, nor to give to the poor. It was to betray Him.