| International Sunday School Lessons |
Lesson for May 31, 1942
The Day of Suffering
Part 1
(Gethsemane and Trials)
Mark 14:32-34, 44-46; 15:1-5
GOLDEN TEXT: “Not My will, but Thine, be done.”—Luke 22:42
JESUS, with His disciples, left the upper room where He had eaten the passover with them, and went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas had evidently departed ahead of the others to make contact with those who were later to seize the Master when His identity was revealed to them by the Judas kiss. In that upper room Jesus had given His disciples what proved to be virtually His parting message to them. What they learned from there on until after His resurrection was largely through observation and hard experience. In this parting message Jesus had asked them to share His cup with Him, and they soon had an opportunity to observe what sort of a cup it turned out to be.
Jesus knew that His hour had come. He was undoubtedly acquainted with the time prophecy of the Old Testament which foretold that He would be “cut off” in the midst of the seventieth symbolic week from a given starting point. (Dan. 9:24-27) He knew it was to be in the spring of the year, and that the slaying of the typical passover lamb pointed out the exact day in that eventful spring when He, as the antitype of the passover lamb, must be slain. There was no disposition on His part to hold back from making the supreme sacrifice which was to provide redemption for all mankind.
There was no question in the Master’s mind about it being the Father’s will that He should die. He had on more than one occasion spoken of this to His disciples, although they had not comprehended it. He had said, “My flesh I give for the life of the world.” In asking them to drink of the cup which represented His poured out life He had indicated His knowledge of what was due to transpire. What then could have been in His mind when in Gethsemane He prayed, “If Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done”?
The answer seems to center around the manner of His death. While He knew and was fully resigned to the fact that He must die in order to redeem the world—and had known this from the very beginning of His ministry—yet it probably had not come to Him so vividly as now that in addition to dying, He was to die as an outcast, a blasphemer, and a malefactor. He also knew in advance that Judas would betray Him, but not until now did He realize the shame and ignominy that would follow the betrayal.
Jesus was perfect. He had always been pleasing to His Father, and had always delighted to do the Father’s will. It was no small thing that now He saw looming up before Him the possibility of being treated as a breaker of God’s Law, and a traitor in the sight of men. Was this necessary in order to redeem the world? was the question which may have flitted through His weary mind. “If Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me,” was His prayer. He knew that it could be possible only if it were not included in the divine will for Him.
The Master had done the right thing by taking His problem to His Father in prayer; and He got the answer, which was not a release from drinking the cup, but an assurance that this was the Father’s will for Him and that He would be given strength to carry it through. Thus was the Master “comforted” by the knowledge that the divine will was being worked out in Him and by Him.
Events followed closely from now on. Jesus aroused His sleeping disciples who had failed to watch with Him, and announced, “He that betrayeth Me is at hand.” A mob appeared, and Judas with them, ready to point out the object of their wrath with a kiss of feigned friendship. But Jesus knew this was coming, and more important, He now knew of a certainty that it was His Father’s will for Him, so He was calm and unresentful. He offered no resistance, nor would He permit others to offer it for Him. He made no attempt to justify Himself before His accusers, for now He knew the full import of the prophecy which had said that He would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and that He would not open His mouth in self-defense.
There were two counts upon which Jesus was finally crucified; one was religious, and the other civil. His trial before the high priest had to do with the former; and His trial before Pilate was concerned with the latter. While from one standpoint Jesus was falsely accused, yet on these two counts He admitted to His accusers that the charges they had entered against Him were true.
The high priest and the scribes inquired, “Art Thou the Christ, the Son of God? and Jesus answered, ye say that I am,” and He truly was. The difficulty was that the high priest construed this to be blasphemy because he didn’t believe it was true; and Jesus made no attempt to prove that it was true. At the beginning of His ministry Satan challenged Him to prove that He was the Son of God by casting Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus wasn’t willing to do anything then to establish His claim, nor was He willing now, at the close of His ministry, to do anything more than acknowledge the charge that was made against Him, knowing full well what would be the result.
Pilate wasn’t interested in the religious aspect of the controversy, but he couldn’t ignore the charge that this Jesus claimed to be a King who proposed to set up a Kingdom which would be in opposition to Caesar’s rule. If this were true, He would have to be gotten out of the way. Pilate also gave Jesus an opportunity to deny the charge, but the Master didn’t deny it—He acknowledged it. His real enemies, the religious leaders of Israel accused Jesus of “many things,” and Pilate marveled that He made no attempt to refute their charges. The charge that really counted with Pilate was His alleged claim to kingship, and this one Jesus acknowledged was true. “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world,” Jesus explained. When the mob insisted, Pilate yielded and turned Jesus over to His accusers.
QUESTIONS:
Did Jesus have any question in His mind as to whether or not it was necessary for Him to die?
What were the two main charges against the Master which resulted in His crucifixion?
In what way did the Heavenly Father comfort Jesus?