In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked His three closest disciples if they would watch and pray with Him as He knelt some yards away. His sweat was as drops of blood, so intense was the spiritual attack against Him by Satan and his demonic agents of darkness. If Evil could have permission to kill Him there and then in that garden, they would have, so that Jesus.. whose face was set toward Jerusalem where they killed and stone the prophets, would not be able to fulfill His Father’s perfect will for mankind’s salvation.
Satan visited Jesus many many times with various traps, temptations and provocations, so that He would not be that spotless Lamb… so that He would somehow be corrupted in His purity and not be suitable as the Lamb of Sacrifice for mankind. All temptations failed against Jesus… who ever emptied Himself of all selfishness and ego, so satan could never find anything to trip Him up with or make Him fall. He already emptied Himself of all self, and made Himself lower than any man, so He couldn’t fall.. He was already at ground level and placed Himself last place in all things. Satan knew His ministry was coming to a close, and He would be offering Himself according to the Father’s will., so he saved his worst , more vehement temptations and attacks against Jesus strategically at the end.. starting in Gethsemane, and culminating right up to Jesus’s death on the cross.
Jesus desired that His closest disciples would pray with Him.,.. would give Him some comfort and spiritual support by praying with Him to the Father, because He knew it was a real possibility that He might even die in that Garden.. Satan was throwing everything against Him. Instead of praying or watching with Him, they fell asleep, leaving Jesus alone against satan, pleading before the Father for the strength to carry on His mission .. yet nevertheless, not HIS will… not HIS desires, but whatever change in plan the Father might have.. He wanted only to do what pleased the Father.
Centuries earlier, another son of David.., king Solomon, penned the Song of Solomon, and wrote about the Shulamite woman who could not get out of bed when her Beloved knocked for her to let him in. His hair was “wet with the dew of the night”., as though he had just been through a great battle with the enemy, and was seeking consolation and intimacy with his fiance’…his bride-to-be. What a chance she missed to embrace her Beloved and wipe the blood an sweat off of his brow. To be his “Veronica”, for him, and wipe the dew off affliction off of His face. What a chance the disciples missed in comforting the One they loved and left everything behind to follow.
In the journal, “He and I”, Gabrielle records “I was watching Him weep in the Garden of Gethsemane and I asked Him to let His tears fall into my heart.”
She then records Jesus’s response to her: “Yes, there were moments when I saw the comfort that My soul friends would give Me all down the ages. I saw their great desire to suffer in My place, and I sent flowing to them the merits of My fearful agony, for I saw the first man and all the others, right to the very last. What a burden, My child for one who atones!”…..
“…. Come and watch Me suffer in the garden, just as though it were that very night. It is always that very night, for God sees all time at a glance. Don’t leave Me! I’m like a terrified child who begs not to be left alone. Stay there, let Me know that you’re with Me. A presence is soothing. Hold My hand. I am only a poor Man full of distress even though I Am God. Noone will ever understand the depths of My desolation. I feel the need of being surrounded by all My dear ones, for I see the powers of evil let loose and I am alone to defend Myself. Pray with Me. Do you have a firmer belief in My love now that you see Me suffer so?”
note: photograph from a movie still of the movie, “The Passion of Christ”
Jesus- King in Exile 