Session 5

In the last session, we followed the events of the cross from the beginning until He said to His disciples," My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." And prayed to God that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him." Today Dr. Nagy, can you please summarize the events of the cross up to this point?
We studied in the last session the betrayal of Jesus by one of His disciples and the agreement he has made with the high priest. We also discussed the sentence they issued, and the Lord Jesus Last Supper with the disciples where He established the doctrine of communion and the true spiritual meaning for this ritual. Then we moved to the scene of Gethsemane where He experienced great grief and sorrow and asking God almighty that the hour might pass from Him if it were possible. But the Lord Jesus specified a condition here and that is to fulfill the will of God and not His own will as a human being. We also discussed the importance of knowing that Jesus was God coming in the flesh. So there is divine element and a human and this human element was the one experiencing sorrow and pain and praying. But the divine nature or the essence of God in Christ is distinct and separate from all that is material or tangible.
The Lord Jesus says in chapter 14 and verse 33 from the Gospel of Mark, that He took the eleven disciples (as Judas was not with them) and went to the garden of Gethsemane and told them, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, John and James with Him and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed, and He told them to stay watchful prayerful lest they enter into temptation. And He told them, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Dr. Nagy, can you please explain this passage? 
We see in this passage a great depth in the word of God and many diverse lessons. We see that in spite of the fact the Lord Jesus, all Glory belongs to Him, loved the disciples equally. He had a closer circle to His heart than others. They were Peter, James and John. The Lord Jesus would take them to many places as we read in the Bible "The transfiguration event". We also see that the emotional pain of the Lord Jesus did not stop Him from teaching the disciples even a few moments before the cross where He teaches them about the importance of watching and praying.
Dr. Nagy, before we go on, I would like to ask you about the meaning of watching. Was this a synonym to " Staying awake"? 
What He meant here was the spiritual watching i.e. the spiritual alertness and the right discernment. This might include the lack of physical sleep or staying awake.
Did the Lord Jesus need someone to stay awake with Him? 
Indeed the Lord Jesus like any human being would get tired after a long walk. We already explained that as He drew closer to the cross, He was grieving and depressed and He needed for someone to watch with Him, strengthens and encourages Him. He needed someone to pray with Him, and the Bible says that the angles came to strengthen Him. I repeat that we are not speaking here about the Divine nature of God or the essence of God in Christ because He does not grow weary and does not need to be strengthened. He is the all powerful and mighty.
Why would the essence of God in Christ or God Almighty forsake Christ while facing the pain of the cross and why wouldn't God help Jesus? 
the events of the cross were not a play that the Lord Jesus acted, but it was a huge painful event that the Lord Jesus had to go through without God's intervention. In spite of the Father's infinite love to humanity, God was above all the just and righteous judge who had to receive the wage of sin on the cross from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Had God Almighty helped Jesus bearing the pain of the cross He would have paid the price of sin in part? Consequently, justice would still be not fulfilled and man would still have to pay the price of his own sin and the story of the cross would be of no real value. It is obviously seen from the call of Jesus to His Father, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" that God the father did not help the Lord Jesus at all to bear the pain of the cross. Jesus carried the punishment of our own sins and transgressions to redeem us.

Dr. Nagy, why were the disciples not supportive while He faced the crisis that He was going through?
I am so thankful that none of the disciples went alongside Him to help Him in this time of crisis to endure the pain of the cross. From the beginning every single one was asleep while He was struggling in Gethsemane then they all ran away leaving Him behind. Why? So that no one could claim that he helped Jesus with the salvation of men. Therefore, the Lord Jesus, all glory belongs to Him, would be the only Savior and the only One who paid the price of our transgressions. He became as the Bible says, "Our salvation" and He is the only way to heaven, and He is the only intercessors before the throne of God. In short He is all in all. As for why did the disciples sleep, they were sleepy therefore they slept as any human being.
Can you please tell us what other lessons we could learn from this passage? 
As I already said, the Lord Jesus spoke about the importance of watching and the importance of prayer. He always taught them that prayer helps them to prevent trials and to face the enemy who brings those trials. He set a very important principle for the battle by saying that the battle always go between the spirit of man and his flesh or his human nature who in another verse of the scripture, strives against the spirit. He said that watching or spiritual alertness and prayer keep the spirit active, so that he can resist the nature of the flesh which conforms to what is written, "for if you life according to the flesh you will die." (Romans 8:13)
My final question is about what the Lord Jesus meant when He said to the disciples three times watch. Then He said, "Now you can rest and sleep." After that in the same time he said, "Rise, let us be going." What did Jesus exactly mean in this passage? 

In the three first times where the Lord Jesus said, "Watch and pray " He wanted to teach them to watch with Him and to pray against the evil trials of the devil. And when it was time for His betrayer to come with the soldiers, He said, "Are you still sleeping and resting?" (Mark 14:41) which means the opportunity that you had to watch and pray is gone and none of you came to my help. Then He told them, "See, My betrayer is at hand." (Mark 14: 42) I would like to emphasize here that the Lord Jesus was acting as if He was watching videotape where He sees all the events. As He was praying, He knew that His betrayer had already gone to the Jews, and they are coming to arrest Him. He is the One who knows the unseen, and He was more than able to escape from the situation easily before they could reach Him. He did not need to cast His likeness on someone else, but He decided willingly to go to the cross to redeem me and to redeem every single sinner.
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