Gethsemane

Matthew and Mark give the place its name: Gethsemane. There Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I go there and pray.”

Luke says that once he was there, he told them, “Pray that you don’t enter into temptation.”

He took Peter, James and John with him. Matthew calls them Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Jesus began to feel deep sorrow, and he was greatly troubled and distressed.

“My soul is full of sorrow, even to death,” he told them. “Stay here and keep watch with me.”

He went on a little way and fell on the ground. He prayed that the hour might pass him by, if that were possible. Matthew says he bowed with his face to the ground. Luke says he went about a stone’s throw away from them, knelt down, and prayed.

“Abba, Father,” he said, “all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. Still, not what I desire, but what you desire.”

In Matthew he prayed, “My Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass away from me. Even so, not what I desire, but what you desire.”

In Luke he prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Even so, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Luke says an angel from heaven appeared to him, giving him strength. He was in agony, and he prayed even harder. His sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down on the ground.

“Simon, are you sleeping?” he said to Peter. “Couldn’t you watch one hour? Watch and pray, so you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

In Luke he asked them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray, so you won’t enter into temptation.”

Again he went away and prayed. Mark says he prayed using the same words. In Matthew, this second time he prayed, “My Father, if this cup can’t pass away from me unless I drink it, may your desire be done.”

He came back again and found them sleeping, because their eyes were very heavy. Mark says they didn’t know what to answer him.

Matthew says he left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.

He came back a third time and said to them, “Go on sleeping now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. On your feet! Let’s go. Look, the one who betrays me is near.”

In Matthew, he asked them, “Are you still sleeping and resting?”

While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came up with a crowd carrying swords and clubs. They came from the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. Matthew calls it a great crowd, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Luke says Judas was leading them. John says Judas took a troop of soldiers with him, along with officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They came there with lanterns, torches and weapons.

The one who betrayed him had given them a sign. “Whoever I kiss is the one,” he had told them. “Seize him, and keep a firm hold on him as you take him away.”

As soon as he got there, Judas went straight up to Jesus. “Rabbi! Rabbi!” he said, and he kissed him. In Matthew he said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” Luke says he came up close to Jesus to kiss him.

In Luke, Jesus said to him, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

In Matthew, Jesus said to him, “Friend, why are you here?”

Then they came forward, put their hands on Jesus, and seized him.

John tells of no kiss. In John, Jesus knew everything that was happening to him. He went out to them and asked, “Who are you looking for?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.

“I am he,” Jesus told them. And Judas, who betrayed him, was standing there with them.

When he told them, “I am he,” they went backward and fell to the ground.

So he asked them again, “Who are you looking for?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.

Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If it’s me you’re looking for, then let these men go their way.” This was so that what he had said would come true: “I have lost none of those you have given me.”

Then one of them drew a sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Mark says it was one of those standing by, and Matthew says it was one of those who were with Jesus. Luke and John say it was the servant’s right ear. John names them both: Peter was the one who had a sword, and the servant’s name was Malchus.

In Matthew, Jesus said to the man with the sword, “Put your sword back into its place, because everyone who takes the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think I couldn’t ask my Father, and he would send me more than twelve legions of angels this very moment? But then how would the Scriptures come true? They say it must be so.”

In John, Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup the Father has given me, am I not going to drink it?”

In Luke, Jesus answered, “Let me at least do this,” and he touched the servant’s ear and healed him.

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds. “Have you come out to seize me with swords and clubs, the way you would come out against a robber? Every day I sat in the temple with you, teaching, and you didn’t arrest me. But all of this has happened so that the Scriptures of the prophets would come true.”

In Luke, he asked the chief priests, the captains of the temple and the elders who had come against him, “Have you come out as if against a robber, with swords and clubs?” And he went on, “I was there in the temple with you every day, and you never lifted a hand against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Mark tells of a young man who was following Jesus, wearing only a linen cloth wrapped around his body. The young men grabbed him, but he ran away from them without his clothes, leaving the linen cloth behind.

This was the same Caiaphas who had told the Jews it would be best for one man to die for the people.

The high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and about what he taught.

“I spoke openly to the world,” Jesus answered. “I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always gather. I said nothing in secret. Why are you asking me? Ask the people who heard me what I said to them. Look, they know what I said.”

When he had said this, one of the officers standing by slapped Jesus. “Do you answer the high priest like that?” he said.

“If I said something wrong,” Jesus answered him, “speak up and say what was wrong. But if I spoke well, why do you hit me?”

Then Annas sent Jesus, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest. In Matthew, the men who had taken Jesus brought him to Caiaphas, and the scribes and the elders were gathered there. Mark says Jesus was led away to the high priest, and that the chief priests, the elders and the scribes all came together with him. Luke says they seized him then, led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house.

Peter followed at a distance. John says another disciple followed Jesus too. That disciple was someone the high priest knew, and he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.

But Peter stood outside by the door. Then the other disciple, the one the high priest knew, went back out, had a word with the servant girl who watched the door, and brought Peter in.

In Mark, Peter came into the high priest’s courtyard and sat with the officers, warming himself in the light of the fire. Matthew says he went in and sat with the officers to see how it would turn out. Luke says they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and were sitting around it together, and Peter sat down with them. In John, it was cold, and the servants and the officers had made a fire of coals and stood there warming themselves. Peter was with them, standing and warming himself too.

At last some stood up and told lies against him. Matthew says there were two. “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, made without hands,’” they said. In Matthew they said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’”

Even so, what they said didn’t agree.

Then the high priest stood up in the middle of them and asked Jesus, “Don’t you have any answer? What about these things these men are saying against you?”

But Jesus kept quiet and answered nothing. The high priest asked him again, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” In Matthew he said, “I command you by the living God to tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Jesus said, “I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.”

In Matthew, Jesus said to him, “You have said so. Even so, I tell you, after this you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky.”

Then the high priest tore his clothes. “He has spoken blasphemy!” he said. “Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard his blasphemy. What do you think?”

“He deserves to die!” they answered. Mark says they all condemned him and judged that he deserved death.

Some began to spit on him. They covered his face, hit him with their fists, and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the officers slapped him. Matthew says they spat in his face, and some slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who hit you?”

Luke says that the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. They blindfolded him, hit him in the face, and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is the one who hit you?” They kept on insulting him, saying many other things against him. In Luke, this came before the council met.

Luke says that as soon as morning came, the assembly of the elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes. They led Jesus away into their council. “If you are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.”

“If I tell you, you won’t believe,” he answered, “and if I ask you, you won’t answer me or let me go. From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”

“Then are you the Son of God?” they all asked.

“You say it, because I am,” he told them.

Then they said, “What more testimony do we need? We ourselves have heard it from his own mouth!”

But he denied it. “I don’t know what you’re saying, and I don’t understand it.” He went out onto the porch, and a rooster crowed.

Matthew says Peter was sitting outside in the court when a servant girl came up to him. “You were also with Jesus, the Galilean!” she said.

But with all of them there to hear, he denied it. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

In Luke, a servant girl saw him as he sat in the light of the fire. She kept her eyes on him. “This man was with him too,” she said.

But Peter denied Jesus. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

In John, the first question came at the door. The servant girl who watched the door asked Peter, “Are you one of this man’s disciples too?”

“I am not,” he said.

In Mark, the servant girl saw him there and started telling those standing by all over again, “This is one of them.”

Again he denied it.

In Matthew, when Peter had gone out onto the porch, someone else saw him and said to those who were there, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth too.”

Again he denied it, swearing an oath: “I don’t know the man.”

In Luke, a little later, someone else saw him. “You’re one of them as well!” he said.

“Man, I am not!” Peter answered.

In John, Peter was standing and warming himself when they asked him, “You aren’t also one of his disciples, are you?”

He denied it. “I am not.”

In Mark and Matthew, after a little while, the people standing there came up to Peter again. “You truly are one of them,” they said. “You’re a Galilean, and the way you talk shows it.”

Then he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know this man you are speaking of!”

In Luke, about an hour later, someone else said firmly, “This man really was with him too, because he’s a Galilean!”

But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!”

In John, one of the high priest’s servants spoke up. He was related to the servant whose ear Peter had cut off. “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” he asked.

Again Peter denied it.

At once a rooster crowed. Luke says it crowed while Peter was still speaking. Mark says it was the second time the rooster crowed.

Luke says the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus said to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” In Matthew and Luke the words are “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

He went out and wept bitterly, Matthew and Luke say. Mark says that when he thought about it, he wept.