And he took with him Peter, and the two sons of
Zebedee,
&c.] James and John, who perhaps were the strongest, and best
able to bear the shocking sight, and were his favourite
disciples; who were admitted to be with him at other times, when
the rest were not; as at the raising of Jairus's daughter, (
Mark 5:37 ) ,
and moreover, these were at his transfiguration on the mount, (
Matthew
17:1 ) , which was a representation and presage of his glory;
and so were very proper persons to be witnesses of his sorrows
and agonies, which were the way to it; and three of them were
taken by him for this purpose, being a sufficient number to bear
testimony, since by the mouth of two or three witnesses
everything is established:
and began to be sorrowful;
his soul was troubled on the same account six days before, (
John 12:27 ) ,
but was now sorrowful. He was a man of sorrows all his days, and
acquainted with griefs, being reproached and persecuted by men:
but now a new scene of sorrows opened; before he was afflicted by
men, but now he is bruised, and put to grief by his Father: his
sorrows now began, for they did not end here, but on the cross;
not that this was but a bare beginning of his sorrows, or that
these were but light in comparison of future ones; for they were
very heavy, and indeed seem to be the heaviest of all, as appears
from his own account of them; his vehement cry to his Father; his
bloody sweat and agony; and the assistance he stood in need of
from an angel; and the comfort and strength he received from him
in his human nature: all which, put together, the like is not to
be observed in any part of his sufferings:
and to be very heavy;
with the weight of the sins of his people, and the sense of
divine wrath, with which he was so pressed and overwhelmed, that
his spirits were almost quite gone; he was just ready to swoon
away, sink and die; his heart failed him, and became like wax
melted in the midst of his bowels, before the wrath of God, which
was as a consuming fire: all which shows the truth, though
weakness of his human nature, and the greatness of his sufferings
in it. The human nature was still in union with the divine person
of the Son of God, and was sustained by him, but left to its
natural weakness, without sin, that it might suffer to the
utmost, and as much as possible for the sins of God's elect.
