TO UNDERSTAND THE SCENE

After The Agony in the Garden; Ford Madox BROWN and William MORRIS; stained glass window; Trinity Church; Saugerties, New York

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The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26

After the Last Supper, Jesus starts with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee towards the Mount of Olives, “to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples,
Sit here, while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very sad. Then he said to them: My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even to death: stay here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying: O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples, and found them asleep, and said to Peter, What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The scene repeats itself a second then a third time.

Then he came to his disciples, and said to them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he that betrays me is at hand. (Matthew 26:36-46)

Comment

Jesus enters into his agony, with the proper meaning of “combat of the soul”. He prays for God to come to his help; that is to say to give him enough strength to do His will.

The Mount of Olives is the symbolic place of the coming of God, the place where the dead will be resurrected in the days of the Messiah, according to the prophet Zechariah. (Zechariah, chapter 14)

Jesus in the Garden of Olives

A wide space for these two Gardens of Olives. It is daybreak. In the distance, one can see the city and its Temple and a file of men moving forward in the night; these are the men guided by Judas who come to arrest Jesus.

A close shot on Jesus but with two attitudes so different.

The angel has disappeared, but on one side, Jesus in a celestial garment seems already with the Father; on the other side, he is alone in front of the temptation that takes the form of a snake.

An offering or Jesus’ spiritual agony? He puts himself into the hands of God’s angel.

Jesus in prayer with the angel can be isolated and form a pathetic scene called “Mount of Olives”.

"To drain one’s cup to the dregs”, that is to say to endure one’s suffering or a painful ordeal to the last. This popular expression takes up the image of the agony of Jesus but replaces the obedience to God by a sort of moral duty.

The chalice is a cup in metal used to drink. The name, which simply means “cup”, nowadays only designates the one used by the priest for the celebration of mass.

Gethsemane which means the olive press in Aramaic, is the name of this garden.

This name has remained the symbol of the suffering and anguish in front of death. Man is alone before a god “dumb, blind and deaf” according to Alfred de Vigny, or Does God give to the man who prays him the ultimate sense to his life?