Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his
disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you
will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt
down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my
will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened
him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like
drops of blood falling to the ground.
When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he
found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked
them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Jesus Arrested.
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who
was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to
kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a
kiss?”
When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they
said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the
servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the
man’s ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the
temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion,
that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the
temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when
darkness reigns.”