Peter, James & John at Gethsemane

In this session, we are going to read about a place that Christians have been talking about for 2,000 years: a place called the Garden of Gethsemane. It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of what happened there, the night before Jesus went to the cross, as He felt the crushing pressure of what was coming.

Jesus has just shared the Passover meal with His disciples; He has instituted the Lord’s Supper; Judas has gone out to betray Him to the chief priests; and they leave the Upper Room and walk out to the Mount of Olives. Jesus affirms 3 things: [1] the disciples will scatter & abandon Him and He will suffer alone; [2] Jesus will be struck down, but then raised up – and when He is raised, He will meet the disciples in Galilee where He first called them; [3] Peter will deny Him 3 times by the next morning.

Jesus arrives at Gethsemane with all 11 remaining disciples. He tells 8 of them to sit and wait while He goes to pray. But He takes 3 with Him – Peter, James & John. These 3 were consistently in Jesus’ inner circle. They had seen things the other disciples hadn’t seen. They had access the others didn’t have.

Please find Mark 14:27-42.