This deeply human trait is especially evident in Gethsemane. Only over the three intimate Disciples still hovers the possibility that they may be obliged to pass with him through suffering and temptation. The sons of Zebedee, to secure their claim that they sit with him upon the throne, boasted that they could drink with him his cup and undergo with him the baptism of suffering—and this prospect he held out to them (Mk 10:38-40). Peter, however, swore that he would not deny him; even if all others should forsake him, he desired to die with him (Mk 14:31). These three Jesus had taken with him to the place where he prayed. While he implored God that the cup might pass him by, there overcame him a sorrowful anxiety for the Three. If God does now actually send them with him through the Passion, will they hold out as they are bold to believe? Wherefore he is mindful of them in that sad hour. Twice he arouses himself and wakes them out of sleep, bidding them watch and pray to God that he lead them not into the Temptation, even if he will not spare him this cup; for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. That is perhaps [pg 242] the most touching moment in Jesus’ life. Some have dared to call Gethsemane Jesus’ weak hour; but in reality it is precisely the hour in which his supernatural greatness is revealed in his deeply human compassion. 7. The Idea of the Passion in the Primitive Church. The Shifting of the Perspective. Jesus carried with him to the grave the secret of the Passion which was to be revealed to the inheritors of the Kingdom at its coming. But the Kingdom did not come. Thus it is to be explained that though he indeed had given intimation of his Passion to the Disciples, yet they, when the event came to pass, knew no interpretation of it. Nevertheless, in some way they had to explain it, by the help of such intimations as they could recall. This accounts for the fact that the theory of the early Church regarding the Passion of Jesus was far poorer than his Secret. The explanation of the Church focussed principally upon one fact: In consequence of the Passion and the Resurrection from the dead he is the Messiah. In this sense the Passion and the Exaltation are foreordained in the Scripture. While Jesus’ secret brought his death and the dawning of the Kingdom into the closest [pg 243] temporal and causal connection, for the primitive Church, on the other hand, a past event, as such, constituted the object to be explained, since the Kingdom had not arrived and the original causal connection was dissolved along with the temporal.