Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. “Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!” [Matthew 26:36-46 NASB]
It was here that Jesus began to fulfill the prophecy:
He was despised and forsaken of men,A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;And like one from whom men hide their faceHe was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore,And our sorrows He carried;Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,Smitten of God, and afflicted. [Isaiah 53:3-4 NASB]
Jesus said that He was "deeply grieved, to the point of death." Luke adds in his gospel, "And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." [Luke 22:44 NASB]
Jesus despaired at what He knew He was about to endure, and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
He said, "if it is possible." We tend to believe that all things are possible for God. But there are certain things that are not possible. It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for us to be saved by works apart from God's grace. And, it was impossible for God to redeem mankind without the sacrifice of Jesus. He hated what was to come, but knowing the necessity of it, he was willing.
What was it that Jesus was so afraid of? The mockery? The scourging? The crucifixion? These things were agonizingly painful, yet others had endured them without the overwhelming torment of the soul that Jesus endured.
Peter tells us, "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." [1 Peter 2:24 NASB] Throughout the Old Testament, a cup was used as a metaphor of God's wrath. When Jesus bore our sins, He drank of the cup of God's wrath. He who knew no sin, became sin for us, and bore our punishment. He became the ultimate sacrifice so that we could come to God by faith and receive His forgiveness. We don't need to pay a penance or atone for our sins because Jesus has already paid it for us.
Let us be thankful to Him that He willingly endured the agony of Gethsemane. In the hours to come, He would be tortured and killed. But it was here, in prayer, that He won the spiritual victory that allowed Him to endure, and to willingly become a sacrifice. It was here that He wrestled His soul into submission to His Father's will.
Let us also learn from His example. When we are faced with overwhelming circumstance; when sorrows mount upon sorrow; when we feel we have no way out; let us turn to our Father in prayer. He may work to change your circumstances. Or he may only change you, so that you can endure them. In any case, when trouble comes, that is not the time to hide from God, but to seek Him even more.
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