39 He went out and made His way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. 40 When He reached the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” 41 Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, 42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me-nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When He got up from prayer and came to the disciples, He found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation.”
We have now reached the beginning of the passion event of Christ. All things leading up to this moment had been pointing to this event. Jesus had on several occasions spoken on how He would have to suffer and die.
The disciples were still NOT able to grasp what Jesus was talking about. So many of us judge these men for their dim view of Jesus and their seeming lack of faith… but we need to understand that we have the advantage of viewing history through the lens of the Cross of Calvary.
We KNOW what happened… they did not have that luxury. They had SEEN great things, but they simply did not understand what Jesus was trying to tell them.
We pick up the story as Jesus and the disciples are leaving the upper room after they had celebrated the traditional Passover meal, and Jesus had instituted the Lord’s Supper observance AND Jesus had dropped a bombshell on them… He had told them that someone at the table was going to betray him.
One thing that Luke does not mention here is the departure of Judas after Jesus’ declaration that someone would betray Him. Matthew actually relates a conversation between Jesus and Judas, where Judas asks Jesus, “Is it me Lord?” wanting to know if Jesus knew what he had ALREADY done… Jesus answers him, “You have said so…”
In John the conversation is a bit different as Jesus says it’s the one who I give the bread… Jesus gives Judas the bread and tells him, ‘What you do… do it quickly!’ and still the disciples did not see what was going on… as they thought Jesus had told Judas to go and buy something for the feast.
39 He went out and made His way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. 40 When He reached the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation”
One implication we can draw from this is that Jesus was focused! He was determined and purposeful in His actions, wavering NOT to the right or left but always straight… purposeful… determined.
Another implication to this verse is Jesus’ admonition for His disciples to pray… prayer is NOT about what you need to tell God! But prayer is for the believer, and when the believer is lost and does not know what to do prayer connects us with God. It strengthens our spirit, it gives us focus, and alerts us to spiritual road blocks and potholes…
But what we need to know is that at this time when Jesus and the disciples were departing the upper room and headed for the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt of Olives) or as Luke names it… ‘the place’… what we do know is that Judas is NOT with them.
The disciples were reeling at this point as Jesus had told them that He would be betrayed and that Peter was going to deny Him, not once, not 2 times but 3 times before the night was done. We can get a sense that ALL of them were frightened, confused and a bit bewildered by all this news… and to beat that, Jesus is not making any moves to leave Jerusalem.
Jesus is out in plain sight, Jesus is doing what He had been doing since He arrived back in Jerusalem. Our passage tonight tells us that they left headed out to the Mt of Olives as was His custom… or as He usually did… READ Luke 21:37
This was the information that Judas uses to ‘betray’ Jesus as this is where he knew Jesus and the disciples would be after they left the upper room.
Jesus’ instruction to His disciples seems strange on the surface, but when we look back to His teaching and warning in the upper room… and the events that loom on the near horizon for the disciples, we can see plainly WHY Jesus would instruct them to pray in this manner. He wanted them to be prepared.
Do you remember Jesus’ reference to the sword in the previous verses… that was a metaphor to arm yourself for the battle, and here Jesus is instructing the disciples to prepare themselves for the attack… When one enters into battle they must be fully prepared, mentally and emotionally as well as physically.
Jesus loved the disciples and Jesus is revealing here His omniscience (all knowing nature) his FOREKNOWLEDGE of what is going to happen… He wanted them to be prepared, spiritually speaking, for the difficult time they were about to endure.
41 Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, 42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me-nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
We go from Jesus’ concern for His disciples to His concern about His own situation. Jesus KNOWS what is about to happen, and we can see the humanity in Jesus begin to show its face. Jesus prays for this to be removed from Him… to be taken away… Jesus uses the term ‘…this cup…”
That term is actually a term that is used throughout the OT… as in God’s ‘cup of wrath’… there are implied usages and references to God’s ‘cup of wrath’ in many passages. But the implication here from Jesus is that He is entreating GOD to NOT do something… in other words, this suffering was not brought on by Satan and Judas’ betrayal, but it is a direct result of God’s plan.
Although we see the human side of Jesus here, we also see a side of Him that we should emulate each and every day of our lives, and that is… when we look at the life of Jesus, His constant companion everyday was the Father… Jesus was in constant communication with the Father… Jesus believed in prayer! And in this dark hour, things were NO different, He went to the Father in prayer!
His request may seem a bit selfish, but let’s consider what He was requesting. There is the obvious… Jesus did not wish to go thru the ridicule, mockery, beating, flogging, torture, and eventually crucifixion…
this would be a horrifying and very torturous event where He would suffer great pain! Jesus did NOT want to go thru that ordeal.
But is the physical… the only reason for Jesus wanting this ‘cup’ removed from Him? Actually I believe it was part of what Jesus was praying about, but it was a minor part. Jesus knew what He was about to do… death on the cross was NOT what He dreaded, although to us that seems like the worst thing in the world.
What Jesus did not want to take upon Himself was not so much the suffering of the Cross… but more so the sin of the world! Jesus, the One who knew NO sin, was about to take onto His shoulders… the sin of the entire human race… ALL of us, from Adam until the end of time.
Have you ever felt the weight of your own sin? Have you ever been pressed down with what you have done wrong? Sometimes to me it is so difficult… and until I confess that sin, it weighs heavy on my heart, mind and even my body.
Now take that sense of oppression and try to imagine what Jesus was going to have to deal with while hanging on a Cross, after being beaten, mocked, ridiculed and flogged… I simply cannot imagine the spiritual anguish Jesus was facing… but I can understand why He would ask God to take it away from Him… who would want to face that?
But the love of Christ shines bright during this very dark night. Rather than continue to seek deliverance for Himself, Jesus very quickly acquiesces to the plan of the Father… “Not My will, but Yours be done…”
Jesus understood His place in the plan of God. Jesus willingly submitted to the Father’s plan… Paul tells us that, God “made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
This verse confirms that Jesus is in the center of God’s will and plan. Jesus goes to the Father with His concern and request, but then acknowledges God’s authority and preeminence… Jesus honors God with the submissive attitude of His heart, and God takes the steps to honor Jesus here…
God sends an angel to minister to Jesus. This is like the wilderness experience right after He had been tempted… Jesus is ministered to by angels then as well. Here God sends an angel to minister to Jesus as He deals with taking the next step of submission…
Have you ever been in a position where you KNEW what you had to do… you had resolved in your mind that you were going to do it… no matter how hard or painful it might be… but yet you still needed that encourager to come along side you and minister to you? I believe we have all been there…
Knowing and submitting to His part in God’s plan, Jesus returns to His knees in prayer, this time more focused on the plan, more centered on His submission, and more concentrated on what He was going to accomplish… all of this weighed heavy on Jesus’ mind
Jesus begins to pray FERVENTLY… now when we look at v.43-44 we have to understand a few things about them. MOST of the most reliable manuscripts that we have for biblical record do NOT record these 2 verses. There are several manuscripts that are trusted and faithful, but they DO record these verses.
With that being said, we need to also know that Jesus was NOT sweating blood… the Bible never says this! So many people, myself included, in our passion have said that Jesus sweated blood for you and me…but that is NOT what the Bible tells us…
Scripture actually says, “…and His sweat became LIKE drops of blood…” The implication here is that Jesus is spiritually and emotionally charged in this prayer… He is really into it… He is working hard on His knees in this prayer.
Some have said that this is a metaphor for the beginning of the passion… the beginning of the bloodshed, even though it IS merely a reference to how he was sweating and not WHAT He was sweating.
45 When He got up from prayer and came to the disciples, He found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation.”
At the end of His prayer Jesus came back to His disciples, with whom He had left very simple BUT very specific instructions… pray and watch so that you won’t fall into temptation.
But Jesus finds them sleeping… the Bible tells us that they were exhausted from their grief and they had drifted off to sleep. Now I don’t know about you… but when I have much troubling me, there is NO better place to be than home in bed! When I get stressed, sleep is the best thing for me!
The term ‘grief’ used here is actually the Greek word Loop-own which is a term associated with the grief and suffering of those who have lost a family member or close friend of the family to death. There is a sense of ‘heaviness’ associated with the use of this word… they were weighed down with the weight of all that was happening around them and to them.
The disciples had had a long week, the entry into Jerusalem, the purging of the Temple, all the healings, all the people challenging Jesus, they had to control the crowds and run interference with Jesus and I am sure that they were simply worn down…and this news brought them down even further…
They were all asleep and Jesus shook them and challenged them once again to pray… pray to be delivered. Today, Jesus wants you to come to Him in the same manner… come to Him with a heart willing to submit to His instruction and ready for prayer! However, we find Jesus ending this section as it has begun… telling His disciples to pray because they will be tempted…
Let me ask this question, “How many of us sleep walk thru our witness for Christ here in this world?” This world has us so focused on the distractions… that we can lose sight of the main picture. Jesus did not want His disciples to lose their focus… he wanted them prepared for the upcoming storm!
So many times, we are just like the disciples in that we face temptation and fall hard to temptation because we were sleepwalking through our witness of Christ. We are called by Christ to be vigilant and prepared for the oncoming attacks by the enemy…
Jesus knew what Peter and the rest of the disciples were about to undertake, and the suffering they were going to face. He simply wanted them to be prepared for the journey. Jesus had prepared Himself in prayer and wanted the same preparation for His disciples.
We’ll pick up the story next week in v.47 when Jesus is turned over to the authorities! I invite you to come back and let’s study what He did at that time.
