LUKE 22: 39-46 [JESUS’ LAST NIGHT SERIES]
JESUS’ GLORIOUS SURRENDER
[Isaiah 53:10-12; Ephesians 6:10-17]
Once again we are looking at Jesus’ last night before His crucifixion on Friday. Like a terminally ill patient, Jesus knows death is on its way. He also knew exactly what was coming with it: Betrayal, shame, torture, trauma, thirst, loneliness, the sins of the world with it all culminating in an excruciating death. Jesus knew He must finish His preparation for it. So Jesus came to the garden to pray the night before His final confrontation with sin, Satan & suffering. There He asks God the Father for strength to carry out His will.
It was already a difficult night but it was going to become even longer and far more difficult. It’s comforting to know that even Jesus had sleepless nights. We read about His last sleepless night here when the forces of good and evil are locked in deadly combat for His will. Jesus would be dealing with all kinds of feelings—confusion, anguish, fear, anger, and doubt. [Bruce Larson and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Luke, vol. 26, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1983), 322.] But through His communion with the Father, He would find victory and the strength to surrender to the Father’s perfect will for His life (CIT).
There may be deep significance to the fact that in these final hours Jesus faced temptation in a garden. Man fell into sin because of temptation in a garden (Gen. 3). And man’s deliverance from sin comes about in spite of further temptation in a garden. Jesus, the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45), did not fall to temptation but followed the will of God which the first Adam failed to do. [John A. Martin, “Luke,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 260.]
I. PREPARATION THROUGH PRAYER, 39-42.
II. PRAYER PROVIDED PROTECTION, 43-46.
In verse 39 Jesus leads His disciples to a secluded place for pray. “And He came out and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him.
After celebrating the Passover, after speaking very pointedly to Peter, after warning His disciples that the times would be changing, Jesus leaves the city passing over the narrow ravine of the brook Kidron toward the Garden of Gethsemane. The word “Kidron” means “dark” or “murky” because the blood of the sacrifices would drain out of the temple and into the brook below. Since this was Passover Jesus would be stepping over a brook that ran blood red only hours before shedding His own life blood in sacrifice for the sin of the world.
Notice the phrase “as was His custom.” Prayer was a way of life for Jesus. When He was in Jerusalem He had a special place to pray where He routinely went on the Mount of Olives. He came to the garden to find strength through communion with the Father the night before His final confrontation with sin, Satan & suffering. Jesus went there frequently at night and perhaps often prayed all night.
[Luke says the place was the Mount of Olives. Matthew and Mark refer to the place as Gethsemane, which means “olive press.” The “garden” was a grove of olive trees on the Mount of Olives on the west or city side of the mount (John 18:1, 3). The garden of Gethsemane was at the foot of the Mount of Olives.]
Conscious of the temptations surrounding not only Him but all of them, Jesus urged His disciples to pray in verse 40. “And when He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Jesus gave them a prayer assignment centering on their chief need. It is a need for us all as we hear echoes of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4) in Jesus’ admonition to the disciples. They were to pray to escape “temptation” (1 Cor 13:10). Prayer in the Spirit which is directed by the Word is necessary to overcome temptation.
“Prayer is not only for procurement, but for protection. In other words, prayer is not simply to ask for things you need or want—but also to protect you from things you don’t need or want. Stop praying, and you will be tempted unnecessarily. Stop praying, and your kids will be vulnerable to attacks of the Enemy. Stop praying, and your marriage will be attacked constantly. Jesus said one of the keys to protection from temptation or trouble is prayer. We’ll never know until we get to heaven just how important our prayers are.” [Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 407.]
Then in verse 41 Jesus withdrew by Himself and prayed. “And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed,
The burden of His prayer was so heavy and it bore down on Him so much so that He sank to His knees to pray. His every major battle and decision were bathed in prayer (3:21, 5:16, 6:12, 9:18,28-29, 11:2, 18:1). Jesus was well aware of the life-altering, eternity changing battle that lay ahead of Him and sought the refuge of prayer.
In verse 42 Jesus prays with anguish, struggling with the will of God for His life. “saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Because the disciples slept, Jesus was alone praying while being buffeted by the temptation to forsake the Father’s plan. God’s plan was that the Son must go to death and bear the sins of the whole world. The words of His prayer showed that He was concerned not with His own interests but with the interests of the Father.
Jesus, even in His perfect humanity, shrank back at the utter horror of His responsibility and so He cries out to His Father to “remove this cup” from Him.
This cup refers to unimaginable suffering and death. Jesus would not have been as concerned with the physical pain of His death as with the spiritual desolation of bearing our sin and its judgment on the cross (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). In the OT the wrath of God expressed against sin was sometimes referred to by the metaphor or imagery of a cup (e.g., Ps 11:6; Jer 25:15–29).
So He prayed that, if possible, the cup of suffering and wrath (Is. 51:22; Mk. 10:38) which lay ahead of Him might be averted. He was to bear vicariously the sin of the entire world (Isa 53:6; Jn 1:29) and suffer the temporary loss of fellowship with God the Father (Mt 27:46). So He wrestles with the Father, pleading that He might find some other way to satisfy His justice and fulfil His plans for the redemption of this fallen race.
In itself the cup was so totally revolting that only its being the Father’s will would induce Him to endure it, but if it was the Father’s will He was perfectly prepared to drink it. Jesus knew the Father’s will was best. As an obedient Son, He freely places Himself at His Father’s disposal. He reveals His absolute willing subjection to His Father. Christ’s human will was always completely yielded to the divine will.
A little boy had the habit of sucking his thumb and was told he must stop. One evening in his bedtime prayers he was heard to say, “God, help me to stop sucking my thumb.” After a pause, he continued, “Never mind God, because I don’t want to stop sucking my thumb.”
The child was more frank than most of us. If we want our prayers to be powerfully answered we must be willing to let God have His way. The pattern for our prayers should be that of our Lord, who prayed, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Are you willing to prayer like that?
II. PRAYER PROVIDED PROTECTION, 43-46.
Jesus once again becomes the object of the ministry of the angels in verse 43. “And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.”
Luke has already mentioned angels many times—in the Nativity narrative and elsewhere (e.g., 9:26; 12:8–9; 15:10; 16:22). The angel was sent to strengthen Him, to sustain and brace up sinking nature for an even hotter and fiercer struggle. Luke reminds us that while the disciples might have failed Him, God was there reassuring Him in the presence of the angel.
The angel’s presence also reaffirmed what Jesus already knew. He had to go to the cross.
Every life has at least one Garden of Gethsemane. But every Gethsemane has an angel sent by God. The Lord will send an angel into your Gethsemane to in the form of an unexpected person, a Bible study, a radio teaching, a book in order to strengthen you in your time of need. [ Courson, 407–408].
Verse 44 demonstrates the intensity of Jesus’ anguish. “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
And now, “in agony, He prays more earnestly.” Even Christ’s praying, it seems, had to deepen because His great need demanded such an increase. It says “and His sweat became like great drops [literally, ‘clots’] of blood falling down to the ground.” What was this? Not His proper sacrificial offering, though essential to it. It was His internal struggle, apparently hushing itself before, but now swelling up again, convulsing His whole inner man. This struggle so affecting His human nature that the sweat oozed out from His pores in thick drops of blood, falling to the ground. It was trembling nature and indomitable will struggling together. But again the cry, “If it must be, Thy will be done,” issues from His lips, and all is over. The weight and bitterness of His death is past. He has anticipated and rehearsed His final conflict, and won the victory—now on the theater of an invincible will, as then on the arena of the Cross. “I will suffer,” is the grand result of Gethsemane so that “It is finished” is the shout that bursts from the Cross. [Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 123.]
In Jesus’ great labor in prayer one may see God’s words to Adam that he would earn his food by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:19). In the Garden of Eden, the first Adam stood in rebellion against God. In Gethsemane, the Last Adam knelt in submission to God (1 Corinthians 15:45).
Gethsemane was an appropriate place for Jesus to pray so passionately, for “Gethsemane” means “olive press,” the place where olives were crushed to release their oil. The crushing, the demanding pressing that Jesus endured in Gethsemane was preparation for what He was about to experience. For the wrath of His Father for the sin of all humanity, so far exceeds anything we can even begin to comprehend that it is rendered incomprehensible to us. [Courson, 407].
In the Garden of Eden, the first Adam was sentenced to work by the sweat of his brow. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Last Adam agonized so deeply that blood flowed from His brow. [The text does not demand that Christ actually sweat blood, but it does allow for it.]
In verse 45 Jesus’ prayer time has come to an end. “And when He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,
The close of the whole scene finds them still sleeping (worn out with continued sorrow and racking anxiety).
Jesus again confronts His disciples with the stark reality of lost opportunity in verse 46. “and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
The disciples were deeply distressed and became depressed because of Jesus’ teaching that He would die. Sleeping may have helped them ease their grief, but they would not find in it the power to withstand temptation. There would be plenty of time for sleeping, but right now a crisis is at hand and they needed to stay awake and pray.
Twice [in Luke] Jesus told them to pray that they would not fall into temptation (vv. 40, 46). Again Satan had won the battle against them, but Jesus had won His battle, and with this victory He would win the war, for Himself, for them, and for us.
The time of intense testing for Jesus and His disciples is now at had. For as He finished speaking, Judas approached with his armed band, which we will look at next time.
IN CLOSING
I trust from this troubling event that you have become even more aware of our need to pray. Only the one who had diligently communed with the Father remained strong during the next few hours.
Jesus prayed fervently for His trial to pass, but He submitted Himself to His Father’s will for Him. That should always be an end result of prayer. Not simply “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but Your will be done in me and in my life as it was in my Master and my Lord’s life.
[PRAYER:] Heavenly Father, may our desire be to do Your will and to do it willingly in full surrender even though our natural tendency has often been to kick against the pricks of our circumstances and to try to steer our own course independently of You. Forgive us.
We ask that by the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we may be willing to present our lives to You as a living sacrifice so that in every area of our lives may do only those things that are pleasing to You. Father, may we breathe in Your will for our lives through the Word of God and breath out Your blessing to others, whom You choose to place in our path.
Help us to keep our old self-life in the place of death. May we grow in grace and mature in the faith and draw ever closer to You. We want to learn obedience through Your training work in our lives, so that we may be used to bring encouragement to others. Help us to develop an attitude of thankfulness and joy in the Lord. May we rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks to You for Your great goodness to us. We rest in You asking to be increasingly conformed into the likeness of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Adapted from-prayer.knowing-jesus.com/Prayers-on-Surrender
