Matthew 26:42, commentary and pictures

In Gethsemane it is the second of three identical prayers for deliverance, no longer asking to escape but consenting to drink the cup if it cannot pass otherwise. The cup is the suffering appointed to guilty humanity in bearing the guilt, curse and penalty of the whole world's transgression as substitute even to death on the cross. Drinking it meant enduring the hiding of the Father's face and the crushing weight of divine wrath against sin with dread of separation from God. It was prayed at the awful moment when the destiny of the world trembled in the balance and He could still have refused, yet He chose to save all who will come at any cost to Himself. The Father did not take the cup away but sent a mighty angel to strengthen Him to drink it, setting before Him victory and multitudes saved, and His submission patterns believers in yielding to God's will under suffering and persecution.

Garden Night of Agony

The prayer was offered in Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, ground hallowed and consecrated by His presence in human nature and by His prayers and tears, where He agonized alone and moistened the sod with His blood. He reached it after crossing the Kidron on the way to the garden, giving lessons on the way with the vine to represent the union of His church with Himself and His Father, and entering His great agony and humiliation there in most need of sympathy and comfort while even dear disciples reproached and forsook Him, leaving reminders of unrequited love all around.

It was night under a broad and full Passover moon shining from a cloudless sky, with the city of pilgrims' tents hushed into silence, as He slowly made His way there in company with His disciples. It was a place He had often used for meditation and prayer but never before with a heart so full of sorrow, entered after the last solemn and momentous interview with the apostles whose hearts were heavy with sorrow and minds distracted with doubt and fear from hearing Him foretell His sufferings and death. That interview closed with courage and fortitude, with no loud outcries and no abandonment to grief, spending those last hours speaking words of comfort and assurance and then uniting with them all in a hymn of praise to the Most High as a prelude to Gethsemane. It came after the Passover supper with no food or drink since, in solitude and a night spent in prayer to the Father to prepare for the great trial of the judgment hall and the cross and the bloodstained path that led to Calvary, a scene more trying than any other followed by abuse and mockery and the awful scenes of Calvary.

He was already utterly sad and silent under a terrible burden, His strange sadness deepening toward His usual place of retirement, His form swaying as if about to fall, every step made with labored effort, groaning aloud under pressure, and twice needing His companions to support Him or He would have fallen to the earth. Then prostrate on the cold ground He was seized with superhuman agony greater than before, fainting and exhausted and staggering back to the place of prayer, exceeding sorrowful even unto death. This was His hour of keenest agony, when the mysterious cup trembled in His hand, greater than what He endured afterward before priests, rulers and soldiers. His face was pale and spoke of deep sorrow, yet His visage was not marred before His enemies and His countenance never appeared more beautiful than in His sorrow, expressing pity for those who knew not what they were doing and a desire to help them if He could. His wonted calm was broken and His voice was full of human anguish instead of triumph, as when He wept over Jerusalem, taking the position of a lost soul like a reed beaten and bent where He who had stood as a mighty cedar and conqueror over the powers of darkness had come to the hour of the power of darkness, passing through a death struggle on which hung whether sinful human beings would fall into the hands of Satan while a world of loathsome sin seemed about to fall upon Him though He knew He was the Son of God.

The agony was so intense that it forced drops of blood from His pores that stained His face and fell in drops upon the ground and moistened the sod, with sweat falling like drops of blood. He uttered suppressed wails and trembled under horror of great darkness, with pale and quivering lips, fainting and exhaustion, dying prostrate under the burden with bodily anguish that marred His visage more than any man. The conflict was so severe that great drops came from the pores of His skin and moistened the ground, immediately before betrayal by Judas with a kiss, abandonment by all His disciples, and being taken to Annas then Caiaphas then Pilate then Herod then Pilate again through insult and mockery and scourging.

Through life on earth He had walked in the light of God's presence, but in this prayer He felt shut out from God's sustaining presence under horror of great darkness He had never before experienced. The reason is that He was numbered with the transgressors and must bear the guilt of fallen humanity, with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin, drinking the accumulated guilt of the world while feeling His Father's presence withdrawn. Sin appeared so dreadful to Him and the weight of guilt so great that He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from His Father's love, His divine spirit filling with shuddering dread, feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression, with sorrow exceeding the last great struggle with death.

Darkness was pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony, with rejection by His own people who had not received Him, hunted from place to place by priests and rulers, with betrayal, denial and desertion, while angels watched with amazement at Satan's devices against the divine Son. Satan tempted Him with fear that taking the place of substitute and surety and bearing human sin with its anguish of separation and crushing weight of wrath would mean He would never again be one with God but would come under Satan's control. It was a wrestling with temptation of awful power in which impurity fought with purity and the prince of light met the prince of darkness. His agony was part of the assault of apostasy seeking to destroy Him and cut off communication between the world and heaven, leading on to insult, mocking, scourging, the cross and shameful humiliation and agony in death, with satanic agencies striving to divorce Him from God as the Jews had divorced themselves, which He would not yield.

The prayer belongs to the ordeal He knew would lead to betrayal and crucifixion, to agony in Gethsemane, condemnation, humiliation and death, for which He prepared His faithful disciples so they would not be overwhelmed when the crowd and those who had followed Him turned against Him, having already seen how fickle the world's favor was and not basing faith on others' opinions. John was one of the three disciples permitted to witness the agony in the garden, and the disciples spoke often afterward of His suffering there, including His humility and forbearance as He faced betrayal, trial and execution. The painful history of suffering in Gethsemane before betrayal for the world is what the Lord's Supper brings to mind, where He suffered as He faced the sacrifice for humanity.

The conflict endured in the garden led through shame of the cross to victory over death and the tomb by the risen Redeemer, before whom angels fall prostrate in worship with thanksgiving and praise, who sought out the two lonely and desponding disciples, remained hours in their presence teaching and comforting them unrecognized because their eyes were clouded, though the truths He spoke sank deep into their discouraged hearts. The scene forms part of revealed redemptive history, showing beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world the suffering He endured before betrayal, trial and death as He yielded His life for the world. Yet these coming scenes of crucifixion and making His soul an offering for sin were not what caused His sorrow at that moment; He wept for Jerusalem's doomed people, blinded and impenitent despite His desire to bless and save them.

Disciples Sleeping Nearby

In His anguish among the trees He leaned in sorrow and longed for sympathy and heartfelt prayers. After praying in submission to drink the cup if it could not pass, He returned in superhuman agony, fainting and exhausted, to seek companionship and relief, hoping for a word of love to strengthen and comfort Him in sorrow. But He again found them sleeping, and when aroused they looked on His blood-stained face with fear without understanding the anguish of mind it expressed.

That sleep came when love for their suffering Master should have kept them awake, for Satan and his evil angels caused it. Through drowsiness and stupor they heard not His voice and had only a dim sense of the angels' presence. So they missed the spiritual evidence and the power and glory of the scene that could have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them.

He had meant the night-watch to fortify them for the severe test of faith they were to face. That mournful period should have been spent in noble mental struggles and prayers that would have brought strength to witness the terrible agony of the Son of God and fitted them to behold His death on Calvary. It would have prepared them to understand in some degree the overpowering anguish He endured and would endure on the cross, and helped them recall what He had told them beforehand many times about His sufferings, death, and resurrection. Then amid the gloom of that trying hour some rays of hope would have lighted the darkness and sustained their faith against the power the prince of darkness used to paralyze their senses while they should have been watching and praying.

Because they did not watch and pray as asked, they were unready to bear the scorn and mockery that fell on Christ and left Him alone in His bitter trial. If they had spent that hour watching with Him and praying to God, Peter would not have been left to depend on his own feeble strength and would not have denied his Lord. Peter later remembered with grief and penitence that Jesus had prayed in great agony while he slept. His remorse humbled him, led to repentance and renewed commitment to his Saviour, taught him sympathy for the weak and erring, and fitted him to warn the presumptuous and strengthen his brethren.

The disciples had hoped Christ was about to set up an earthly kingdom where nations would bow and they would be chief rulers. Instead He was nearing a slave's death on a shameful cross that would blow their earthly hopes apart. He desired them to watch so they would understand He had come to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to set up a kingdom of love, peace, and purity in hearts to fit men for heaven. James, who had been with Jesus in Gethsemane, understood more fully what sharing that cup of suffering meant when he was imprisoned and led to execution.

Second Prayer of Submission

This is the second prayer in Gethsemane, standing between the first request that the cup might pass and the third repetition, one of three thrice-uttered prayers for deliverance wrung from Him under overmastering agony. It was prayed while seized with superhuman agony greater than before, fainting and exhausted, staggering back to the place of prayer, prostrate on the cold ground with suppressed wails while nature and the drowsy disciples witnessed. The agony was so intense that it forced drops of blood from His pores that stained His face and fell to the ground. After the prayer He again sought sympathy from the disciples and again found them sleeping, and when aroused they looked on His blood-stained face with fear without understanding the anguish of mind it expressed.

Its language is changed to acceptance, no longer seeking escape but asking that the cup pass only if He need not drink it, and consenting that if it may not pass except by drinking it the Father's will be done, breathing only submission. He prayed a second time in overwhelming agony, returning to prayer with the same surrender after being left without the human companionship He longed for, continuing through such anguish that His sweat fell like drops of blood. The cup was the suffering on the path to Calvary, the anguish of becoming substitute and surety for a sinful world including separation from God because of sin, which He willingly bore so that His self-sacrifice would reveal His love and secure humanity's salvation. Satan tempted Him even then with fear that taking this place would mean He would never again be one with God but would come under Satan's control.

It was prayed prostrate in horror of great darkness not for His disciples but for His own tempted, agonized soul at the awful moment that was to decide the destiny of the world with the fate of humanity trembling in the balance. His voice was full of human anguish instead of triumph and His wonted calm broken, like a reed beaten and bent where He who had stood as a mighty cedar and conqueror over the powers of darkness now took the position of a lost soul, with a face marked with bloody sweat showing bodily anguish that marred His visage more than any man. The prayer expressed His longing for companionship and relief from the darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him, while His humanity shrank from the last crowning sacrifice. As He prayed earnestly in submission, darkness pressed upon His soul with almost unbearable agony.

Cup of Sin Bearing

The cup is the humiliation and agony apportioned to guilty humanity on the path to Calvary, the anguish of bearing the guilt of the whole world's transgression of the law and suffering its curse, penalty and consequence as substitute and surety, the innocent for the guilty, even unto death on the cross. It trembled in the hands of the Son while His countenance was marked by bloody sweat, as the wail and wretchedness and ruin of a lost world and the woes of the lost race came before Him, even to the prospect of separation from God. His consent to drink it if it could not pass without His drinking it was consent to honor the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, ending the conflict in obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, set against Eden's foul blot of disobedience to reveal what Adam's disobedience involved and what the Son's obedience means. He willingly bore that agony so that His self-sacrifice would reveal His love and secure humanity's salvation, and He was strengthened by a mighty angel to endure the trial.

Drinking it meant bearing sin while the Father's face was turned away and hidden and His sustaining presence withdrawn, enduring separation from God and the crushing weight of divine wrath against transgression. Through life He had walked in the light of God's presence, but here He felt shut out, numbered with transgressors with the iniquity of all laid upon Him who knew no sin, with sin appearing dreadful and guilt so heavy He was tempted to fear it would shut Him out forever from the Father's love, feeling how terrible that wrath is unto exceeding sorrowfulness even unto death. Satan pressed darkness upon His soul with almost unbearable agony and tempted Him with the fear that taking the sinner's place would mean He would nevermore be one with God but would come under Satan's control, so that He longed for companionship and words of relief. His soul was in anguish beyond what finite nature could endure, with overpowering fear and dread as of something He could not endure, marked by bloody sweat that makes it possible for humanity to receive divine power to overcome through the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony.

Because His spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin He felt suffering more keenly than human beings do and His desire for relief from God's displeasure was stronger than theirs. His apparent hesitation therefore reveals the depth and intensity of the suffering He endured for the sins of the world.

His surrender was absolute though His will was capable of asserting itself and He could have refused to be humiliated, facing the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being because He was bearing the sins of the whole world. He had laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life in behalf of humanity and to suffer humiliation and death to make atonement on the cross. The sinless Son was treated as a sinner that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace upon Him and healing by His stripes, becoming poor for guilty people's sake so they might become rich through His poverty, in willing obedience as He faced the agony and death awaiting Him.

World Deciding Choice

The second prayer was uttered at the awful moment that was to decide the destiny of the world, with the fate of humanity trembling in the balance while heavenly hosts waited. It was not yet too late to refuse the cup apportioned to guilty men, to wipe the bloody sweat from the brow, to leave transgressors to perish in iniquity under displeasure and receive sin's penalty, and to go back to the Father. Satan urged that course even then, tempting Him to save Himself.

With the history of the human race before Him He saw transgressors of the law left to themselves perishing, the power of sin, and the utter helplessness of man to save himself. He beheld the woes and lamentations and cries of a doomed world, its impending fate and ruin and doom and day of doom. He gathered the sinfulness of every man upon His divine soul, treading the winepress alone with none with Him in a sorrow beyond angels' power to ease.

Having left the purity and happiness and glory of the heavenly courts to save the one lost sheep, the one fallen world, reaching to the very depths of misery to rescue a lost and ruined race, He would not now turn away from His mission. His decision was made to save man and all that will come to Him at any cost to Himself. He would drink the bitter potion and bitter cup of humiliation and agony, accept His baptism of blood, suffer as the innocent the curse and consequence of God's curse for sin, and become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin, that perishing millions through Him may gain everlasting life. At that decisive moment He could still have refused and left humanity to perish, but He accepted the suffering and death necessary to save the human race.

At stake was the sacrifice ordained before the foundation of the world and symbolized in every sacrifice offered since Adam's transgression. At stake was the glorious purpose of the Father and the Son to save a perishing world, the thing angels eagerly desired to look into, the burden of prophecy and the foundation of types and shadows. The hour had come when all the types and symbols pointing to His suffering and death must be fulfilled, after He had already suffered much as the Son of Man and as man's substitute to redeem and save men. If He refused the cup, redemption would fail and Satan with his apostate forces and confederacy of evil would come off triumphant, while if He drank it the captives would be delivered from the mighty, Satan would be overcome, obedience to the law would be demonstrated possible, and all would be made more than conquerors through Him.

The more mercilessly wrath beat upon Him the more firmly He clung to His Father's hand and pressed on in the bloodstained path with Thy will be done. That steadfast submission brought His spotless character out in purer light and vindicated God in the controversy with Satan over the execution of the plan of salvation.

Set against the Garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience, His consent honored the Father by doing His will and bearing His curse, the consequence and burden of man's transgression, and ended the conflict in obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. The contrast reveals what was involved in Adam's disobedience and what the obedience of the Son means, teaching that faithfulness follows God's will rather than self. His will was capable of asserting itself and He could have refused to be humiliated, having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity to live a sinless life in behalf of humanity and to make atonement, treated as a sinner that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities with the chastisement of peace upon Him and healing by His stripes.

Heaven Strengthens for Victory

The Father did not take the trembling cup from His hand and pale lips, but heaven opened with light amid stormy darkness in answer to the thrice-uttered prayer heard in heaven. A mighty angel in God's presence, occupying the place from which Satan fell, came from the throne to His side. The angel was not sent to tell Him release was granted, which would have left mankind in hopeless despair and eternal ruin, but to support Him in drinking the cup presented to Him. The cup was the bitter suffering for humanity, and strengthened by the angel He accepted it and submitted to the Father's will.

The angel came not to take the cup from Christ's hand but to strengthen the divine-human sufferer under the most fearful strain ever brought on a human being to drink it. He gave power to Him, raised Him from the cold ground, and comforted Him with love from the Father. He gave assurance of the Father's love and that the Father is greater and more powerful than Satan. He assured Him of eternal joys for all who accept redemption.

He pointed Him to the open heavens and the souls that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He set before Him victory over Satan and millions made victors with Him in His glorified kingdom. He assured Him that His sacrifice would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan and that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High. He assured Him that He would see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied in seeing a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved.

Having faced the cost of humanity's sin and chosen to save the race, He prayed in a spirit of submission and found serenity. Heavenly serenity and peace then rested upon His pale and blood-stained face, with victory bringing peace after the fearful hour passed with the cup accepted to drain to the dregs. His acceptance was essential and stood between humanity and its destiny, for if the cup had passed from Him the human race would have faced eternal ruin.

His submission shows that God's will may involve bitter suffering, yet His self-sacrifice endured to its full measure on the way to Calvary reveals love. That love was made to draw people away from sin and secure their eternal salvation. His suffering, marked by bloody sweat in bearing humanity's sin, made salvation possible and made it possible for humanity to receive divine power and overcome through the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony.

Pattern for Believers

Christ's hardship and self-denial in accepting the Father's will when obedience meant suffering shows the way to overcome and the need for divine help. Those who seek eternal life must likewise resist their own inclinations, not shrink from hardship or sacrifice, and seek God as their source of strength in need, distress and peril. His willingness to drink the cup of suffering while bearing the weight of the world's sins exemplifies humble obedience, self-denial and self-sacrifice for humanity's salvation. His life of agonizing prayer and wrestling with the Father teaches prayer for strength and power to make God known in word and action, and stands as a pattern of patience, consecration and preparation for sacred work to follow.

His surrender sets the pattern for giving all to keeping power and bringing life into conformity with His will. His passing through the last terrible trial so sinners might not perish but have eternal life reveals divine love in laying down life for others. That love requires believers to lay down their lives for the brethren in brotherly love and united service instead of dishonoring God by working at cross-purposes.

The prayer also belongs to God's faithful people facing deadly persecution and the time of trouble. Like Him in the garden in deep agony pouring out His soul, they will cry and agonize earnestly day and night for deliverance while facing the threat of death for keeping God's Sabbath. Yet they submit to God's will, must drink their appointed cup and undergo their trial before God delivers them and fulfills His will.

The same submission of "Thy will be done" applies when prayer is offered for healing and life and when facing painful outcomes including death whose purpose is not understood. It expresses yielding the outcome of earnest prayer for a critically sick person to God while prayer continues and belief remains that His power to hear and spare life from the grave is undiminished. If He allows death it is accepted, because the death of His saints is precious to Him.

His resort to solitude and spending the night in agonizing prayer on the damp ground to prepare for the judgment hall and the cross patterns communion with heaven for strength. His example teaches seeking strength and power to make God known in words and actions. Even those most needing divine instruction will miss evidence and strength for coming trials without constant connection and obedience, as the drowsy disciples through stupor heard not His voice and had only a dim sense of angelic presence, losing the power and glory that would have strengthened their souls for the terrible scenes before them.

His sacrifice in Gethsemane stands alongside His sacrifice on Calvary as one great sacrifice that should move the church to greater missionary effort. It is part of the painful history of His great agony before betrayal and suffering for the world, which the Lord's Supper brings to mind. His prayer of submission there belongs to the sacrifice required of Him and made for the world.