revelation second-temple

Agony in Gethsemane

c. 30 or 33 CE (night before crucifixion) (scriptural)

The anguished prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion, where he wrestled with the approaching suffering and ultimately submitted to the Father’s will. This moment of profound human struggle reveals both Jesus’s full humanity and his unwavering obedience, as he faced the cup of God’s wrath and chose to drink it for humanity’s sake.

The Biblical Accounts

The Setting

After the Last Supper:

  • Jesus and disciples went to Mount of Olives
  • Place called Gethsemane (meaning “oil press”)
  • Garden/olive grove
  • Jesus had gone there often (John 18:2)
  • Across Kidron Valley, east of Jerusalem

The Separation:

  • Took Peter, James, and John with him deeper into garden
  • Left other eight disciples at entrance: “Sit here while I go over there and pray”
  • Took the three further: Same three from Transfiguration
  • “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me”
  • Went a little farther alone

The Prayer

First Prayer (Matthew 26:39):

  • Fell with face to ground
  • “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me”
  • “Yet not as I will, but as you will”

Luke’s Details (Luke 22:43-44):

  • Angel appeared, strengthening him
  • Being in anguish, prayed more earnestly
  • Sweat like drops of blood falling to ground (hematidrosis - extreme stress)

Return to Disciples:

  • Found them sleeping
  • To Peter: “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?”
  • “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”

Second Prayer (Matthew 26:42):

  • Went away again
  • “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done”

Second Return:

  • Found them sleeping again (eyes were heavy)
  • Didn’t know what to say to him

Third Prayer (Matthew 26:44):

  • Left them again
  • Prayed third time, saying same thing

Final Return:

  • “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come”
  • “The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners”
  • “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

The Arrest Follows

  • Judas arrived with armed crowd
  • Kiss of betrayal
  • Peter drew sword, cut off servant’s ear
  • Jesus: “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
  • All disciples fled

Theological Significance

The Cup

What Was the Cup?:

  • Not merely physical death (many martyrs faced death bravely)
  • Cup of God’s wrath against sin (Old Testament imagery)
  • Isaiah 51:17: “Cup of his wrath”
  • Psalm 75:8: “Cup in the hand of the LORD…the wicked of the earth drink”
  • Jesus would bear the full weight of divine judgment on sin

The Exchange:

  • Jesus drinks the cup of wrath
  • We drink the cup of blessing
  • He takes judgment; we receive mercy
  • Substitutionary atonement enacted

Full Humanity on Display

Real Human Emotion:

  • Sorrow to point of death
  • Desperate prayer
  • Seeking relief: “If it is possible…”
  • Sweat like drops of blood
  • Needed angelic strengthening

Not Stoic, Not Detached:

  • Jesus fully felt the horror of what was coming
  • Not playacting or pretending
  • Genuine human anguish
  • Hebrews 5:7: “Offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears”

Obedience Despite Cost

“Not My Will But Yours”:

  • Echoes Mary’s “fiat”: “Let it be to me according to your word”
  • Mother’s obedience at beginning, Son’s obedience at climax
  • Free choice, not forced
  • Could have called twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53)
  • Chose submission

The Second Adam:

  • First Adam in garden chose his will over God’s—fell
  • Second Adam in garden chose God’s will over his—saved humanity
  • Reversal of Eden
  • Obedience where Adam disobeyed

Identification with Human Suffering

Jesus Understands Anguish:

  • Not distant God unmoved by our struggles
  • Entered fully into human pain and fear
  • Hebrews 4:15: “Tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin”
  • Can sympathize with our weaknesses

The Lonely Suffering:

  • Disciples couldn’t stay awake
  • Had to face this alone
  • Isaiah 63:3: “I have trodden the winepress alone”
  • Foreshadows abandonment on cross

The Prayer Life of Jesus

Model of Prayer:

  • Honest before God (didn’t hide feelings)
  • Persistent (prayed three times)
  • Submissive (ultimately yielded to God’s will)
  • Accompanied by action (“Rise, let us go!”)

Priority of Prayer:

  • In greatest crisis, turned to prayer
  • Not strategizing, not fleeing—praying
  • “Watch and pray” - command to disciples and to us

Spiritual Warfare

The Battle Before the Battle:

  • Temptation in wilderness echoed in Gethsemane
  • Satan’s final attempt to derail redemption
  • If Jesus refused the cross, no salvation
  • Victory in prayer secured victory at cross

Luke’s Angel:

  • Divine assistance in spiritual battle
  • Strengthened to face what was coming
  • Heaven supporting earth’s redemption

Contrast with the Disciples

Jesus:

  • Praying intensely
  • Facing temptation
  • Submitted to Father’s will

Disciples:

  • Sleeping
  • Avoiding awareness of coming crisis
  • Later fled when tested

Jesus’s Compassion:

  • Didn’t condemn them harshly
  • Understood: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”
  • Went to face trial alone so they could sleep
  • Protected them even in his agony

The Three Hours

Watch and Pray:

  • Jesus prayed three hours (three prayers)
  • Disciples slept three hours
  • Parallel to three hours of darkness on cross
  • Pattern of three throughout Passion

From Garden to Cross:

  • Gethsemane: Agony before cup
  • Calvary: Drinking the cup
  • Both: Submission to Father’s will
  • Both: “Not my will but yours”

Historical and Critical Questions

Historicity:

  • Criterion of embarrassment: Church wouldn’t invent anguished, doubting Jesus
  • Early church preference was triumphant Christ
  • Vulnerable Jesus in Gethsemane suggests authentic tradition
  • Who witnessed if disciples asleep? Jesus must have recounted it

Hematidrosis (Bloody Sweat):

  • Rare medical condition under extreme stress
  • Blood vessels rupture, blood mixes with sweat
  • Documented in medical literature
  • Some manuscripts omit Luke’s detail (possibly too disturbing)

Garden Location:

  • Traditional site on Mount of Olives
  • Ancient olive trees still present
  • Cave venerated as prayer grotto
  • Exact spot uncertain

Gethsemane in Christian Devotion

Holy Week Observance:

  • Maundy Thursday services often include Gethsemane meditation
  • Prayer vigils echoing Jesus’s prayer
  • Stations of the Cross begin with Gethsemane
  • Good Friday reflection on the agony

Spiritual Lessons:

  • Honest prayer in suffering
  • Submission to God’s will
  • Importance of spiritual vigilance
  • Companion with Christ in prayer

Liturgical Prayer:

  • “Not my will but yours” - model for Christian prayer
  • Taught to pray Jesus’s prayer in our suffering
  • Gethsemane as school of surrender

The Cup and Communion

Connection to Last Supper:

  • Hours earlier: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”
  • Now: “Take this cup from me”
  • Same cup: Salvation and suffering
  • Cup of blessing requires cup of wrath
  • Eucharist flows from Gethsemane

Significance

Gethsemane shatters any notion that the cross was easy for Jesus, that he floated above human pain, that redemption cost him nothing. No—he sweated blood. He begged for another way. He felt the full weight of what was coming: not just nails and thorns, but the infinite wrath of God against sin poured out on sinless shoulders.

“Take this cup from me.” The Son asks the Father. Is there another way? Could humanity be saved without this? The silence of heaven is the answer. No other way. No plan B. No shortcut. Only the cross. Only the cup of wrath drunk to the dregs. Only God becoming sin, becoming curse, descending into hell’s forsakenness.

And Jesus says yes. “Not my will but yours.” The hinge on which the world turns. The moment everything depends upon. One man’s obedience reversing one man’s disobedience. Second Adam undoing what first Adam did. In a garden, the fate of humanity was lost. In a garden, it was won back.

The disciples slept. They didn’t understand. Even Peter, who swore to die with Jesus, couldn’t stay awake for an hour. But Jesus stayed awake. Jesus prayed. Jesus wrestled. Jesus submitted. And because he drank the cup, we don’t have to.

Every communion cup we drink reminds us of the cup he drank first—the cup of God’s judgment, drained to the bottom, leaving only blessing for us. Every time we pray “Your will be done,” we echo Gethsemane. Every time we choose obedience over ease, submission over self-will, we walk where Jesus walked.

“Rise, let us go!” The prayer was finished. The decision was made. The cup would be drunk. And Jesus strode forward to meet his betrayer, to face his trial, to carry his cross—not as victim but as victor, not as one crushed but as one choosing, not in despair but in obedient love.

Gethsemane teaches us: It’s all right to ask God to take the cup. It’s human to dread suffering. It’s honest to pour out anguish in prayer. But the prayer doesn’t end there. It ends with “Your will be done.” And then—then we rise and go, whatever awaits.

The cup was not taken away. But strength was given to drink it. And that has made all the difference—for Jesus, for the world, for us.