Agony in Gethsemane

The anguished prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (meaning “oil press”) on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, on the night after the Last Supper and before his crucifixion. After arriving at this olive grove where he often went, Jesus took Peter, James, and John deeper into the garden while the other disciples waited at the entrance. He told the three “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me,” then went a little further alone and fell facedown, praying “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus returned three times to find his disciples sleeping despite his request that they watch and pray with him. Each time he went back to pray alone, and his anguish intensified—Luke records that “being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” and an angel appeared to strengthen him. After the third time finding them asleep, Jesus said “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” as Judas Iscariot arrived with an armed crowd to arrest him. Having wrestled with the approaching suffering and submitted to the Father’s will—praying repeatedly “not my will, but yours be done”—Jesus went willingly to his trial and execution.