We have recorded in the gospels various prayers of Jesus, offered up to His Father in heaven. For example, in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 we have what is called by many today, “The Lord’s Prayer.” It was in response to the request of one of His disciples who said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). The designation of “The Lord’s Prayer” is inappropriately given to this prayer. It was a model prayer designed to teach the disciples. There are other prayers much more personal to our Lord.
One example of this is the prayer that Jesus offered up in John 17. He first prayed for Himself (17:1-5), then His intimate apostles (17:6-19), then the rest who believe in Him which would include you and me (17:20-26). According to John, this prayer was offered on the same night of His most intimate prayer, recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 15 and Luke 22. It is this prayer in the garden of Gethsemane that we want to examine now.
The Setting
The garden of Gethsemane (an oil press) is the name of a place at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just outside of the City of Jerusalem, across from a ravine called the Kidron valley. This was custom for Jesus and His disciples, to go to this quiet place of contemplation.
The Night
The time of this particular significant event late in the life of Jesus was after He observed the Passover with His disciples, then implemented His own supper. “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). It was the night of His betrayal at the hands of one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot. After Jesus prayed to God he told His disciples, “Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand” (Matthew 26:46).
Judas immediately met him with a number of men carrying swords and clubs who had come to arrest Jesus. At Jesus’ betrayal, His disciples fled, and Jesus was taken to the High Priest’s house, under arrest.
The events that followed: two quick mock trials, one by the Sanhedrin, and the other before Pilate, led to His execution on the cross on the next day. By 3:00pm the next day Jesus was dead. He knew what was in store for Himself, and the suffering and sacrifice He was to endure was the focus of this intense prayer to His Father.
The same prayer was offered to His Father on that night on three different occasions. We should not consider the words that Matthew recorded to be the entirety of His conversation with His Father, but Matthew records the prayer in this way, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). The second and third times He prayed this evening, Matthew said He used “the same words” (44). Mark’s record is very similar, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36). Luke refers to the anguish of the words, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
That the actual prayer had some length is seen in the fact that while Jesus had separated Himself from the disciples, after asking them “to watch with Me” (Matthew 16:38), he found them to have fallen asleep. It is directly stated after the first and second interludes, and strongly intimated at the end of the third, when Jesus returned and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand” (Matthew 26:45-46).
The Prayer
Jesus’ words acknowledged the great anxiety and anguish He was experiencing on that night. We simply can’t know the extent of Jesus’ acquiescence to His Father’s will that caused Him to allow Himself to be a sin sacrifice for mankind. We know that before His advent He was in heaven with His Father. Paul writes, “…who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). What He gave up for mankind shows His love for us. What He showed in His death for us was a resolute and unflinching willingness to obey His Father. Earlier in His ministry He testified, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). Even at age 12, He said, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).
Regardless of the cost and the anguish of Jesus, He had no hesitation in following through with what His Father required of Him. At any point He could have called upon “more than twelve legions of angels” (53), to rescue Him those ungodly men. Mockers actually tempted Him in this very thing, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40).
Jesus’ love for you and me knows no bounds. Literally. What He gave up to come and to die for you and me has never been and can never be equaled. God in the flesh dying for His creation. We are blessed to have Jesus as our Lord!
