Continuing today with our mini series on prayer, we are going to be looking at a prayer that Jesus prayed that, at face value, looks quite haunting and a bit confusing. Christians know the story: Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was taken to be crucified and while He was there He asked God to "take this cup" from Him. Most believers have just boiled it down to Christ's humanity and that, in a moment of weakness, He was putting in a last ditch effort to avoid going to the cross, as long as it was God's will. While at first it looks like a reasonable explanation and many find no issue with it, I think that once we take a closer look at it, we will see that Jesus would never ask God to not have to die on the cross and to suggest that He would is damaging to Christ's holiness.
I had thought the same way upon reading those verses growing up and hadn't thought much else. We applauded Jesus for asking such a petition and ending it with "Not My will but Yours be done" because it made Him this “perfect example” of how humans should be in times of trial. We could look at other verses that support this, like Hebrews 4:15, which says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin." And we feel empowered to "humble" ourselves like Jesus did in the garden where He was “tempted”and ask God if He would consider not making us follow through with what He has called us to (His will) and provide a way out..yet not our will but His be done. But is this really what Jesus was doing? I don't think so. In fact, I believe that Jesus did not mean that at all. I remember reading a poem online a few years back that really changed my view of those verses. It was a "letter" from Jesus explaining Himself over the common misconception with those verses. He was "pleading" with the audience that they understand that He would have never not gone to the cross nor asked God to not make Him. He was heartbroken and offended by the notion. He assured them that it was always His plan to follow through and that He was actually asking for something else in that moment. I cannot find the poem and have spent years looking for it as it really spoke to me and helped me to see Jesus' heart for us fully. In fact, just thinking about the poem right now makes me tear up. It was so powerful and so helpful to me in understanding what was actually happening during Jesus' last day on earth. So, that leaves us with the question: if Jesus wasn't asking to not go to the cross, what was He asking for? Let's start with what we know about why Jesus said He was here. Many times Jesus explained to His disciples what He was doing here on earth. He had an agenda and knew full well what it entailed. In John 10:11 Jesus explains: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." and later in verse 15 adds, "just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." He knew what He was here to do. Then, in Matthew 16:21, Jesus lays it out even more explicitly, "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." So, we have established that Jesus was well aware of what He had to do. But was He on board? Right after Jesus was done explaining to His disciples that He would die, "Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:22-23. Did you catch that? Jesus could not believe that Peter could suggest something that was so selfish and contrary to the concern of God. In fact, He was so impassioned by Peter's response that He referred to him as Satan! What Peter had suggested was so contrary to the will of God that it had Satan's name written all over it. That must have been a powerful suggestion. Also, we are told in Hebrews 12:2b, "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." So not only did He know what was coming, but He was compliant with it. He knew what He had to do and it was for the "joy set before Him" that He would accomplish it. Alright, so we know that a verbal suggestion contrary to Jesus' death on the cross was absolutely appalling to Jesus and we know that Jesus was compliant in going to the cross, so how can we reconcile His prayer in the garden? Let's see if Jesus was even capable of praying that prayer in the garden. Just how committed to God was Jesus? In John 5, Jesus mentions twice how He can do nothing apart from God, once in verse 19, "Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." and once in verse 30 "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." (emphasis mine). We see that not only can Jesus not do anything of His own will but that He doesn't seek to please Himself, but God alone. Again, In John 7:28-29, He reiterates this truth, "Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” Jesus also describes how He wasn’t here on this earth to accomplish His own will but God’s. John 6:38 “ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Also, by taking a look at how Jesus commands us to pray we can see if what Jesus prayed in the garden was obedient. In Mark 11:24, Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours". Knowing this, Jesus would never pray for something that He knew He wouldn't receive. What are we guaranteed to receive when we pray? Anything according to God's will. 1 John 5:14-15 explains this truth from God, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” So, Jesus would not have prayed for something against God's will. Was it God's will for Jesus to die on the cross? Yes, we have established that it was because Jesus said that that was why He came and that He does nothing apart from God. Also, when Jesus was arrested in the garden, He refers to the prophecies that foretold this will of God saying that if He wasn't arrested and then killed, ".. how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:54). So we can be certain that it was God's will for Jesus to die on the cross. Also, in Galatians 1:4 it says of Jesus, “who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to th will of our God and Father.” If Jesus couldn't pray for anything against God's will, then what was He praying for when He asked “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will" in Matthew 26:39? Let's take a look at what was happening in the earlier verses (36-38) “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” (emphasis mine). Here we get to the real thesis of this article. It is my belief that Jesus was dying or at least convinced that He was dying in the Garden of Gethsemane due to grief, distress, and perhaps the anticipation of being separated from God. In fact, we get more evidence of just how distressed and unwell Jesus was when we read in Luke 2:44, " And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." Sweating blood happens due to extreme amounts of stress. Again, I remind you, that Jesus could not pray anything unless He knew that it was the will of God and He would receive it. So when Jesus prayed “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done" in Luke 22:42, we see in the following verse (43) an answer to His prayer, "Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him." I would like to argue that that angel was Jesus' answer to His prayer. His prayer was not that He would not have to die on the cross but that He would make it to the cross. He felt the cup of death in the garden and He wasn't sure if He would make it out of there. He asked the Lord to help the cup pass for the moment, so that He could accomplish what He was sent to do. And because Jesus prayed in accordance to God's perfect will, an angel was sent to strengthen Him. And what do we see next? In verse 45 it says, "When He rose from prayer..." Jesus was able to rise from the Garden of Gethsemane and was given the strength to move toward the cross where he would drink the cup once and for all. Which brings us to the topic of the cup. The cup really is what this discussion revolves around. Whatever the cup represents is what Jesus was praying regarding. Like I mentioned before, many believers think that the “cup” symbolizes death on the cross, others the wrath of God. I don’t think that it could be either of those options because Jesus mentions this cup to His disciples and He mentions how they will drink from it. In Matthew 20:22 Jesus says, "My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father." And in Mark 10:38-39 He says, “You don’t know what you are asking,”... “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.” In those verses we see that Jesus mentions that His disciples will be drinking the cup Jesus drinks. If Jesus’ cup in the Garden of Gethsemane represents the wrath of God or the crucifixion, then the disciples certainly would not have ever drank Jesus’ cup like He foretold. Jesus died on the cross to satisfy the wrath of God so that no one who believed in Him would have to. Surely the cup cannot represent the wrath of God. Also, neither of the disciples He was talking to, James and John, were crucified so He could not have been referring to crucifixion. But was the “cup” mentioned in those verses referring to the same thing? I’m no master of Greek but when I looked it up in the Interlinear Bible, the same Greek word for cup was used in the conversation with James and John and in Jesus’ prayer in the garden. So at least we know it doesn’t contradict. So if the cup that Jesus drank was also a cup that at least some of His disciples would drink, what could the cup reference? It certainly seems like Jesus is referring to death when He is talking to His disciples. I would argue that He is talking about their spiritual death as a metaphor for His physical death but I suppose it could be referencing their physical death. Therefore, I argue that the “cup” Jesus asks to be “removed” or to have “pass” is a temporary request to God to get Him to the cross. Whether He was actually dying or just convinced He would die without the strength of God to get Him there, I do not know. As it is with tackling any difficult passages, there are still questions that go unanswered and there are definitely some arguments. I was speaking with my dad on this topic and he doesn’t see why Jesus would think He was dying in the garden if He knew He was going to go to the cross. To which I rebut, “Why would He ask God if there was another for Him to die if He knew He was going to go to the cross?” My dad, along with many other wise and godly scholars, believe that Christ was simply petitioning God to come up with another way for His sacrifice to be done. One that didn’t involve separation. They think that the argument that Jesus was or thought He was dying in the garden cannot be biblically supported. I personally think it’s hard to biblically support that He was simply asking for His death to happen another way. I’m always listening and trying to learn the truth so I will not die on any hills with this discussion. Perhaps tomorrow I will be convinced otherwise, but today I feel pretty strongly that the cup doesn’t represent “death on the cross” or the “wrath of God”. Writing this post has brought me to tears of humility and thankfulness just to be able to know how willing Jesus was and how determined He was to get to the cross. He was so committed, so surrendered, so submitted to God that everything He did, thought, and prayed for was directly in line with God's will. His humility and meekness is awe-inspiring and it breaks my heart to think that many believers understand these passages in different light. Where they see Jesus at His weakest, I see Jesus at His strongest, persevering through dying just to get to His death. I hope that this post has brought you the peace, joy, and blessing that it's contents (which are God's truths) have brought me. I will forever look at the scene in the garden with different eyes and will remember that Jesus wasn't second guessing His fate, He was relying on God in faith. God Bless! *While I was not able to find the "letter" that inspired this post, I was able to find another in depth analysis about these events here if you want to take a look.
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About Me:Hello! I'm Roxy. Enjoy reading my thoughts as I strive to understand God's character and truth and admonish it faithfully to His church. Please email at [email protected] with inquiries. Archives
September 2018
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