Scripture Daily

Context No. 3615 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 22:41-46: in context

41He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, 42saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. 44Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. 45When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, 46and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

In Gethsemane, Jesus prays with an agony that shows the full weight of what he faced: Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. His human will recoils from the horror of the cross, and he does not pretend otherwise. But then come the words that are the heart of it all: nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.

Here is perfect submission, honest about the anguish, yet yielding wholly to the Father's will. His agony is so intense that his sweat becomes like great drops of blood falling to the ground, and an angel comes to strengthen him. This is our Savior, entering the darkness not numbly but feeling every ounce of it, and still choosing the Father's will over his own. And he tells the sleeping disciples what will carry them, and us, through such hours: rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The way Jesus faced his trial, honest prayer and surrender to the Father's will, is the way we too are meant to face ours.

When I face my own hard hours, do I pray honestly like Jesus, bringing my anguish to the Father yet surrendering, "not my will, but yours, be done"?

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