Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.” 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled. 38 Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me.” 39 He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.” 40 He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup can’t pass away from me unless I drink it, your desire be done.” 43 He came again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 He left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to his disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Arise, let’s be going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand.”
He asks for the cup to pass, three times, and each time ends the prayer the same way.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.”
Gethsemane is an olive grove across the valley from the city, and the name means an oil press. The account is given in the earlier telling Mark 14:22–42.
He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.
The three taken are the three from the mountain Matthew 17:1, and what they are shown this time is the opposite of glory.
Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me.”
He asks for company. It is the only time in the book he asks them for anything for himself, and it is a request to be near rather than to do.
He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
The prayer has two halves and both are real. The first asks for a way out, in the plainest words, from a man who has said four times that this must happen — so foreknowledge did not make it easier. The cup is the one he asked the sons of Zebedee about Matthew 20:22, and what is in it is not the nails. In the prophets the cup is what God gives a person to drink Isaiah 51:17 Jeremiah 25:15.
The second half is not resignation. Not what I desire, but what you desire is a live act of will, made while the desire is still running the other way, and it is the sentence from the prayer he taught them Matthew 6:10.
He came to the disciples and found them sleeping Matthew 26:40. The one thing asked of them is not done. "Watch and pray, that you don't enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" Matthew 26:41 — which is diagnosis rather than accusation, and generous to men who had meant every word of their pledge.
The second prayer has shifted: "if this cup can't pass away from me unless I drink it, your desire be done" Matthew 26:42. The request has become an acceptance, in the same words. He goes a third time and prays saying the same words Matthew 26:44 — there is no new argument, and repetition is what praying under that weight actually looks like.
Arise, let’s be going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand.”
He does not wait to be found. Everything from here is done by a man who settled it among the olive trees.
settled What this mark means