Biblion Bible Commentary
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Gethsemane
Matthew 26:36-46
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.” · WEB
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" Matthew 26:36.
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 Matthew 26:37. The three taken are the three from the mountain Matthew 17:1, and what they are shown this time is the opposite of glory.
"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me" Matthew 26:38. 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" Matthew 26:39.
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" Matthew 26:46. He does not wait to be found. Everything from here is done by a man who settled it among the olive trees.
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