Pastor Sarah Henry

March 30, 2025

Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39–46)

39 He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. 40 When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” 41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” [[43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]] 45 When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”

This is a very moving prayer of dedication to do His Father’s will, no matter what the cost (Earle, 335).

22:39 AS WAS HIS CUSTOM, TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Prayer was a way of life for Jesus. He had a special place in the Mount of Olives where he habitually went for prayer (Butler, 372). Knowing that the Lord would be there (John 18:1–2), Judas led his band of Roman soldiers and temple guards into the Garden to arrest Jesus, who willingly yielded Himself into their hands (Wiersbe, 268). Why do you think Jesus returned to his usual place of prayer, knowing that he could be found and arrested?

What might be the significance of a garden? Human history began in a Garden (Gen. 2:7–25) and so did human sin (Gen. 3). For the redeemed, the whole story will climax in a “garden city” where there will be no sin (Rev. 21:1–22:7). But between the Garden where man failed and the Garden where God reigns is Gethsemane, the Garden where Jesus accepted the cup from the Father’s hand (Wiersbe, 268).

22:39 THE DISCIPLES FOLLOWED HIM. Jesus left eight of His disciples somewhere in the Garden and took Peter, James, and John with Him to a private place to pray (Mark 14:32–33). This is the third time He has shared a special occasion with these three men. The first was when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8:41–56), and the second was when He was transfigured before them (Luke 9:28–36). There must be a spiritual message here. Each of these occasions had something to do with death. In Jairus’ house, Jesus proved Himself to be victorious over death; and on the Mount of Transfiguration, He was glorified through death. (He and Moses and Elijah were talking about His “exodus” in Jerusalem [Luke 9:31].) Here in the Garden, Jesus was surrendered to death. Since James was the first of the apostles to die (Acts 12:1–2), John the last to die, and Peter experienced great persecution and eventually was crucified, these three lessons were very practical for their own lives (Wiersbe, 269). How do these three episodes dealing with death help you grapple with the prospect of suffering for Jesus?

22:40 PRAY THAT YOU MAY NOT COME INTO THE TIME OF TRIAL. Only the one who had prayed remained strong during the next few hours (Marshall, 1016). Prayer is the divinely appointed way of meeting and conquering temptation (Trites, 294). Can you share of a time when prayer helped you survive a difficult time?

22:42 FATHER. Significantly, in his prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus addresses God as “Father.” Looking at prayer as a relationship between child and parent helps us avoid the two extremes mentioned above. When approaching a parent, one does not demand that something be done. Respect for the parent’s authority and wisdom precludes that. But on the other hand, one who really trusts a parent does not simply say, “Whatever you say is all right with me.” Trust in the parent’s unyielding love allows the child to express wishes and feelings of which the parent may not approve. But the very act of expressing them is a sign of both love and respect. It is out of this relationship that Jesus is able to say both “remove this cup from me” and “not my will but yours be done.” The two probably interpolated verses, 43 and 44, present an interesting paradox that is best understood in this context. An angel comes from heaven to give Jesus strength, and the result is not, as we would expect, that his fears are allayed, but rather that “in his anguish he prayed more earnestly.” The more heavenly strength one has, the more one is able both to express one’s anguish unashamedly, and to accept God’s loving will (González, 251). How do you understand Jesus' apparent contradictory statements to the Father?

22:42 IF YOU ARE WILLING. From these words emerge three truths. (1) God’s will held first place in every consideration Jesus made. (2) Jesus’ sufferings and temptations were real or He would not have been looking for an alternative to the way events were going. (3) There must have been no other way or God would not have allowed His Son to die as He did (Foster, 273). What questions do you have about Jesus' plea to his Father?

22:42 REMOVE THIS CUP FROM ME. Jesus is the Son of God and knew full well that He would be raised from the dead, and yet His soul experienced agony as He anticipated what lay before Him. In the hours ahead, He would be humiliated and abused, and suffer shame and pain on the cross. But even more, He would be made sin for us and separated from His Father. He called this solemn experience “drinking the cup” (Wiersbe, 269). What sufferings do Christians face today for the sake of Christ? 

22:42 NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE. Jesus’s prayer is a powerful example of submission before God. Spend time imitating Jesus’s prayer, including his posture. Kneel before God and express your desire to submit to his will (Coleman, 1694). There is a deep community of will between Jesus and his Father, expressed now precisely at the point of their deepest separation, in the godforsaken and accursed death of Jesus on the cross. This event contains community between Jesus and his Father in separation, and separation in community (Moltmann, 243-244). What is the Father's will in this event? Why?

22:44 HIS SWEAT BECAME LIKE GREAT DROPS OF BLOOD FALLING DOWN ON THE GROUND. Dr. Luke is the only Gospel writer who mentions “sweat … like great drops of blood.” His use of the word like may suggest that the sweat merely fell to the ground like clots of blood. But there is a rare physical phenomenon known as hematidrosis, in which, under great emotional stress, the tiny blood vessels rupture in the sweat glands and produce a mixture of blood and sweat. The first Adam sinned in a Garden and was condemned to living by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:19). Jesus, the Last Adam, obeyed the Father in a Garden and conquered Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12–21) (Wiersbe, 269).

22:45 FOUND THEM SLEEPING. The fact that they were asleep is not unusual since Passover could extend up to midnight and the disciples had drunk at least four cups of wine at the meal (Coleman, 1694).

22:46 WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING? Jewish people customarily stayed awake late on Passover night to speak of God’s redemption. The disciples should have been able to stay awake to keep watch; they had probably stayed up late on nearly every other Passover of their lives (Keener, Lk 22:40). In what ways do you struggle to 'stay awake' and 'keep watch'?

Temptation, when faced with the call to selflessness, will often look like self-preservation.

Not My Will, But Your Will Be Done

In asking that the cup be taken away, Christ reveals his human will. By submitting his human will to the Father, Christ reveals his divine will to be one with the Father's, and further shows that each person must submit his own will to God's will (11:2). Christ willingly takes in Himself the voice of weak humanity, thereby conquering weakness: "The words of weakness are sometimes adopted by the strong in order that the hearts of the weak may be strengthened" (Gregory the Great) (Maximos, 1410).

Since God the Son moved to meet creation by emptying himself through the kenosis of the Incarnation, the 'kenotic' way is the only one that befits the Christian. Let us sacrifice our own will and subject it to the will of [God], repeating in ourselves what our Lord did in Gethsemane (Zizioulas, 5). This ought to be the Christian's ethos: "Let no one seek his own good but the good of other" (1 Cor 10:23; cf. Phil 2:4) (Zizioulas, 91).

A fear of death is a natural and fitting human response. Christ's agony in Gethsemane shows how human Jesus was. As fully human, Jesus did not want to die, but wants to live. Being hungry, needing sleep, and wanting to live are not wrong. Christ indeed was pure from sin, yet he was not free from natural wants, either (Hall, 188).

This means that, first, Christ will never ask his disciples to endure something he has not first undergone himself. Because he has already walked this path, we can know that we will finish the journey ourselves. Second, fellowship with Christ and suffering with Christ are mutually intertwined. Suffering is not a sign of God's rejection but rather an invitation to fellowship as God refines our character (Hall, 189).

Reflection

1. Are you praying about a potential call from God? The answer to that is: 

   • Does it draw you deeper into the love that sets you free?

   • Are you moving in the footsteps of Jesus, all the way to the Garden?

   • Have you aligned your heart with the God who chose to die?

   • Can we be uncomfortable for the sake of God's love and justice?

2. What would our lives look like if we gave up power and privilege, the way that Jesus did?

3. How can our prayer be the same prayer as the Savior of the universe ("not my will, but Your will be done")?

Works Cited

Trent C. Butler. Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.

Lyman Coleman. Life Connections Study Bible. Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles, 2019.

Ralph Earle. “The Gospel according to St. Luke,” in Matthew-Acts, vol. 4. The Wesleyan Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966.

Lewis Foster. Luke: Unlocking the Scriptures for You. Standard Bible Studies. Cincinnati, OH: Standard, 1986.

Justo L. González. Luke, ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.

Christopher A. Hall. Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2002.

Craig S. Keener. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

I. Howard Marshall. “Luke,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.

Jürgen Moltmann. The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Maximos, Metropolitan, Eugen Pentiuc, Michel Najim, and Jack Norman Sparks. The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today’s World. Edited by St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

Allison A. Trites, William J. Larkin. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 12: The Gospel of Luke and Acts. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996.

John D. Zizioulas. Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church. Edited by Paul McPartlan. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010.

Hart, David Bentley. The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2003.

Keller, Timothy, and Sam Allberry. 90 Days in John 14-17, Romans & James. Explore by the Book: The Good Book Company, 2017.

Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961.

Louth, Andrew. Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology. Digital ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013.

MacDonald, George. Hope of the Gospel: Public Domain, 1892.

Wilkins, Michael J., David E. Garland, Darrell L. Bock, Gary M. Burge, and Ajith Fernando. NIVAC Bundle 6: Gospels, Acts: Zondervan Academic, 2015.