Luke 22:39-46
Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them,“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
St. Luke writes that Jesus went out "as usual" to the Mount of Olives to pray...It was commonplace for Jesus to pray to His Father...But this was not a usual night...This night would be a night Jesus would never forget...It would be a night the world will not forget...It was Jesus, in the most agony of His life...He knew He was going to die...He was praying with what seems to be anxiety and apprehension...He knew the date of His death...
His disciples watched and followed Him...This was the night, before He would be arrested...He soon would be flogged and tortured...He soon would be carrying His own cross to the place they called the Skull, in Golgotha...There He knew He would die...With all this on His mind, He prayed...He loved His Father, and He loved to communicate to His Father...He did this through prayer...In times, like these, Jesus knew the power of prayer...He prayed and asked His disciples, His friends, to pray with Him...Not only, was prayer good for Jesus, the disciples would need to pray...Prayer was good for His disciples this night for they would abandon Him, deny Him, and right after His arrest would turn somewhat cowardly about knowing Him (in fear of their own lives)...They would be falling into some of these different temptations, after He left...
Jesus teaches us that in times of extreme duress, we should pray...He, being in such anguish, would literally sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground...He seems to ask God, if there might be another way to do what God had planned for Him to do, when He asks in prayer, "if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet, not by My will, but Yours be done."...This take My cup, means to take My suffering from Me...This is the greatest of prayers when we are suffering and in anguish...Like My Master, I too look for a Plan B, some alternative from God in my prayers, that might lesson my pain, when I suffer and grieve -or when a family member needs assistance from a surgery, health issue, or loss...My prayer, might be summed up like this, "LORD can You find for me, a less painful alternative."...But when I ask that that is my will, and not His...
God gave His Son no Plan B...Jesus would pray and His prayers and an angel would strengthen Him...God somehow gave Him strength on the worst night of His life...God finds strength in weaknesses...And for some reason when we suffer, and are in anguish, we know that Jesus somehow shares that anguish with us...He understands our pains, and our sufferings...And in these seemingly lonely hours (even when we are with others), we seem be be almost detached and by ourselves...Jesus felt all these things, and there is comfort, in that, if one looks hard and long...Jesus has a human side, that shows even He had sufferings and times of agony...But He trusts His Father...
In the darkest of nights, we learn we must pray...What we must try to remember in these darkest of hours is to pray for God's will, however reluctantly...It is very sad to me that Jesus had to die on the cross for my sins...But God gives me strength, when He resurrects His Son from this saddened death, to show us He has overcame life, and can make all things new again...