Luke 18:31-34
Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time
31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. 32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
34 The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
Matthew 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Luke 22:39-46
Jesus' Prayer at Gethsemane
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.”
Matthew 6:9-13
The LORD's Prayer
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Jesus lived in the present moment...He did not spend a lot lot of time worrying about the past or the future...He had told and predicted His death three times and told His disciples that, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled...He will be delivered over to the Gentiles...They will mock Him, insult Him and spit on Him; they will flog Him and kill Him...On the third day He will rise again.”...So He knew of His upcoming death but was not spending His every current moment worrying about it...
But now the hour of anxiety was upon Him...His disciples were near, but I think He felt alone...C. S. Lewis says this about Jesus' Prayer in Gethsemane..."Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith...I don’t agree at all...They are afflictions, not sins...Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ...For the beginning of the Passion–the first move, so to speak–is in Gethsemane...In Gethsemane a very strange and significant thing seems to have happened...It is clear from many of His sayings that Our Lord had long foreseen His death...He knew what conduct such as His, in a world such as we have made of this, must inevitably lead to...But it is clear that this knowledge must somehow have been withdrawn from Him before He prayed in Gethsemane...He could not, with whatever reservation about the Father’s will, have prayed that the cup might pass and simultaneously know that it would not...That is both a logical and a psychological impossibility...You see what this involves?...Lest any trial incident to humanity should be lacking, the torments of hope–of suspense, anxiety–were at the last moment loosed upon Him–the supposed possibility that, after all, He might, He just conceivably might, be spared the supreme horror...There was precedent...Isaac had been spared: he too at the last moment, he also against all apparent probability...It was not quite impossible… and doubtless He had seen other men crucified… a sight very unlike most of our religious picture and images...But for this last (and erroneous) hope against hope, and the consequent tumult of the soul, the sweat of blood, perhaps He would not have been very Man...To live in a fully predictable world is not to be a man...At the end, I know, we are told that an angel appeared “comforting” Him… “Strengthening” is more the word...May not the strengthening have consisted in the renewed certainty–cold comfort this–that the thing must be endured and therefore could be?"...
The darkness was upon Him and He knew His time had come...Anxiety surrounded our LORD...Anxiety can make us feel all alone and separated -and can overwhelm...The Passion of the our Christ had started...His prayer in His hour of trouble and need, sounds very much like the prayer a man would have in His time of deep trouble and suffering...And like He had taught His disciples to pray, He prayed for God's will to be done...