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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.” ~ Luke 22:39-46
The Lord Jesus truly has our best interest at heart. In the middle of one of the biggest struggles for Him, He is most concerned about His disciples. This is what motivated Him to come to earth as our Savior in the first place: the need of mankind for a Savior.
Human history began in the Garden of Eden and so did human sin. According to Revelation 21, for the redeemed, the whole story will climax in a “garden” where there will be no sin. Between the garden where man failed and the garden where there will be no sin, we come to the garden where the Lord Jesus accepted the cup of God's wrath Him.
By now, in this narrative, it is probably early Friday morning. The Lord Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane which is on the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane means “olive press.” The first Adam rebelled against God in the garden of Eden and brought sin and death into the world. The Last Adam submitted to God in the garden of Gethsemane and brought life and salvation for all who will believe.
Before going into the garden, the Lord Jesus gave His disciples the weapon against temptation: PRAYER. According to Mark 14, eight of His disciples stayed at the entrance to the garden. Three of them, Peter, James and John, went into the Garden with Him a little further, but only the Lord Jesus went all the way in, alone. A sign that only He could accomplish the impossible for humans.
In v.40 we read, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." To pray that we will not be pile-drived by temptation is the answer. Though we have been forgiven, and though we have been made new in Christ, we’re like Lazarus. We came out of the grave; we have new life, but we stink. We have our dirty grave clothes on. We are citizens of heaven, trapped in unredeemed bodies. And we are seduced by the remnants of our fallenness. The temptation is to hold onto sin and not invest in His righteousness.
The power of evil is still strong in the believer in Christ, even though we have been born again and the Holy Spirit dwells within. We struggle because sin still dwells within us. Our battle is to fight against our natural attraction to sin, to fight against our fallenness, and to kill it and embrace Him.
The Lord Jesus struggled with temptation in exactly the opposite way as we do. He struggled because He was and is holy. We struggle with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. He struggled against three impulses: holy, holy, holy. Whereas we try to abandon sin and embrace holiness, He was being tempted to NOT embrace being the sin bearer.
In v.42 we read, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." It was not the will of the Father for Him to NOT take the cup. There will always be a certain agony in legitimate prayer. The only way we can overcome the flesh is by yielding ourselves to the will of the Father. In the Old Testament, the "cup" is associated with judgment of God. This is the cup the Lord Jesus had in mind, the cup of suffering, agony, pain, and wrath. He did not do this for Himself, He did it for you and me.
In v.43 we read, "An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him." There were only two times in the life of the Lord Jesus when angels showed up to directly help Him. The first time was during His temptation in the wilderness. The second time, during His temptation in the garden of Gethsemane. In both cases the angel affirmed Him, reminding Him that His Father was totally committed to Him.
In v.44 we read, "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." The agony the Lord Jesus experienced in Gethsemane describes combat unto death. The medical term Luke used here describes the stretching of muscles to the max of their capabilities. His anguish expressed itself in tremendous sweating. It was the Spring of the year, thus it was not very hot. Yet, He sweat profusely as if He were bleeding.
In v.45 we read, "When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow." The sleepiness of the disciples was an argument from God to the Lord Jesus that only He could endure the cross for man's salvation.And so, Theo agony the Lord Jesus escalated. He agonized in prayer and then He went back to find the disciples asleep. Then He goes back and continues and goes through that process until finally His agony is over. The sleepiness of the disciples was undoubtedly a reminder to Him that we could not endure the cross like He. Satan had given his best shot, he tried to divert the Lord Jesus from the will of God, but the Lord Jesus prevailed.
The disciples yielded to temptation because they could not endure in prayer. In addition, they were exhausted by the sorrow. It was after this that the Lord Jesus set out to go to the cross where He crushed the head of the serpent. At His cross, He did what we could never do, He was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
