He went out and made His way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. When He reached the place, He told them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me — nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He got up from prayer and came to the disciples, He found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief. “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:39-46 — Holman Christian Standard Bible)
To understand Jesus’ prayer to His Father, remember that He came into the world as a physical man who felt hunger, thirst and weariness just like all of us. He was tempted by Satan and sin just as we are, though He never gave in to sin. He lived by faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit to show us that we can live in that same power available to us all.
This was the night of his betrayal and arrest, the night before facing the horrors of the cross. As excruciating as the physical pain would be, the true anguish of His soul was the knowledge that he was about to bear all the world's sin, and become a curse. The Anointed One would willingly allow Himself to become a filthy, vile curse, so that God His Father would be forced to reject Him and turn His face away. He would do this out of love for us, to carry our punishment so we won’t have to. This anguish caused Jesus to ask His Father for another way other than the cross. Yet He still submitted Himself to the Father's will. An angel was sent to strengthen Him, and He arose from prayer ready to suffer so that we might be saved.
In the midst of His suffering, facing the abandonment of His Father, He called His closest disciples to stay with Him and pray, but even they let Him down. They had no concept of the agony their master was going through and how much He needed their faith to boost His own. This is a concept hard to grasp, that God Himself could be so human and so much in need of the prayers of others. Yet even though He was totally abandoned by all, He remained determined to obey His Father and become that ultimate sacrifice to destroy the power of all sin and evil in this world.
Jesus knew every human emotion, every struggle that we go through as flesh and blood. He never sinned, which means that even though we struggle and experience attacks on our emotions, we have a God in Heaven who knows exactly what we are going through, and who does not condemn us for our struggles. Even more, He shows us that we always have a way to escape sin if we determine to obey Him no matter what our feelings try to dictate. Had Jesus not obeyed His Father, the unthinkable would have happened: He would have defiled Himself by sinning, and Satan would have defeated God. There would have been no perfect sacrifice, no victory against the devil and no hope for salvation. Praise God that Jesus obeyed!
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