Please, as we ponder the text here carefully, notice several things.

Firstly, Christ becomes very sorrowful when He enters the garden of Gethsemane. He is not already sorrowful when He approaches the garden and enters it with His disciples; this is not a sorrow that continues in Him from earlier in the evening. Neither is this the troubling of His soul from several days earlier when He said, "Now is my soul troubled." (Jn 12:27) The sorrow "began" in Him once the four of them -- Peter, James, John, and Christ -- were alone there in the garden. It is after He has separated Peter, James and John from the other disciples and has taken them aside that He, "began to be sorrowful and very heavy." (v. 37)

Secondly, note that the sorrow is born by His soul, not by His Spirit, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful," and notice that the sorrow in His soul is of such a nature that He is very near physical death because of it: He is "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (v. 38). This is not a natural sorrow -- not a sorrow from this realm; we have not experienced any intensity such as this. While it is true that many of His children have become so sad and depressed that they have had no more will to live, as far as we know no one besides Christ has ever been so sad that the sadness itself came near to squeezing the very life out of them. Carefully notice that He was not so sad that He wanted to die; He was so sorrowful in His soul that the sorrow itself came very near to killing Him: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." (v.38)

Thirdly, He deliberately and specifically asks His Father to, "let this cup pass from me." (v. 39) In His prayer, though Christ does qualify His request by saying, "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," one should not deny the fact that Christ makes the request, and that He does so passionately. He is consciously and purposefully asking the Father to do something for Him: "let this cup pass from me." Do not hedge here by saying that Jesus Christ is not really asking to have this cup taken away since He says, "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." One must be honest with the text: Christ does ask His Father to take this cup away from Him.

Neither is this a half-hearted thing with Jesus; He gives Himself to beseeching His Father in the matter of this cup for three long and arduous hours. He fully commits Himself to asking the Almighty to take this cup away from Him so that He will not have to drink it. We're hesitant to squarely face this truth because we assume that the Cross is the cup ... and we do not want to see Christ passionately giving Himself to turning from His Father's purpose here. Yet we do well to face this fact now ... soberly and deeply. Let us establish this truth in our hearts: Christ passionately pleads with God the Father to remove this cup from Himself ... He desires this with His whole heart. Do not try to protect Him by twisting the passage; He does not need it.

Out in the light of our inspection here, as we reconsider all this, really now ... does a half-hearted betrayal of the eternal plan fare any better in Christ? I think not.

Fourthly, notice that in His submission to His Father, Christ plainly does not appear to know for certain what the Father's response will be: He says, "If it be possible." (v. 39) Christ is not confidently approaching the Father as He has always done in the past, as if He knows His Father's ultimate intent for Him in this matter. This is not to be taken as a general questioning of the Father's ability; Yeshua is asking for something that His Father might not be willing to give to Him, and He is willing to go without His Father's granting of His request if that is what His Father wants. His will in the matter is plainly stated: He would like for His Father to remove this cup from Him. Christ is not sure if His Father will be willing to do this or not. He does not know if His Father will answer Him by giving Him what He is asking for, or whether His Father will refuse Him. He is willing to submit to His Father either way.

The better one knows Jesus Christ, the more earnest the struggle in meditation here. Only those who have fashioned an image of Christ after their own weakness will find this type of prayer natural to Him. While we have come to accept confusion and ignorance of the Father's will as a common friend in prayer, let us not continue to delude ourselves concerning the nature of Christ's own life of prayer. We will only find this quality in Him in this one incident; evidently, it has happened neither before nor since – it would appear that this is the only time Christ ever felt this way before His Father. There is a vast treasure here -- and it is not to be found in His "humanity coming out" ... as many suggest.  In fact, it cannot be unreasonable to claim that this experience is the essence of Christ's deity coming out -- and that it is an indescribably glorious victory for Him. There is nothing in Him that we may not inquire into with confidence. He will never be a disappointment to us.

Fifthly, the phrase, "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak", pertains not just to the sleepy disciples, it must pertain to Christ as well. He does not say, "Your spirits;" He is purposefully generic here. The preface, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation," is not merely an admonition to the disciples to prepare for imminent danger; this is also an explanation of what He Himself is doing and what He Himself is going through. Their experience is just a shallow reflection of His own deep struggle. His Spirit is indeed willing, but His flesh is weak. He is exhorting them to follow His example. He Himself is rising to watch and pray – that the Father will remove this cup from Him -- so that He will not be overcome and defeated in this hour of temptation and trial. He is following His own counsel here, encouraging His disciples to do as He is doing, since they are all in a similar struggle together. Christ's is a trial of sorrow; theirs is one of drowsiness. What? Do we suppose that He gives His disciples spiritual direction that He Himself neglects?

This drowsiness that Peter, James, John and the rest of the disciples are fighting is also not a natural sleepiness, as is evident from the context. Peter was a very intense young man, and he and James and John had doubtless spent many restless, sleepless nights in prayer with Christ. They felt the importance of the hour, and their blood had been boiling for a fight as they had entered the garden. They had been warned of the betrayal, of the denials, of the scattering ... that it would be His last meal with them. Their swords were drawn in hand and they were fully intending to draw blood before the night was over.

The trio wanted desperately to please their Master in this matter of watchful prayer and very likely planned to cooperate and work together in praying with Him ... especially in the second round. Make no mistake -- they were not just sleepy from a long day on the road and a nice evening meal. They were as eager to obey Christ as they had ever been.

Lastly, and in particular, notice in this text in Matthew that Jesus never tells us what the cup is. He never says that it is the cross. We have assumed this; most of us have never thought any other way about it. Yet the concept is imposed this on the text: it is not there. Let us take our time here -- search for it carefully so that we will be firmly convinced of this. Such an assumption need not be made.

Next, let's go to Mark 14:32-42:

32And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, "Sit ye here, while I shall pray." ³³And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; ³⁴And saith unto them, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch." ³⁵And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. ³⁶And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." ³⁷And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, "Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? ³⁸Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak." ³⁹ And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. ⁴⁰And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. ⁴¹And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come: behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴²Rise up, let us go: lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand."

We get a little more insight here in Mark. Christ uses a different word to describe what is going on inside of Himself: He ... "began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy." (v. 34) It is as if He is surprised at this profound sorrow and heaviness, and the intensity of it overwhelms Him visibly in the presence of His three friends. The sorrow is not a panicking sorrow, as if He is in danger and wishes to flee, but this is a debilitating, soul crushing heaviness.

In Matthew He poses, "If it be possible," yet here He renders it, "All things are possible unto thee." (v. 36). It is not the ability or power of His Father that Yeshua  is uneasy about; it is His Father's will that Christ senses He might become opposed by.

Also, the deliberate clarity of Yeshua's request is a bit more obvious here, in case we were still unsure about it while studying Matthew: "take away this cup from me." (v. 36) He focuses intensely before His Father in this matter during these long hours of prayer. It seems to be the only matter on His heart at the time ... it was evidently extremely important to Him.

When He returns the second time and finds His disciples asleep, the three, Peter, James and John, are left absolutely speechless: "neither wist they what to answer him." They have already been embarrassed once ... do we suppose that they lightly reclined again to snooze as He went back to prayer? Something unusual is happening in them. Christ seldom asked them to do anything for Him; as far as we can see, He has never before asked them to pray with Him like this!

There is incredible anticipation in the air -- remember, He has just told the whole band that one of the twelve will betray Him this very evening ... He has hinted at the struggle that is to come upon them and they have swords drawn in hand. Each of them have purposed to stand with Him with all of their being ... unto death if need be. Yes, they are giving it their very best, these burley fishermen are. Many nights they have fished all night without a yawn. With all the adrenaline flowing this should not be such a reach for them and they know it. They are more confounded than embarrassed, and for good reason.

We also find another word for Christ being "willing" here, "the spirit truly is ready" (v. 38). Ready for what? Peter is ready and eager to pray with Him, he is ready to die for Him ... what about Christ Himself? What is He ready for? Could He have been any less ready than Peter ... to obey? ... to follow through with the plans that He has made with His Father from eternity past? Jesus Christ is ready too, obviously. If His Spirit is indeed willing ... if in the core of His Being -- in His very heart -- He is united and "ready" ... why is He asking to have this cup taken away from Him? Interesting?

Finally, in asking that the "cup" be taken away, Christ prays that "the hour might pass from him." (v. 35) These two things are equivalent: the cup being taken away from Him, and the hour passing from Him. Which hour is He asking to be delivered from here? The hour of the Cross? The hour in the Garden? Some other hour? Which hour? He does not say, does He? The hour is the cup : it is a period of time in which He would experience (or was experiencing) something extremely undesirable. It is Christ's earnest longing before His Father to be delivered from this experience, or some aspect of it, whatever it is.

On to Luke 22:39-46, where we find more treasure.

39And He came out, and went as He was wont, to the mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. ⁴⁰And when he was at the place, He said unto them, "Pray that ye enter not into temptation." ⁴¹And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, ⁴²saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." ⁴³And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. ⁴⁵And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, ⁴⁶and said unto them, "Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation."

We have here further confirmation that it is the Father's will with Christ that is the issue in this mysterious prayer: "Father, if thou be willing." (v. 42a) There is also further confirmation that Christ is deliberately and clearly asking His Father to deliver Him from something: "Father ... remove this cup from me." (v. 42b)

We have two additional facts in Luke that are well worth noting. During this time of prayer an angel comes to Christ's side to give Him strength: "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." (v. 43). Physically, He is very weak and He needs supernatural strength from His Father just to continue praying, which the Father provides for Him through the ministering angel.

Christ is, "in an agony" as He prays to His Father. As the Father strengthens Him and enables Him through this angel, Christ begins to pray even "more earnestly." He is not being hesitant, half-hearted or double-minded about this fervent request before His Father. What Christ is asking of the Father He longs for with all of His Being, and the more strength the Father supplies to Christ the more intensely and earnestly Christ entreats His Father to deliver Him -- to take away this cup from Him.

It is with strong emotion that Yeshua labors in prayer before His Father, which struggle results in profuse sweating as He strains in His agony. Christ's entire frame is rigidly taught in the trembling and strain of the conflict; the tension in His visage is such that many blood vessels are rupturing near the surface of His facial skin, mixing blood into His sweat as it pours off of Him onto the ground. He is "resisting unto blood, striving against sin." (Heb 12:4) What sin is Christ striving against, as He seeks with all of His holy Heart to be delivered from this cup?

Consider His example here, as He has instructed us: "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." (Heb 12:3) As we consider Christ's example in the Garden of Gethsemane as described in the above texts, are we encouraged by the fact that He deliberately and repeatedly and passionately asked to have this cup removed so that He would not have to drink it? Do we find this profoundly attractive? ... as we meditate on this in our Messiah ... that He earnestly and fervently desired to be delivered from this cup? Is He the perfect Pattern for us to follow in resisting temptation and sin? In being selfless and unflinchingly obedient in all things? Do we find Him to be an unspeakably glorious Hero on our behalf in this trial? Are we awed at His passionate submission to His Father's plan for Him? We ought to be.

Or do we rejoice in finding double-mindedness in Him ... in the Garden? After an endless eternal past of waiting to fulfill His Father's will, shall He endure the rest of eternity to come – poised in the midst of the majestic throne – glorying in the fact that He tried to get out of the entire plan at the last moment? Was He a coward in the end? Was He afraid? Was He double-minded? Was He really -- at this awesome moment -- a desperately unwilling sacrifice for us?

Can we not see -- in Him -- anything higher than this?

Does His single-mindedness overwhelm us as Jesus Christ pursues His Father's purpose in sending Him to Earth -- to give His life a ransom for many? Why not? Perhaps it is because we have never understood what He went through and what He was doing there ... on His holy face ... in the dirt of that Garden.

When Christ asked His Father to remove this cup from Him, was He praying according to the will of His Father?  Was Christ's will ever different from His Father's will? He never sought anything but His Father's will ... before, during, or after the Garden of Gethsemane. "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (Jn 6:38) "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." (Jn 4:34) As He prayed to have this cup removed from Him, Jesus Christ was seeking His Father's will as He had revealed it to Him from eternity past: Christ's will was exactly the same as His Father's will.

When Yeshua asked His Father to remove this cup from Him, was He praying this by His own strength or by His Father's strength? By whose strength was Christ praying as He labored in agony in the garden? Did He not say, "I can of mine own self do nothing?" (Jn 5:30) "The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." (Jn 14:10) As He prayed to have this cup removed from Him, He was praying by His Father's strength. This prayer itself was the Father's work in Christ.

When Christ asked His Father to remove this cup from Him, was He praying this at His Father's bidding or on His own initiative? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." (Jn 5:19) "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." (Jn 6:29) As He prayed to have this cup removed from Him, He was being moved to do this through His Father's initiative; He was not praying or acting in self-will.

Do we suppose that His Father was pleased with His Son's request that He remove this cup from Him? "I do always those things that please him." (Jn 8:29) As Christ prayed to have this cup removed from Him, His Father was exceedingly pleased.

As His Father looked at the course of Christ's entire life in all of its detail, from outside of time and space -- including Christ's request in the Garden – His request for His Father to remove this cup from Himself so that He would not drink it -- was there anything at all that was displeasing to God the Father? "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." (Mat 3:17) There was absolutely nothing in Christ's entire being at any time that did not cause His Father to gloriously rejoice in Him -- not even in the garden! How about us? Do we delightfully rejoice, like His Father does, in the fact that Christ so passionately asked to have this cup removed from Himself?

Was Christ asking for this cup to be removed in faith? Did He pray in faith to have this cup removed? "Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin." (Rom 14:23) As He prayed to have this cup removed from Himself, Christ was praying in faith, in trust. He was praying according to His Father's revealed purpose. He was praying in faith, believing in His Father's promises to Him, and He was asking His Father to be faithful to Him.

Did Christ waver or hesitate in seeking to finish His Father's work? "No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62) Is Christ, the King, unfit for the kingdom? "A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways." (James 5:8) Is Jesus Christ really unstable in all of His ways? No, He never did hesitate or waver for an instant, not even as He prayed to have this cup removed from Himself. There has never been anything in Him but a fervent passion to obey and please His Father.

We do not yet have all of the facts -- there is much more. Consider for a moment His teaching to us about cross-bearing. One day, Christ told His disciples very emphatically that they were not to tell anyone that He was the Christ, since it was sovereignly intended that He be rejected and put to death by His own people. He reinforced the goodness of this plan by telling them how important it was that they also deny themselves and be willing to lay down their own lives. Anyone loving his life would certainly lose their life.

"He said unto them, 'But whom say ye that I am?' Peter answering said, 'The Christ of God.' And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; saying, 'The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.' And he said to them, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." (Luke 9:20-24)

Consider this teaching of Christ in light of His prayer in the Garden. After giving us instruction to lose our life, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow Him, was He seeking to get out of taking His own cross as He approached it? Is that the kind of example we think He left us? In which He wholeheartedly calls us to follow Him?

This same incident is also recorded in Matthew 16:20-25, where more interesting detail is given. Peter, after identifying Him as the Messiah and being encouraged in this, also aggressively suggested that He should not eagerly embrace His cross. There is much to be drawn from this text, so we will open it bit by bit as we go along.

"From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Notice, He was no stranger to the trial that His Father had laid out before Him. He was fully aware of what was to come, and He had fully set His heart to obey His Father in it.

However, "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.'" Peter was thinking like we have accused Christ of thinking, really ... that there just might be some other way, that He might not have to endure this cross with all of its shame and suffering. After all, isn't this what we have been accusing Christ of thinking and praying for? What was He doing there in the garden, if He wasn't trying to get out of going to the Cross ... if He wasn't looking for some way out? Haven't we laid the thoughts of Peter in Christ's own breast as if He were warm to them in His own Being?

What do we suppose Christ's thoughts were in response to this suggestion of Peter -- the mere possibility of not going to the cross to die for us? Was it something that He Himself had been contemplating? Was this suffering and dying a cost He had not already counted, a pain that He had not yet deeply considered and resolved completely? Did Peter's suggestion draw His attention to some faint hope of escape that He had been cradling in His own bosom? Do we think that Jesus would find some rich communion with Peter in this, as Peter sought to protect Him from such vile abuse and cruelty? Read on.

"But he turned, and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me ...'" (Mat 16:23a) Please, dear bride of Jesus Christ ... take a good sober look at this! What was Christ's reaction to the suggestion that He would not go to the cross for us?

How can there any doubt in our minds concerning how Jesus Christ feels about this? Is there some way that He could have been more emphatic about it?

Is there any doubt where this suggestion came from? who thought of it first? Was it found in the Father? Was it birthed in Christ? Most obviously not; this thought was from Satan. It was so directly from Satan that Christ called Peter a name for having been a vehicle for its utterance: Christ labeled him. Yeshua called Peter, "Satan." Please, let it be plain to us that this is no light thing with our Lord. Can we think of a time when He responded more harshly to anyone else? over anything else? as He responded to Peter in this incident?

It was in response to this satanic suggestion that Christ taught His disciples the essence of cross bearing and suffering. First, He explained that the essence of Peter's error was in the fact that his tastes, affections and longings were in the wrong place: "for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (Mat 16:23b) It was Peter's carnal thinking that had been the avenue for Satan's deception. For Christ to have taken Peter's suggestion to heart, as we've claimed He did in the garden, would imply that Christ's own heart affections were misplaced like Peter's were.

If a heart filled with wrong affections had been the opportunity for the satanic suggestion in Peter, would we draw the same conclusion for Christ? In asking to have this cup  removed from Him, would we find Christ relishing the things of men instead of the things of His Father? Would we find Jesus Christ a dupe to Satan's wiles?

To emphasize His point, as Christ rebukes Peter for his evil thinking, Christ immediately expands His address to the rest of His disciples -- for they were all in agreement with Peter and needed some very pointed instruction in this matter of cross-bearing. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.'" (Mat 16: 24-25) There was no reservation in Christ's Spirit as He bid them to follow Him in carrying His cross – none whatsoever.

As He bids them, and us, to take up our crosses and come after Him, does He turn from His goal with all of us following in His tracks behind Him? As we pursue Him ... do we expect Him to waver and hesitate?

Nay! Do we think to have Him turn clean out of the way in front of us all?

As He exhorts His slumbering friends in the Garden, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation," He should certainly be doing the same, should He not?  We observe that He does give Himself to earnest and watchful prayer ... watching lest He Himself enter into temptation. If it be true that any facet of the temptation He faces is yielding to a hesitation and a reluctance to be crucified on our behalf, then it is certainly true – if indeed this cup  is His cross -- that He is NOT successfully resisting this temptation at all when He is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Avoiding this cup  is what He is passionately giving Himself to doing! He resists this cup  with His whole heart ... with all of the earnestness of His entire Being. If this cup  is His cross, then He fails miserably in resisting this part of His temptation just as His disciples fail in their slumbering: it clearly implies that He enters fully into this temptation and is overwhelmed and overtaken in it, instead of resisting it.

Doesn't it appall us that our Lord has been accused of doing such a thing? Do we think for one minute that He would not be a perfect example for us in this? -- Jesus, the "Author and Finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame?" (Heb 12:2)

Christ does not intend for us to see within Himself a hesitance and an unwillingness in carrying His own cross. The student cannot rise above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord. Many of His disciples throughout the centuries have passionately embraced fierce suffering for His Name's sake; He has suffered with them and in them. Yet, in a context of this rich heritage of faithful martyrs which is left for us, His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is perhaps the greatest example of submission and obedience in cross-bearing that anyone could ever leave us -- He does so deeply want us all to see Him, in all of His ways, as He truly is. Could we really expect it to be otherwise?

About a week before He would take up His cross for us, Jesus Christ openly and publicly discussed the issue that rises in the shadow of a request that the cross be removed from Him. In John 12:27-28 He say, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour': but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name."

Notice that Christ has already rejected the idea that there is any other path for Him in this matter of the cross. Though it is true, at this point in His earthly life, that the prospect of being separated from His Father and crushed on our behalf is troubling to His soul, let it be plain that the matter is already deeply settled within Him before He ever steps foot in the garden. Though He is troubled, He is not at all sorrowful at this time and He has no regret or hesitation in His Spirit about what He has been called upon to suffer for us. He is not going to ask His Father to remove the cross from Him and He tells this openly to the world. His death has been planned from eternity past and it is the central purpose of His coming, " for this cause came I unto this hour." He has thought about it resolutely, and He has utterly, passionately and wholeheartedly rejected the idea that there is any other path for Him. He does not waver, even though He is troubled. The cross is going to be painful, unspeakably painful. Yet, He is resolved: "Father, glorify thy name."

His Father's response is, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The Father and the Son are one in this matter. They have always been. They still are. They always will be. It has never been otherwise; not at any time.

In this example of prayer Christ has left us a pattern, a pattern that blends nicely with the instruction He has given us all on prayer. He has told us that if we ask for anything according to His Father's will, God will hear us and give us what we are asking for from Him.  We are told to be confident that this is true; "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (1 John 5:14-15) As He prayed to have this cup  removed from Himself, Christ's will was exactly the same as His Father's will. He met the conditions for answered prayer that He has given to us, and His prayer was answered. When He asked His Father to "take away this cup from me," His Father did so. When Christ asked that the hour might pass from Him, it did. He did not drink this cup.

Let us now summarize the above. When Messiah asked His Father to remove this cup from Himself, He was praying according to His Father's will. His will was exactly the same as the Father's and They both wanted the exact same thing, just as They always have from eternity past. There was no schism between Them, no disharmony: there was a like-mindedness and a unity and an accord -- as always. Their fellowship was never strained or broken. Christ was praying by His Father's strength and by His direction, with His initiative, at His bidding and for His pleasure -- just like always. While Christ was agonizing in prayer before His Father, Christ moved within the sphere of His Father's perfect will for Him and Their oneness was never put aside. It was the Father in Christ Who prayed that prayer within Him; They were one in Their purpose. Jesus Christ never hesitated or wavered for even an instant in considering what needed to be done to ransom us. There was full, unflinching, unbroken, passionate resolution in His Spirit.

He has shown us that He was praying according to His Father's will, and He has shown us that prayers in the Father's will are granted. Thus, He has shown us that His Father answered His prayer in the garden. When Christ asked His Father to remove this cup  from Himself, the Father said "Yes," and He did remove this cup  from Him. Christ did not drink it. That cup was not His cross ... it was not our cross. That was not the issue with Christ at all. It was something else altogether that Christ wished to be delivered from ... and He was delivered from it.

The cross is the centerpiece of God's design, the hinge upon which all of His working moves and swings. He was filled with the cross from eternity past ... and Christ is moved to a deep, indignant rage over the suggestion that He should not go to the cross for us! Do not think He wanted to escape it in the garden! Do not think to find Him a vehicle for satanic suggestion in prayer before His Father ... concerning the central purpose and design of His very incarnation! Do not ever again suggest that in His "humanity" Jesus Christ prayed "earnestly" for something that had been suggested to Him by Satan himself.

Isn't it nice to be free of this? He loves us deeply ... Oh! He wants us to know Him! Begin to study Him with an earnest heart. He will be found by all who pursue Him. Let us not be strangers in the clouds when He comes for us. There is no need for that.

We have not yet looked at the single passage that unlocks the priceless treasure buried here for us, and points us to the resolution of this mystery of His garden prayer. Any idea where such a scripture might be? It is not in the Gospels: try Hebrews 5:7-9:

"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."

This passage, more than any other, describes what happened in Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane that awesome night. This short passage unravels the mystery of the Garden experience. Each word is rich with "de light." Let's go through it phrase by phrase.

"Who ... " is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the subject of the previous sentences in verses 5 and 6. "... in the days of his flesh, " describing a scene in His earthly sojourn. "... when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears," a description of His experience in the Garden.

The garden prayer is the only place revealed in God's Word in which Christ experiences offering up "prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears." Here, in Hebrews, God refers to this incident -- of offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears -- as an incident we ought to be familiar with, so that He might illustrate for us Christ's pattern of obedience and suffering through it. If we are expected to be familiar with an event that God is referring to, and He only describes one remotely like it in all of the information we have been given about Him, then He must be referring to this event we know about. This phrase must therefore reference His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. So it does.

"... unto him that was able to save him from death," Christ was addressing His Father as the One Who was able to save Him from death, because that is what He wanted Him to do: save Himself from death. His soul was, "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Christ did not want to die in the garden. Something, someone, or many "someones" were wickedly threatening His very life in the garden. He was in very real danger of literally dying right there in front of His disciples. Naturally, and yes ... even supernaturally, Yeshua desired from His Father deliverance. Christ sought His Father's aid with all of the earnestness in His entire Being, in order to be delivered from a senseless, bloodless death in the garden of Gethsemane.

During this incredible experience, Christ said to His Father repeatedly, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." This does not imply that Christ's will was ever different from His Father's. It is an expression of the fact that His will would remain oriented toward that which was pleasing to His Father. In every situation They face together, the same things always please Them both, but it is the Father's pleasure that orients Them all, not the Son's pleasure. Their Mind and Will is governed by what is pleasing to the Father, not the Son. Since Their hearts are perfectly united, what pleases the Father pleases the Son as well, but that is really of no consequence in providing direction for Their work together. Christ regularly submits to His Father's pleasure instead of His own, and it is always pleasing to Christ to do so: "My Father is greater than I." (Jn 14:28)

In this matter of His cross, of our cross, Christ wanted to die for us so passionately that it was appropriate for Him to openly express to His Father that it would continue to be His Father's will that would direct Him. He would not deliver Himself from death in the garden even though He would have been defeated by an untimely death had He died there. Though He did not have within Himself the natural physical strength He needed to endure the torment, He would not be self-willed in His desire to follow His Father. Christ cast Himself wholly on the will of His Father -- so much so that if the Father had changed His mind and had withdrawn from Christ concerning the plans They had made together from the foundation of the world, Christ would have yielded to His Father -- and Christ the Son would have died right there on His face in the dirt. He was not willing to be unfaithful to His Father, yet He was willing to yield to His Father if His Father became unfaithful to Him. The Father was not unfaithful -- He is true to His nature ... to Their nature.

Something necessary and rare was taking place in Christ the Son during this agony -- He was shedding the knowledge of His Father's will for Him concerning the central reason of His coming to Earth. Christ laid aside His knowledge of His Father's faithfulness and left Himself vulnerably prostrate before His Father's will. Everything Christ stood for, had prepared for, and had followed after was laid out and yielded up to His Father to do with as He wished. There were no rules; there were no demands. Christ waited for three long hours before the Father, in death defying sorrow, longing to go to a cross that might be taken away from Him. Christ faced the very real possibility of lying down in the dirt of that garden never to rise again, a complete and utter failure ... a vast divine waste. He was obedient, even unto an eternal, purposeless death. This was an indescribable victory, it was not ... "His humanity coming out." This type of blind yieldedness is the essence of cross bearing ... it is an essential part of His deity, and His rich example to us.

"... and was heard in that he feared," His Father saw His Son's fear of Him, His reverence for Him, His respect for Him, His utter and complete submission to Him, and the Father heard His beloved Son. God the Father is true and He does not change, even when openly given the "freedom" to do so. Absolutely nothing "constrains" our Father to act ... His own holy nature never moves: "with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning." (Jas 1:17b) The Father was not ever constrained by Christ's will in this matter even though They had wholeheartedly agreed to the crucifixion plan from eternity past. Christ did not demand deliverance from His Father when a lethally oppressive sorrow threatened this plan; Christ would not be self-willed in dying for us -- though this is what He personally longed for with all of His divine Being. Of His Father's own purpose and glory the Father answered Christ's prayer and delivered His Son from death.

Yes, Jesus Christ did not die in the garden. His prayers were answered by the angel coming to strengthen Him. His Father did this for Him so that He could go to the cross. This cup  Yeshua dreaded to drink was not that of going to the cross, it was that of not going to the cross! not being allowed to go to the cross!

"... though he were a Son," even though Christ was His Father's Son, His Father's image, and His Father's very Life ... all the Father's fullness dwells in Christ (Col 2:9), "... yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered:" Christ was put into a situation where He learned by experience to become obedient completely outside of His own will and understanding. This appears to be the first and only time that this occurred in Christ: He was brought to vulnerably release His knowledge of His Father's purpose for Him and openly admit to being uncertain of His Father's response. Though we are regularly uncertain of our Father's response to us as we seek His will in prayer, Christ would have us know that this is an incredibly profound event with Him.

Though both He and His Father wanted the same thing, Christ was moved to lay aside His understanding of His Father's will and blindly obey His Father. He could not actually see His Father's ultimate will in that moment of time. From Christ's limited human perspective at that moment, if the Father had not received Christ's prayer in the garden, Christ perceived that He would have died right there, and He yielded to this eternal disaster obediently, and voluntarily. He would not be self-willed in going to the cross for us; He was willing to obey His Father even if it meant wasting the entire purpose of His coming, dying as a failure in the garden, and leaving the promises eternally unfulfilled: Christ was willing to not go to the cross in His surrender to His Father's will. That surrender to the Father was complete and perfect.

 "... and being made perfect," The Father's work in His Son, preparing Him as our Savior, was completed in this experience. It was something appropriate for Messiah to endure for us ... for He calls some of His children to do this at times. It is profoundly shattering ... as we ourselves may come to know.

"... he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." It was shortly after this that He authored and completed our salvation by dying in our place on our cross. He suffered everything that we would have ever been called upon to suffer for all of eternity had He not done this for us. He has completely ingested this cup of His Father's wrath for us -- this cup that still has our name upon it. It is empty now, there is nothing left for us to drink ... not even the taste of that bitter potion remains. That cup of ours is clean. It cannot harm us now. All of its devastating power was unleashed in Him. We are free.

When He sees us face to face ... there will be no shame in Him from His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. As He looks into our eyes, and as we gaze into His ... as He takes us up in His Arms ... we will know Him as He knows us. Then we will see how pure and selfless He is, and always has been. We will know how perfect and complete was His longing to become our sin and set us free. We will see His unbroken passion toward us, as an eternal Being outside of time and space. His heart has never changed toward us -- not even for an instant -- not even in the most intense suffering. He has loved us with an everlasting love, a sacrificial love. We have no idea how much. Our eyes and heart must be veiled somewhat in this ... in sensing the length and breadth and depth and height of His love for us. It would mar our dusty frames beyond repair if we saw His love for us unveiled, and He would have to bring us home before our time. We taste what He gives us as we walk together, and relish what we can for now. Soon though, He will show us His love in all of its intense fullness. It won't be long. Then ... we will be one ... no more veil ... and He will pour out His love in us without measure or restraint.