Expository Thoughts
cannot avoid the attack, but we are not obliged to give way to it. We cannot prevent temptation coming to us, but it is our own fault if we fall to it.
42. "This cup." Doddridge says about this word, "It was customary among the ancients to assign to each guest at a feast a particular cup, as well as a dish, and by the kind and quantity of the liquor contained in it, the respect of the entertained was expressed. Hence the word 'cup' came in general to signify a portion assigned, whether of pleasure or sorrow." (See Psalm 11:6 [KJV]; 73:10 [KJV]: 75:8; Isaiah
51:17; Jeremiah 25:15; Matthew 20:23.)
"Not my will, but yours be done." At no period in our Lord's earthly ministry does the reality of his manhood come out so clearly as in his agony in the garden and his death on the cross. As man, he endured temptation for us and overcame Satan; as man he showed the intensity of his sufferings by bloody sweat, strong crying, and tears; as man he was thirsty on the cross and said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The infinite merit of his passion unquestionably arose from the inseparable union of his Godhead and his manhood. But the nature which is most prominently brought before us in his passion is his nature as man.
43. An angel from heaven appeared. This verse gives additional proof that our Lord was really man. As man, he was for a little time "made a little lower than the angels" (Hebrews 2:9). As man, he condescended to receive comfort from angelic ministry. As man, he was willing to receive an expression of sympathy from angels which the weakness of his disciples prevented them from giving.
44. In anguish. Hundreds of martyrs have suffered the most painful