C. The agony (22:39–46)
C. The agony (22:39–46)
Luke locates the agony only on the Mount of Olives (Matthew and Mark tell us that it was at Gethsemane). His account is quite short. Where the other Synoptists tell us that Jesus went away and prayed three times and record what he said between the first and second occasions, Luke condenses the story and gives us just one example of Jesus’ prayer. Unlike them, too, he does not tell of Jesus’ singling out of Peter and James and John. He emphasizes the prayer of Jesus rather than the failure of the apostles. Godet sees the incident as very important, for it differentiates the sacrifice of the freely consenting Jesus from those of animals with no say in the matter. ‘At Gethsemane Jesus did not drink the cup; He consented to drink it.’ The real battle was fought here.
39. Luke tells us neither that Jesus went to a garden, nor that it was called Gethsemane. He simply says that he went to the Mount of Olives. But he adds that this was Jesus’ custom. Evidently throughout this week, and perhaps at other times also, it had been Jesus’ habit to spend the night on the slopes of this hill.
40. The other Evangelists speak of Jesus’ own prayers, but Luke tells us that he first instructed the disciples to pray, that you may not enter into temptation (cf. 46; in Matthew and Mark this instruction comes between Jesus’ first and second times of prayer). This last word may mean temptation to sin, or, as some take it, a time of severe testing, an ordeal. The disciples should seek to be preserved from both.
41–42. Jesus prayed alone. The custom of the time was to pray standing with the eyes raised to heaven (cf. 18:11, 13), but on this specially solemn occasion Jesus knelt down. His prayer reveals a natural human shrinking from the awful death that lay ahead of him and thus he asks that, if the Father is willing, this cup be removed. The cup has associations of suffering and of the wrath of God (cf. Ps. 11:6; Isa. 51:17; Ezek. 23:33). It was no easy task to which Jesus looked forward, but his prayer centres on the Father’s will (rather than on his being spared). He prays that God’s will may be done and specifically he says not my will. This does mean that his will is in opposition to that of the Father: the very praying of this prayer shows that it is not. But this is a strong affirmation of his desire that the Father’s will may prevail.
43–44. Some very good MSS omit these verses and RSV2 puts them in the margin; but the probability is that they should be included. In a day when scribes were sure of the deity of their Lord, some would find difficulty in the thought of his being strengthened by an angel, and they would see the striking details of the agony as pointing to a Jesus all too human. There would be every reason for omitting the words if they were original, but it is difficult indeed to imagine an early scribe inserting them in a text that lacked them. Schweizer is impressed by the language: the words are ‘stylistically so Lukan that they could hardly have been written later’. They are well attested and should be accepted (so NIV). At this critical moment then angelic strength supplemented Jesus’ human resources. We get some indication of the intensity of his feeling when we read of sweat like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. The word agony is found here only in the New Testament. Why was Jesus in such perturbation as he faced death? Others, including many who owe their inspiration to the Master, have faced death quite calmly. It cannot be death as such that caused this tremendous depth of feeling. Rather it was the kind of death that Jesus would die, that death in which he was forsaken by God (Mark 14:34), in which God made him to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).
45–46. When Jesus returned to the disciples after this harrowing experience he found them sleeping for sorrow, ‘worn out by grief ’ as NEB puts it. It must have added to his trial that at this critical moment his closest followers were so insensitive to his feelings and to what was happening about them that they slept instead of praying with and for him. They have failed this test and he tells them to pray that they may not enter into temptation. The repetition of the instruction (40) gives it emphasis. There will be further tests and they must pray for the right attitude next time.