Don: The prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in his last days on earth is recounted in all of the gospels, including the synoptic. The version in Matthew 26 reads as follows:
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”
Mark 14 gives a slightly different slant on the prayer:
They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.” And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. And He came the third time, and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”
There are many interpretations of this prayer. According to one of them, Jesus was struggling with fulfilling his obligation to martyr himself for our sins, therefore our salvation was hanging in the balance while Jesus debated within himself whether or not to “accept the cup.” But it seems clear from scripture that the plan for the salvation of the world, for the restoration of Man from the Fall from Eden, was already well worked out between God the Father and God the Son, that the Lamb of God was already “slain from the foundation of the world.” The notion that God the Son would renege on this plan seems implausible, to say the least.
It seems that what is really at stake here is not the acceptance of the cup, but rather the plea—the prayer—that the effects of the cup will not last forever. This presages the Resurrection.
Why could the disciples not stay awake? Jesus was in so much distress, surely they must have been able to see it. They also must have been aware that something utterly and profoundly transformational was imminent. Why did they keep falling asleep? The prayer is full of sorrow. Jesus’ sorrow prompts it, and perhaps there is a sorrow over the three disciples so heavy that it compels them to sleep.
What is the temptation that Jesus wants them to avoid by staying awake? Is it connected to their tendency to expect miracles? All along, Peter did not want god to be the god represented by Jesus. When Jesus told the disciples he was going to be martyred, Peter took great exception to it, telling Jesus that such talk would ruin his reputation as King of the Jews. Jesus grew very upset and called him Satan for saying such a thing. After the prayer, it was Peter who hacked off the ear of an official, seeking by physical means to show that Jesus was a King and not a Lamb to be sacrificed. We all tend to succumb to this temptation of not accepting god for what he truly is.
Are there parallels between the Gardens of Gethsemane and Eden? Both have their share of sorrow, and in both the will of man is pitted against the will of god. Yet the process that begins in the Garden of Gethsemane is the road back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve’s eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil results from the same temptation as Peter’s: To not let god be god, and to believe that we have the power to judge between good and evil.
What does this prayer teach us about the subject of prayer?
Robin: If I had just been pleading with god for unity and found those with whom I would unite to be fast asleep, I think it would add to my sorrow.
Harry: it is a very human prayer. Something awful is going to happen, and like any of us, he’d like it not to. The disciples really don’t know, at this point, what is going to happen. It’s late, so it’s not surprising they would be tired. To be told to stay awake and pray for something they did not comprehend was a bridge too far for them.
Ada: The disciples could not help Jesus in his distress. They did not know what to do. Their anxiety probably exhausted them. (Ada’s words were, I think, “they had so much fear…” but the sound was clipped and I heard it as “They had so much beer…” which would explain everything! J —DE)
Robin: I don’t think they understood what Jesus meant. They were focused on the advent of an earthly Kingdom within their lifetimes. They wanted out from under the Roman yoke. So when Jesus, the son of god, talked of dying, they would have been overwhelmed with confusion.
Michael: This is the first time he took some disciples with him to pray, at night, in a secluded place. They did not know what to do.
Alice: He wanted them there not for himself but for them, to pray that they would be delivered from temptation. Out of compassion for them, he wanted them to be ready for what lay ahead. Suffering personally as he was, he still found time and compassion for others.
Kiran: In Mark 14:27-8, Jesus says “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” Peter took issue with that, but it is clear that Jesus knew what was coming. Perhaps he asked them to pray because he knew they did not get it, that they were so stuck on the idea of a Jewish Kingdom.
Alice: Perhaps it was the combination of natural tiredness (it was late after all), their strong emotional bond with Jesus in his distress, and their frustration and depression over their inability to help him, that made them sleep.
Jay: It is odd that the will of god the son seems to be out of line with the will of god the father: “Not my will, but your will.” And, I wonder, was his prayer answered?
David: If he was simply praying for the end to come as quickly as possible, then his prayer would seem to have been answered. The cup did eventually pass from him.
Don: Insofar as he was not delivered from death, his prayer was not answered. But insofar as he conquered–overcame–death, then his prayer was answered. Is this then what our prayer should be, when we are facing death or other extreme tribulation?
Jay: Knowing what is going to happen, Jesus is basically asking that it happen quickly. He has had a harrowing week, and he is looking at a very unpleasant death.
Kiran: He knew he was going to be raised after three days.
Jay: Could Jesus have backed out? Was he struggling with this?
Michael: In his god nature, he could accept his human death. In his human nature, it was harder to accept.
Jay: It is a sort of clash between the divine and the human will.
Harry: Most people pray for a quick end when they know their end is near, or when something bad is happening. We can expect no more than the same outcome Jesus experienced. With faith, we can reach peace.
Alice: Jesus’ divine and human natures are key. If he was praying from his human nature, then he is like us. We rebel against God’s will, but his will always wins. In the end, god makes us do what he wants. And in this case, he made Jesus do his will. Similarly, if god wanted the disciples to sleep, then they would sleep, period.
When my daughter knew that she was dying of cancer and wanted no more treatment (she said to me: “I’m done”) my first response was to recommend hospice. It occurred to me later that it was thus my judgment to kill her–to have her take drugs that would ease her pain but not treat her illness. I can’t accept that I could have made such a judgment on my own. I believe that god was speaking through me. It had to be his will, because it could never have been mine to let my daughter die.
Ada: The lesson I take from all this is that no matter what happens to us, no matter how hard our burden, it can never be as hard as Jesus had it.
Don: We will continue to study this prayer.
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