Author’s Note: Continuing in the "Pray Like Jesus" sermon series, this week I am preaching about the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus from Matthew 26:36–46. These notes are intended to serve as a supplement for the sermon for those in Mars Hill Community Groups as well as others studying this most amazing insight into the inner life of the Trinity as Jesus speaks to the Father by the Spirit in his hour of greatest anguish. As a note of appreciation, I want to thank Scott and my other friends at www.logos.com for producing so many great Bible resources that I am now enjoying on my Mac by using Parallels Desktop. This summer I have been traveling quite a bit and with such great resources on my laptop I have been able to keep up with my sermon preparation and book writing while on the road. So, I am deeply grateful for their service to those of us who serve others by preaching and teaching.

Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane is shocking, disturbing, overwhelming, and life-giving because it is so brutally and painfully honest. In his darkest hour of abandonment and betrayal and with the cross looming, Jesus did not doubt the Father, deny the Father’s goodness, rebel against the Father, sin against the Father, or run from the Father. No, instead he got down on his knees to speak with the Father in prayer. In this act we witness one of the great truths about prayer: it is not so often about getting God to do as we ask, but rather getting our will aligned with his so that when the most brutal moments of life envelop us we take the Father’s hand to lead us through, and not around, our valleys of darkness.

Jesus was fully aware of his impending death and separation from God the Father and spoke of it prior to his prayer at Gethsemane (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19). Before Gethsemane, Jesus had poured himself out in ministry, preaching with great authority on the kingdom of God and eternal judgment. A plot was then devised by Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, though Jesus had loved, served, and taught him for many years as a friend. This was prophesied in Zechariah 11:12–13 some five hundred years prior: "Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter" (cf. Matthew 26:14–15; 27:5–7).

A sinful woman then lavishly anointed Jesus in worship. He was able to smell the evidence of her appreciation throughout his betrayal and murder, undoubtedly serving as a lingering reminder that his mission was to atone for needy sinners like her. It is important to note that the season of the Gethsemane prayer was Passover, when God’s people, in keeping with the scriptural commands instituted in the days of Moses, would gather to deal with their sin before God in faith that one day Jesus their Messiah would come to shed his own blood in their place for their sins to accomplish their salvation (1 Cor. 5:7).

The Passover meal, now known as the Last Supper, took a dark turn when Jesus revealed that one of his disciples present at the table with him would betray him. Jesus knew in his heart that it would be Judas, his pretend friend. Shortly thereafter, Peter, the first-among-equals on Jesus’ team of disciples, pledged to never betray Jesus. Yet, Jesus revealed to Peter that he too would deny his Lord. Jesus was keenly aware that his journey to the cross would be paved with betrayal and abandonment.

Nonetheless, Jesus invited his senior disciples to join him in prayer as he welcomed support, intercession, and friendship in his hour of greatest need.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.

Gethsemane means "an oil press" and was amidst a field of olive trees where the oil press was used to extract oil from the fruit. John 18:1 reveals that an olive grove, or garden, was in this place. Thus, Jesus, the last Adam (Rom. 5:12–21; 1 Cor. 15:45), is found in a garden much like the first Adam, but was faithful whereas the first Adam was sinful.

While Jesus had twelve disciples, he did on occasion take with him only the three senior disciples, such as on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1), and when he raised Jairus’ daughter from death (Luke 8:49–55). These three are Peter, James, and John, and here the latter two are referred to as the "sons of Zebedee" (Matt. 26:37 cf. 4:21).

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

In his first of three prayers, Jesus humbly and earnestly made his request known. He preferred that the cup of suffering and wrath that awaited him on the cross in the place of sinners be taken from him. While there is some debate among biblical commentators regarding Jesus’ mention of the "cup," it seems best, based on the context of its appearance throughout the Old Testament, to identify the cup as God’s wrath poured out on sinners as if from a cup (e.g., Ps. 11:6; Isa. 51:17; Ezek. 23:33).

At the close of his first prayer, Jesus utters one of the most significant statements in all of Scripture regarding prayer. The refrain "as you will" is indeed the correct way for every worshiper to pray. Prayer is where we make our requests known to God and then invite him to not only do as he wills but also transform our will to match his.

The fact that Jesus makes his will known to God the Father has raised a host of theological speculations. One Bible commentator has said,

It seems to me that the traditional view, namely, that Jesus prayed that, if it should be within the will of God, the way of the cross might not be taken, is the only view that does justice to the text and the reality of the struggle that went on within the God-man. Superficially considered, there seems to be a conflict between the will of Jesus and the will of God, and this has caused some interpreters to stumble. For example, even the great Calvin erred in saying that Christ corrected and recalled a wish that had suddenly escaped Him. But at the very moment that the Lord distinguishes His will from the Father’s, He subjects His own. There was testing, but there was no sin, and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews confirms this in saying that Jesus was heard amid the strong crying and tears "for his godly fear" (Heb 5:7). That last phrase is the interpretation of the last clause of our Lord’s petition, "nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Dallas Theological Seminary, Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 124 [Dallas Theological Seminary, 1967; 2002], 124:308)

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

After less than an hour in the anguish of prayer, Jesus returned to see his senior leaders not praying for him, as he needed. We witness here the utter loneliness Jesus suffered in his hour of greatest need as his friends succumbed to sleep rather than prevailing in prayer. As an aside, since Jesus was alone while praying and his disciples were sleeping, we must infer that he later taught all of this section of Scripture, otherwise there would be no record of it.

Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."

Once more Jesus earnestly wrestles in prayer with the Father’s will for him to atone for the sin of the world. While earnestly making his pain and sorrow known to the Father, Jesus again submits his will to the Father’s, saying, "your will be done," which is the deepest prayer anyone can ever pray; it reveals that we are indeed praying for God to move us rather than praying for us to move God.

Despite rebukes, Jesus’ disciples again failed him, as each of his disciples has ever since. Nonetheless, Jesus prayed for the third time in preparation for his death.

Jesus was then betrayed by a kiss from Judas. This was in fulfillment of David’s prophecy given roughly a thousand years prior: "Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me" (Ps. 41:9).

Jesus was arrested, falsely accused, falsely tried, and falsely condemned. Jesus was brutally flogged and flesh was ripped from his body. He suffered unspeakable agony. Jesus was crucified while people jeered him, cursed him, spat upon him, and mocked him for claiming to be a king, while blood flowed from his crown of thorns down his beaten body. Jesus then became our sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus was then not only abandoned by his friends, but also God the Father; God the Father turned his back on God the Son for the first and only time in all of human history. Jesus used his final breaths to pray for the forgiveness of sinners before committing his spirit to God the Father and breathing his last. The sequence of events leading up to the cross reveal to us that Jesus, "for the joy that was set before him[,] endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. 12:2)

In closing, I want to stress eleven things we can learn from Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer, while admitting that there are innumerable other lessons we can learn in addition to these eleven. I pose them as points of prayerful heart examination, meditation, and discussion:

1. Do you pray to get from God or to get God?
2. Do you pray to move God or for God to move you?
3. Do you pray to get out of pain or through it?
4. Do you courageously punctuate your prayers with "your will be done"?
5. Do you pray out of holy or unholy depression?
6. Do you pray in faith that God is not the author of sin but is the author over sin?
7. Do you ask your friends to pray for you even if you know they will fail?
8. Do you pray to both hear and accept God’s will for your life?
9. Do you accept that God will answer your prayers with "yes," "no," or "later"?
10. Do you know that knowing God’s will is far easier than walking in it (Heb. 5:7–8)?
11. Do you know a godly wife who lives like Jesus prayed and who models godly prayer (1 Cor. 11:3)?