Let This Cup Pass from Me
A meditation on the prayer of Jesus in the garden in preparation of Holy Week.
“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.” Matthew 26:36-38
Gethsemane was a garden located somewhere on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, in which there were olive trees and olive presses. It was one of Jesus’ favorite spots, no doubt often used by Him and His disciples as a place to be alone.
Here we have a picture of Christ like no other in Scripture. Told also in Mark and Luke, this story of Jesus is one that shows us not only the glory of Christ’s death to redeem sinners such as you and I but also of the indescribable spiritual torment our Savior went through.
Christ knew His hour was near and He asked His disciples to stay awake while He went over to the garden to pray. Eyes tired from lack of sleep, the disciples quickly abandon their Savior by falling asleep. Christ will soon be left alone as the disciples run away in terror as the Roman guards approach and then all but John will have deserted Him as He is nailed to the cross.
Scripture tells us that Jesus was greatly distressed. That His soul was so deeply grieved that He was nearly at the point of death. Here we have Jesus, our Savior telling His disciples that something that is soon to happen is absolutely tormenting His soul. His only request is that they remain there and keep watch with Jesus.
No doubt the disciples had to be thinking about this statement. They had seen Christ mourn over the death of Lazarus (or rather the outcome of sin and its effects on people) and they also saw the mourning of Christ over Jerusalem as He states that He wanted to gather the children from Jerusalem together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wing but Israel would not let Him. (Matthew 23:37)
But this had to be different. Jesus is so distressed in His soul that He says He is near the point of death. Is the Captain of our salvation distressed over the pain that He will so soon endure? Is the Captain of our salvation distressed over the long nails that will be driven into His hands and feet?
“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.” Matthew 26:39
Jesus goes a little deeper into the garden and fell down to the ground praying fervently to His Father in heaven asking for the cup to pass from Him. He asked “if it is possible”. This statement by Jesus is absolutely profound given light that after Jesus shares the Gospel message with the rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19, His disciples were were there listening intently. While the rich young ruler’s heart was hard and unable to respond to the Gospel the disciples understood the absolute impossibility of being saved. Let’s see the passage about the rich young ruler in it’s entirety…
Matthew 19:16 “And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Here we see Jesus telling His disciples that something is impossible in human terms – the ability to be saved on your own merit through following the commandments, doing good works, etc. In fact, the miracle of salvation in itself is just that – a miracle. God must take a heart of stone, a person dead in their sins and transgressions and cause that person to be born again with a new spirit and a new heart. The disciples understood this dilemma and asked Jesus, “who then can be saved?” Jesus answers that with man it is impossible but with God all things are possible.
So this brings us to the heart wrenching prayer of Jesus in the garden as He is lying face down in torment crying to His Father in heaven. Jesus cries with the statement, “if it is possible”. All things are possible with God – as long as the thing God wants to do does not go against His own Holy character. If it were possible, the moment God does something against His character He is no longer God. For example, Scripture clearly states that it is impossible for God to lie. (Hebrews 6:18) If God were to lie He would stop being God. So looking deeply at the plea of our Savior we see clearly that God is answering His Son sweetly from heaven that there is no other way.
But couldn’t God just forgive sinners without Christ having to be nailed to a cross? Couldn’t God spare His innocent Son from the cross to come? Isn’t God a forgiving God and a God of love? Yes, God is a forgiving God and God is love (1 John 4:8). But that is not all of God. Stopping there would be creating an idol – an image of a god you would simply be creating in your mind and not the God of Scripture – not the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus. Much of the American church today is guilty of idolatry. God is good. God is holy. And with pure goodness and holiness comes righteousness, sovereignty and justice. And with justice comes the need to punish wrongdoing and wickedness.
Let us study a passage in Proverbs that many may not consider when studying the atoning work of Christ on the cross. I was listening to a powerful sermon by Paul Washer recently and he draws such a valid point from this verse in Proverbs. This verse, however, is instrumental as it sets up a problem. It sets up a scandal.
Proverbs 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.
According to God’s own word, justifying the wicked is an abomination to God. So His own decree in Scripture illustrates that God is a holy, just God who must punish sin. He cannot just forgive sinners without their being a propitiation (satisfaction) for His wrath against that sin. Someone must take the punishment and bear the wrath of God against lawbreaking – against sin. Only God Himself could endure such a punishment and atone for the sins of all the elect.
This brings powerful light to the cross. We understand from the verse in Proverbs that God cannot just forgive or justify the wicked. There must be a propitiation or satisfaction to God to appease His wrath against the sins of man. Christ is that propitiation. On the cross, the full wrath of God was laid on the sinless Lamb of God – all the wrath that you and I so deserve was laid in all fullness. Christ was our substitute – He took our place. Christ’s work on the cross is a vicarious penal substitution. He took on the wrath of God and thus satisfied the righteous requirement of God to punish sin.
There have been many books written and sermons preached on just what the cup Jesus was praying so fervently about. In my opinion, anything other than the wrath of God would be incorrect and possibly even blasphemous. Do we really think that the Captain of our salvation, God in the flesh, was sweating drops of blood and crying out to the Father for deliverance from a cup that was the physical torment of the cross? How many thousands before and after Christ, including many of the disciples were crucified? Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down because he would dare not be crucified in the manner of his Lord.
You see, what Christ knew He would soon experience cannot be explained with human words. Christ prayed three times to the Father asking “if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Matt. 26:42b) No song, no book, no sermon could possibly describe the grief that Christ experienced looking to the cross where the sins of all who have and will believe in Him will be imputed to Him, where the wrath of God will be placed on Christ for every thought, word and deed of sin of the elect. This is exactly what Christ was dreading. The cup that Christ asked to be removed was none other than the wrath of God. Many times in the Old Testament the cup described God’s wrath and here this cup was the wrath of the Almighty that was laid upon the sinless Lamb of God. Jesus took on the wrath for our sins and became our substitute. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We cannot work our way to heaven and we can’t do anything on our own merit to earn salvation. No one has gone up to heaven to gain salvation. God left His throne in heaven and became veiled in flesh as a babe in a manger to show us that He must provide a way for us to be reconciled to Him. All glory goes to God. All glory goes to Christ for our salvation. Through faith in the person and work of Christ and repentance of our sins, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, we are redeemed, and our sins are forgiven by the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. God provides the way – to each of us who so deserve wrath and punishment the grace of God is shown in the face of Christ Jesus.
Good Friday is the day our Savior was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God [and] nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men [who] put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). God used the most evil act in history to redeem a people for Himself to present to Christ as the unblemished Church of Jesus Christ. Three days later God raised Christ from the dead showing His approval of the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God (Romans 4:25) and giving the saints a blessed hope of a new heaven and a new earth with new, glorified bodies that will live with our King forever at His glorious second advent. As Revelation 22:4 says, “we will see His face.” To me, this is the perfect, most glorious description of heaven in all of Scripture.
Christ drank of the cup so that we do not have to. Christ took our place. Through faith and repentance we are no longer our own, but Christ’s. Reflect on this truth this Holy Week and go serve your King! Solus Christus!
Thank you Lord Jesus! You saved me!
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And when the genuine believer looks upon His face for the first time……….it will not be the face of a stranger!
I have had many discussions about this topic and took my Cristology class under a Rabbi turned Christian who is very well known. The Jewish perspective and the greek language give some valuable insight into another possible perspective to the cup.
Lets start with two things we do know. The Bible does not clearly state which cup he is referring to. All possibilites are implied, but the greek does state that it is “this” present tense, cup. Not a future tense. Which cause my professor to ask the question to us in class, which cup was he enduring in the garden? Well, he was dripping great drops like blood, which from a doctors description is that the capillaries had burst and was oozing blood from his pores usualy caused from great physical stress. There is no cure to this condition and eventually leads to death form loss of blood. Secondly, at the end the angels come and ministrer to him. Healing him? Possibly. Thirdly, lets look at it from this perspective and see if it still fits theologically. If he was asking for deliverance from dying in the garden then the statement that Christ makes earlier, that “Anything I ask my Father he gives me” and ” I only say what my Father tells me to say” were answered and true. The Father answered and delivered him from the cup in the garden. And to only say what the Father says, and have anything you ask the Father because you are perfectly in His will, well these two things are required for perfect obedience which Christ had to have for His sacrifice to be accepted at the cross. The lamb without blemish.
But if he is being attacked in the garden by the one who wanted to keep him from the cross (This part is speculation on anyones part, sincce it does not tell us anything besides the symptoms of the attack-the blood drops) and Jesus asks the disciples to pray for him, which they dont do, btu asks the Father to deliver him from this cup right there in the garden, but stipulates it with the statement that “nevertheless, not my will but yours be done” he would be saying that “if you allow me to die here then so be it, not my will but yours be done. But I desire to go to the cross and please save me from this cup here so I can do that.” not only does this pose far less Theological problems as an explanation then explaining that Christ was asking for deliverance from the cross and the wrath that he would endure. This has many Theological problems like, is His will ever different from the Father’s? Can he ask something and the Father not give it to him? Could he cry out for something that was ultimately not the Father’s will and still be perfect? Did he give place to his flesh for that moment? All these questions are usually answered by saying that He cried out “in his humanity”. But remember the Theological problems that answer forms, and also remember that it does not state anywhere else in scripture that this is the answer.
It makes more sense to me that he was simply asking for the Father to save him there in the Gardent but IF the Father had other plans that Christ did not know of***, then Christ was Ok with that also.
***(remember Christ said that he only knows what the Father told him because he emptied himself to become like us, still God, for only God can be the Savior, (Isaiah 43:11, 45:21,etc.) but giving up the Godly rights (Philippians 2:7) except what the Father gives him through the Spirit. (sorry for the necessary rabbit trail)***
And as an answer to the prayer, the angels come and heal him. I know it is not as profound as the traditional teaching but I am always wary of adding to the scriptures a meaning that they dont clearly say and that poses many contextual and Theological problems that are answered with things like “it is the mystery of his Humanity and Diety”or “The mystery of the Trinity”, etc.
By the way, this take on the cup is taught in many solid biblical and academic Bible Colleges and Seminaries but is usually not taught by Pastors who have just been taught that traditional answer to the question, “which cup is He referring to”.
I love our Pastors in the Church worldwide of many denominations but the Scholars have taught Matthew as a course in school, verse by verse for 20-30 yrs often times while the Pastors cover the verse once or twice a year tops. So maybe we should listen to those who have studied and taught the verse thousands of times vs those who covered it maybe 30 times in a 30 yr ministry.
I was challenged by my professor’s commentary to make sure that I am searching the scriptures to see if what I am being told is true. That is the righteousness of the Bereans and that we all woudl do that before we teach the great truths of scripture.
Another great debate is “My God, My God” was he just quoting the first line fo Pslams 22 as Rabbis commonly did and Jesus did all through his ministry to cause those listening to think about the whole chapter?
That is the Jewish take on it. Could the Father ever Forsake the Son even for amoment and God still be UNITED as he never changes. Again, not as profound as the traditional explanation but very Biblical and Theologically sound.
Or did God literally forsake the son? And does it STATE that clearly in the scriptures or are we explaining it in a way that the jews and disciples would have never taken it…
That is a topic for another time.
Thanks Robert. Those are some excellent insights. I especially agree with you on the interpretation of Jesus’ remez to Psalm 22. Muslims use this incorrect interpretation by many Evangelicals to try and prove that Jesus and God are not one if there was true abandonment as the eternal Trinity would no longer be eternal. It’s interesting you wrote today because I am sitting in my office preparing a lesson for Sunday on just this topic of Jesus’ cry of “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Thanks so much for your comment and your great insight. I appreciate your taking the time to visit my blog and share your knowledge!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Blessing to you as you teach His flock. Intersteingly also that my work blocks most religious sites but today I can get to yours…Blessings pastor. Hocking is the teacher I first heard it from by the way but most colleges teach the same take.
See you here or hereafter.
For that topic, the theological problems are the original context is the first 5 verses that according to Hermeneutics refer to David and are not Prophetic until the 6th verse.
Secondly, the sin was taken symbolically since we still have our sin literally but not positionally. It was his Wrath that was poured out literally and Isaiah says it pleased the Father to do this for our sake. It isnt necessary to trun his back on the son as he purs out His wrath and Jesus says that you always hear me and are with me. Again, it is traditionally taught the other take and the Jehovah Witnesses also use that argument to show that the Son was not God. Hope this helps some.
sorry fo9r typos. Gotta get back to work. Will visit again soon.