"Take this cup"

The olive tree grove of Gethsemane is still on the

Mt. of Olives today.

Luke 22:39 records that Jesus, after the last Supper, went out as usual to the Mount of Olives to pray, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed...

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 

Notice a couple of things

1. The Son prays to his heavenly father in a time of anguish

It is only the Son who knows the Father intimately
It is only through the Son that we can know the Father
Obedience to the Father’s will is the choice of the son.

By the Spirit we are adopted into the family of God.
By the Spirit we too cry, “Abba Father” Romans 8 or Galatians 4

What do you learn about the relationship between the Father and the son from this Gethsemane prayer ?

2. The request to take the cup

The cup is OT picture language to describe receiving the full outworking of the judgment of God. The OT for example....

Psalm 75 for in the hand of the Lord is a cup with foaming wine well mixed
And he pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs
Isa 51 Wake yourself wake yourself stand up Jerusalem
You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath

Jesus agonises over over the necessity of drinking the cup of God's judgement for us so we might have forgiveness and life in him.

What's your response to the agony of Jesus? what's your response to his act of drinking the cup for you at the cross?

3. Heavenly refreshment in a time of anguish

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 

Don Carson reflecting on Gethsemane says "...Jesus went to his death knowing that it was his Father’s will that he face death, completely alone as the sacrificial, wrath averting, Passover Lamb. As his death was unique, so also his anguish: Our best response to it is hushed worship”

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Are you sleeping? Wake up, Pray that you will not fall into temptation!

Here is a scene that deserves our hushed worship

Hallelujah What a Saviour!

GP