June 27 2025

Friday June 27

Luke 22:40-46

“This Cup” of Gethsemane

40 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

Today, we're continuing to look at Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:40-46. He's with three of His disciples—Peter, James, and John, the inner circle. He had gone a little further with them and knelt down to pray. Let's read from this passage of Scripture. He kneels to pray, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done." What is “this cup”?

Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Twice He tells them to pray that they avoid falling into temptation and listening to the lies of Satan and doing what he wants rather than what God would want.

Matthew tells us that He took these three men with Him into the garden. He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." Matthew's gospel provides more detail about what happened as Jesus was with these disciples in this time of prayer in the garden before He was arrested by the crowd that came with Judas.

“He went a little further and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, "What, could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His 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. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand." (Matthew 26:36-46)

This is a powerful passage of Scripture, reminding us of Jesus as He would drink “this cup” in Gethsemane. The question for many has been: what does this cup represent? In my mind, this cup represents the cup of the sins of the world. “This cup” represented Jesus receiving and taking sin upon Himself. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For God made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 

In other words, Jesus was at this hour where He would literally take upon Himself the sin of all the world. He became that sin. The sinless Son of God, the pure Son of God, the holy Son of God, was now going to take the sin of the world. We can't even fathom what and all of this means, but Jesus took that sin. He became that sin, and of course, His holy divine nature would say, "Please, I can't even begin to comprehend taking this sin."

Yet, Jesus never said, "Take away the cross and it’s suffering." No, He knew He came for this hour. This was the hour that He would pay the price for the sins of the world. We see this is the cup of suffering spiritually, emotionally, and physically. “This cup” of sin that Jesus says, "Take from Me, but not My will." In other words, He learned obedience through suffering as the Scripture says in Hebrews. Philippians 2:8 says, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Why? Because He humbled Himself. He laid aside His divine powers. The angel came and strengthened Him. These are powerful passages reminding us what Jesus did for you and me.

I trust you'll take them into your heart and live a life of thankfulness, gratefulness, and service to Him as you meditate and think about “this cup” and what Jesus did for you.

God bless!