The Prayer in Gethsemane (7)

[Luke 22:39-46]

Jesus prayed fervently in Gethsemane. When Jesus came to this earth and carried out His ministry, He did everything with zeal, and He also prayed to God the Father with zeal. Jesus showed zeal from the beginning of His public ministry. In John 2:13-16, when the Passover was approaching, Jesus went up to Jerusalem, made a whip out of cords, and drove out all the sheep and cattle from the temple. He poured out the money of the money changers, overturned their tables, and said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Jesus thus cleansed the temple with zeal, and His disciples remembered the verse from Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (verse 17). That is, the Lord cleansed the temple with zeal for His Father’s house. Here, the word “consume” means “kill,” which prefigures that Jesus, as “the temple that is his body” (John 2:21), would die on the cross to cleanse us from all sin and make us “the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Jesus also showed zeal at the end of His public ministry. In Luke 22:44, on the night before He bore all our sins on the cross and died, He prayed in Gethsemane with great effort and fervor. How fervently did Jesus pray that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground? (verse 44) Here, Jesus’ praying with “zeal” has three meanings:

(1) The first meaning is that Jesus prayed “with all.”

Mark 12:30 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus prayed with all His heart in Gethsemane. But we often do not pray with all our heart because other things come into our hearts and hinder our prayer. In other words, we often have “double-mindedness” when we pray to God (James 1:8, 4:8). Jesus prayed with all His soul (life) in Gethsemane. But we do not pray with all our soul because rather than being willing to lose our lives for Jesus and the gospel, we are afraid of dying and want to preserve our lives (Mark 8:35). Jesus prayed with all His will. But we do not pray with all our will because we want things to happen according to our will rather than God’s will (see Luke 22:42). Jesus prayed with all His strength. But we do not pray with all our strength because we rely on our own strength rather than on God, who is our strength (Psalm 18:1, Jeremiah 16:19; see also Deuteronomy 8:17).

(2) The second meaning is that Jesus prayed pouring out all His essence.

(a) When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He supplicated God the Father while shedding tears. Hebrews 5:7 says:
“During the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.”

(b) When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He supplicated God the Father while sweating. Luke 22:44 says:
“Jesus prayed with intense effort and fervent prayer, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
When Jesus was sweating while praying, it was not during hot weather but rather cold [(John 18:18) “Now the servants and officers were standing there, warming themselves by the fire, because it was cold.”]. Even in such cold conditions, Jesus prayed so fervently that He sweat.

(c) When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He supplicated God the Father to the point of bleeding. Luke 22:44 says:
“Jesus prayed with intense effort and fervent prayer, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Jesus did not only pray with tears and sweat, but He prayed so fervently that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Although the skin has no visible holes, it has pores through which sweat emerges when it is hot. The fact that Jesus’ sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, despite the cold weather, means that His sweat mixed with blood and dripped down.

(3) The third meaning is that Jesus prayed to God the Father as if pressing oil from olives with a press.

Matthew and Mark mention “Gethsemane” (Matt 26:36; Mark 14:32), but Luke refers to the “Mount of Olives” (Luke 22:39). Inside the Mount of Olives was the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke called it the “Mount of Olives” because there were many olive trees there, producing much fruit, so there was an olive press used to extract oil. Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, pouring out His essence (tears, sweat, blood) to God the Father. He prayed this way because He earnestly desired that the will of God to save us sinners would be fulfilled.

Jesus prayed with patience in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew 26:42, 44 says:
“Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done.’ … And he left them, and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words.”

Jesus, in Gethsemane inside the Mount of Olives, poured out tears, sweat, and blood as he earnestly prayed to God the Father, patiently praying until He received an answer. Even though Jesus did not receive an answer after His “second” prayer, it was only after His “third” prayer that He received a response; therefore, the Bible does not say that Jesus went and prayed a “fourth” or “fifth” time.

Jesus taught in Luke 18:1-8, using a parable, that we should pray and not lose heart. In a certain city, a widow repeatedly went to an unjust judge who neither feared God nor respected people, pleading, “Give me justice against my adversary.” The judge eventually granted her justice because, if he did not, she would continually come and bother him. Jesus said, “Will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will bring justice quickly for them…” (vv. 7-8).

Matthew 7:7-8 says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
This passage shows that Jesus promised answers to prayer. We must hold onto this promise and continue to ask, seek, and knock patiently until God answers.

However, the Bible also shows some people received answers immediately without long patience, such as Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 2:4-8, King Artaxerxes asked what Nehemiah wanted, and after briefly praying to God, Nehemiah answered the king. Because of God’s good hand upon him, the king granted his request. Through God’s help, Nehemiah and the people of Judah completed the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls in 52 days despite opposition (Nehemiah 6:15-16).

In contrast, the prophet Elijah prayed seven times before receiving an answer (1 Kings 18:42-45). Also, Pastor George Mueller, who claimed to have received answers to 50,000 prayers, prayed for 25 years without seeing answers to his prayers for the salvation of two friends, and only after his death were those prayers answered. God answers our fervent and patient prayers in His time and way.

We too must imitate Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane and pray to God with zeal and patience. Like Jesus, we must fervently plead with God from the beginning to the end of our ministry. We should plead with zeal, pouring out our whole essence as Jesus did. Even if we cannot shed blood, we must plead earnestly with tears and sweat. Also, we must patiently continue pleading until God answers. God hears our fervent and patient prayers and will answer them in His time and way.