The Agony in the Garden

Jesus again showing us how to pray

Praying in the Garden

The first event I want to look at is Jesus’ agony in the garden, where Jesus goes with his disciples to pray. After he moves off to have his own private time of prayer, we read his intimate prayer with his Father:

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.¹

Jesus is earnest in his request, but his will is also fully conformed to the will of the Father. We see here that God responds by sending an angel to strengthen him. This allows Jesus to pray even more earnestly.

Sleeping and Praying

Then the passage turns to what the disciples are up to:

When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”²

The disciples are not just sleeping because they are tired—it says they are sleeping “because of grief.” Grief is exhausting, so I empathize with their falling asleep. They’ve gone through a lot leading up to this passage: Jesus just told them that they will all abandon him, and that one of them is going to betray him.³

Matthew tells us that “the disciples were very upset”⁴ and understandably so—their fellow disciple, Judas, is about to commit the most unthinkable act. A betrayal of Jesus would be a betrayal to them as well.

The Choice to Pray

Nevertheless, Jesus tells them to get up and pray. He understands the physical limitations of their bodies, and feels grief too, but he also knows that prayer is protection and he is asking them to choose prayer over sleep. This is an act of will.

Praying in times when we don’t “feel like it” is an important aspect of our Christian walk. We can pray in our tiredness, frustration, fear or anxiety because offering these things up to God is our way of uniting our will to his. We won’t always want to pray, but we know that when we do, God will strengthen us.

Preparing Our Hearts

When we are overcome with sorrow or grief or exhaustion, how can we learn from Jesus’ own agony in the garden and pray even in our suffering?

1

Luke 22:42-44

2

Luke 22:45-46

3

Matthew 26:17-35, Mark 14:12-31, Luke 22:7-34, John 13:1-38

4

Matthew 26:22