Luke 22:43-46 [43And an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. 44And being in agony he earnestly prayed; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.] 45And when he rose from prayer, after coming to the disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, 46and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rising, pray so that you may not enter into temptation.”
Verses 43-44 pose a challenge for interpretation because they are not found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts (69, 75, B, A, W, it, Cop). However, there are several significant manuscripts that do contain them (א, D, Vg). The issues are complex. The general rule in textual criticism is that it is more likely that words were added by a scribe than deleted. Luke is the only one who records an angel coming to strengthen Jesus. This could be a reflection on how angels ministered to Jesus after his temptation in the desert by the devil as recorded in Matthew 4:11. If these verses were indeed part of the original writing of Luke, they show the human side of Jesus.
In Luke’s truncated account of Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus only goes once to find his disciples sleeping, while Matthew records him returning twice. Luke emphasizes prayer in his writing and less on the failure of the disciples. There is no reference to how long Jesus prayed, but evidently the disciples were tired from a long week and a long day of Passover preparation and remembrance. Only Luke has the reference that the reason the disciples were tired was because of their sorrow. Luke does not say why the disciples were sad, but the earlier account at the Last Supper shows they had some understanding that things were not going to go well in the future. They were worried about who would betray Jesus.
The answer to their sorrow was not sleep but prayer, as implied by Jesus’ rhetorical question in verse 46. We can ask ourselves the same question in a spiritual and metaphorical sense: Why do we sleep in ignorance, self-pity, and human thinking when we could find the spiritual fortitude to face our challenges through prayer? Why do we rely on our own abilities and understandings and not seek God’s help? The answer is obviously human weakness and our propensity to have weak faith. Human weakness can lead to temptation. We open ourselves more to temptation when we rely on our own strength. Prayer is one of the key ways to have victory over temptation.
45And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
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