Luke 22:41-42 41And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and kneeling down, he prayed, 42saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, let not my will but yours be done.”
Jesus both modeled to his disciples what to do in a crisis moment and wrested with his own challenges that lay before him. Both of these are mentioned in these two verses. First, Jesus went only a stone’s throw from his disciples. Most people can throw a stone 40-50 feet, though some can throw much farther. This implies that Jesus was not far away from his disciples. They may even have been able to hear him on a quiet night. They were close enough to watch him and participate in some small way in his prayer. They could see what he was doing. They may not have put the pieces together at that point, but they could reflect back later and look to Jesus as a model of prayer when facing a difficult situation.
Second, Jesus was facing the most difficult temptation of his life: to go forward to certain death in obedience to what he believed the Father wanted and Scripture predicted, or to go the way of the world, which could include defending himself and his innocence or perhaps simply walking away from Jerusalem and all the troubles that awaited him. He needed to know the Father’s will in this situation.
The first thing Jesus prays is to know the Father’s will. The primary issue focused on this cup. A cup is used as a metaphor in the Old Testament for suffering (Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Jeremiah 25:15; 49:12; Lamentations 4:21). The cup in this verse is a reference to the suffering and death Jesus was about to face (John 18:11).
The key phrase of the passage is let not my will but yours be done. Jesus sought to align his life completely with the will of the Father. John’s Gospel records many references to Jesus doing only as the Father willed (John 8:28). Even if it meant drinking the cup of death, Jesus would follow the path God his Father had for him. Hebrews 5:7 reflects on Jesus’ reverence for God and how he learned obedience through suffering and prayer. Disciples must learn the path of obedience like Jesus, even when it is not easy. The essential question of discipleship is if we are willing to do God’s will and not our own. We may not face a literal cross, but inevitably, discipleship will require carrying some type of cross. The only way to carry that cross with victory and confidence is by trusting fully in God’s will, purpose, and direction for us.
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