Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
568 words, 3 minutes read time

Agonizing Prayer

Scripture: Mark 14:37-38; Luke 22:43-45

In the previous lesson we left Jesus agonizing in prayer over the need to drink the cup of God’s wrath. In this lesson Jesus is visited by an angel who gives him strength to endure, and we find the three disciples asleep on their watch.

^{LK 22:43} And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

As Jesus surrenders to do his Father’s will, an angel comes to strengthen him, and being in agony because of anticipating the effect of bearing our sins in his own body on the cross. Peter speaks of this in 1 Peter 2:24 ESV: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” As Jesus thinks about this he prays more earnestly. He broke out in a sweat from his earnest prayer and his drops of perspiration became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

The use of “like” could suggest that the drops of blood represent how strenuous his prayer was or as recorded in the ESV Study Bible footnote for Luke 22:44 it could mean real drops of blood as “there are both ancient and modern accounts on record of people sweating blood – a condition known as hematidrosis, where extreme anguish or physical strain causes one’s capillary blood vessels to dilate and burst, mixing sweat and blood.”

^{Lk 22:45} And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. ^{Mk 14:37} He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? ³⁸ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus rose from prayer to go and check on the three disciples to see how they were doing and finds them asleep. Their sleep is described as “sleeping for sorrow.” For them it has been a long hard day and they were emotionally and physically exhausted and were unable to stay awake.

Jesus directs his comment to Peter and rebukes him for sleeping and not praying for what he is about to face. In an earlier statement, Peter promised that he would give his life if he had to, to stand with Jesus, but Jesus told him that he would deny him when under persecution. Jesus knows Peter means well and that his spirit is willing, but he knows that his flesh is weak and that he needs to be praying.

Conclusion

How often does our Lord find us asleep when we should be in prayer over some issue in our lives? Do we really see the seriousness of working out our salvation with fear and trembling or with “awe and reverence” as in the NET translation. The NET footnote for Philippians 2:12 explains their choice: “The translation “awe and reverence” was chosen to portray the attitude the believer should have toward God as they consider their behavior in light of working through Jesus Christ (2:6-11) and in the believer’s life (2:13) to accomplish their salvation.” What is your attitude toward God concerning your salvation?