One event, four witnesses
The Agony in Gethsemane
In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays in agony before His arrest, submitting to the Father's will. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record it; Luke alone mentions the sweat as drops of blood and the strengthening angel, in some manuscripts.
“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.”Matthew 26:36
“And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.”Mark 14:32
“And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.”Luke 22:39
The event
The event. After the supper, Jesus goes with His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. He tells most of them to sit while He prays, taking Peter, James, and John farther with Him. He becomes sorrowful and very heavy, telling them His soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and asking them to watch with Him. Going a little farther, He falls on His face and prays that, if it be possible, the cup might pass from Him, yet not His will but the Father's be done. Returning, He finds the disciples asleep and gently rebukes Peter, urging them to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. He prays a second and a third time with the same submission. Luke records that in His agony He prayed more earnestly, and that His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, and that an angel from heaven appeared strengthening Him. At last He rises and tells the disciples the hour has come and the betrayer is at hand. The garden shows the true cost of the cross borne first in prayer, and the Son's full surrender to His Father's will.
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs. Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree that Jesus went to the garden, was overwhelmed with sorrow, prayed that the cup might pass yet yielded to the Father's will, and found the disciples sleeping. Matthew and Mark are closely parallel: three withdrawals to pray, three returns to sleeping disciples, the rebuke of Peter, and the words about the willing spirit and weak flesh; Mark alone preserves the Aramaic "Abba, Father." Luke's account is more compact, mentioning one time of prayer, and it contains the two details found in no other Gospel: that an angel appeared from heaven strengthening Him, and that His sweat became as great drops of blood. Here honesty requires a note: these two verses in Luke, the angel and the bloody sweat, are absent from some early and important manuscripts, and so their originality is genuinely debated among careful scholars and reflected in the notes of many Bibles. Many hold them to be an authentic part of Luke's Gospel, deeply consistent with his portrait of Jesus at prayer; others regard them as a very early addition. Either way, they describe nothing unworthy of Christ and add no contradiction. The differences among the three Gospels are of length and detail, not of substance; all agree on the agony, the prayer, the submission, and the sleeping disciples.
What it shows of Christ
What it shows of Christ. Gethsemane reveals the true humanity of Jesus and the depth of what He chose to bear. He shrinks, as any man would, from the horror of the cup, the wrath against sin He is about to drink, yet He surrenders wholly to His Father's will, praying not once but repeatedly, "Thy will be done." Here is no reluctant victim dragged to death but the obedient Son who conquers first on His knees. Matthew and Mark show His sorrow unto death and His tender concern for the failing disciples even in His own extremity. Mark's "Abba, Father" reveals the intimacy of His trust. Luke, whose Gospel loves to show Jesus at prayer, presents the strengthening angel and, in the disputed verses, the bloody sweat, painting the agony in the starkest terms while showing heaven's ministry to Him. Christ enters the garden of sorrow where the first Adam fell in a garden of ease, and there, by surrendered prayer, He sets His face to do the Father's will. The victory of Calvary is won first in Gethsemane.
Questions people ask
Are the angel and the bloody sweat in Luke part of the original text?
This is genuinely debated. The two verses describing the strengthening angel and the sweat like great drops of blood are absent from some early and important manuscripts, and many Bibles note this. Many faithful scholars hold them to be an authentic part of Luke's Gospel, deeply in keeping with his portrait of Jesus at prayer; others regard them as a very early addition. Either way, they contain nothing unworthy of Christ and create no contradiction with the other accounts.
Why does Jesus pray for the cup to pass from Him?
The cup is the suffering and the wrath against sin that He is about to bear at the cross. In His true humanity Jesus rightly recoiled from that horror, yet in the same breath He surrendered to the Father's will, praying "not my will, but thine, be done." His prayer shows both the real cost of the cross and His full, willing obedience in going to it.