Luke 22:42 (NKJV)

saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

The ‘cup’ Jesus refers to is a powerful biblical metaphor, often symbolizing divine wrath and judgment. In the Old Testament, this imagery frequently represented the suffering and punishment due to sin.

Jesus’ reference to the ‘cup’ signified His impending experience of God’s wrath as He took on the sins of  humanity.

However, when Jesus prayed this prayer, there was more to the meaning of the ‘cup’ than just death. It wasn’t simply the physical pain of the cross or the scourging and humiliation either. It was not the dreadful thirst, the torture of having nails driven through His body, or even the humiliation of being spat upon or beaten.

All of those things combined were not the reason He prayed. As a matter of fact, all the things mentioned above were exactly what Christ Himself had said not to fear.

Luke 12:4 (NKJV)

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

What Christ dreaded the most about the cross was the divine outpouring of wrath and judgement that He would have to endure from the Holy Father.

There was not a moment when Christ trembled in fear for the earthly pain of the cross or for the pain men could inflict on Him.

Nevertheless, He was consumed with the knowledge that the fullness of divine wrath would fall upon Him as He bore the sins of many.

Hebrews 9:28 (NKJV)

so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

The alien experience.

God’s eternal Son, Jesus, the second member of the Holy Trinity, holy, righteous, living eternally in perfect loving union with the Father and the Spirit, had never known sin.

And here He was, standing on the brink of bearing the Father’s fury for the sins of all people who would ever believe throughout human history.

It was an experience alien to the eternal nature of God. In fact, we should be shocked if He didn’t say “take this cup away from Me” this because how could a holy, perfect, and righteous Son  blindly walk into becoming a sin-bearer without some level of protest?

There are many scholars who have not been able to grasp the mysterious way in which God, the Father, turned His back on His Son and unleashed the full force of divine fury against sin on Him.

However, this leads us to another question.

If Jesus fully knew that there was no way that the cup would pass from Him, why did He even pray in the first place?

Yes, the plan of salvation was determined by God long before the world was even created. And in keeping with that eternal plan, God the Son agreed to become a man and die to pay the penalty for sin.

So definitely, Jesus knew that the cup of death and separation from the Father would not pass from Him. But His prayer was an honest expression of His human emotions. Therefore, Christ’s motivation for His prayer is not from a sinful weakness but normal human infirmity (similar to other incidents recorded of His hunger, thirst, or fatigue).

Interestingly, Jesus prayed the same prayer a second time in verse 42.

Matthew 26:42 (NKJV)

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

Here we see that as the intensity of the agony increases, so does Jesus’ determination to do the will of His Father.

Christ was not hoping that He would be able to escape the cross, but rather He affirmed His determination to do the will of the Father.

This is a good application and an example for us to increase in our intensity to approach God when our agony increases.