Morning Bible Study: Luke 22:39-46

The Prayer in the Garden
39 He went out and made his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 

40 When he reached the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.” 

41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, 

42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. 

44 Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. 

45 When he got up from prayer and came to the disciples, he found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief. 

46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t fall into temptation.”

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)

"Every description which the evangelists give of the state of mind in which our Lord entered upon this conflict, proves the tremendous nature of the assault, and the perfect foreknowledge of its terrors possessed by the meek and lowly Jesus. 

Here are three things not in the other evangelists. 

• 1. When Christ was in his agony, there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. It was a part of his humiliation that he was thus strengthened by a ministering spirit. 
• 2. Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Prayer, though never out of season, is in a special manner seasonable when we are in an agony. 
• 3. In this agony his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down. This showed the travail of his soul. 

We should pray also to be enabled to resist unto the shedding of our blood, striving against sin, if ever called to it. When next you dwell in imagination upon the delights of some favorite sin, think of its effects as you behold them here! See its fearful effects in the garden of Gethsemane, and desire, by the help of God, deeply to hate and to forsake that enemy, to ransom sinners from whom the Redeemer prayed, agonized, and bled."