Neither Peter, nor the disciples understood Jesus in the depth of his spiritual striving. They followed him, as usual, to the Mount of Olives to sleep and rest. But Christ turned to them in the midst of the dark night, and commanded them to pray persistently as the only power to wrestle with the spirits. The Lord taught us to ask our heavenly Father not to enter us into temptation, or leave us to the devil’s hands, for his malicious temptation aims at pulling us out of God and making us evil, using the sword, not abiding in love, but redeeming ourselves, and not trusting God’s providence alone.
Christ himself entered into this temptation when heaven was closed against him. He was not willing to die, but was always willing to look at his Father who hid his face from him, and appeared as a God who judges and takes revenge for the sins of the world in his beloved Son. Thus Jesus knelt humbly before the great God and wrestled with his Father for the sake of keeping his unity with him in love. But the Holy Spirit in the Son overcame the weakness of the wish of his body.
Jesus Christ addressed God with the warmest and sweetest word: "Father", knowing that he had always loved him, cared for him, and wished good not evil. This word shows us the great love between the Father and the Son, the lasting atmosphere in the Holy Trinity. Christ did not submit his will to his wish, but put his longing under his Father’s will, for this will was holy and unchangeable to him. He was prepared to carry it out at any cost. This is the only way to have the prayer accepted, where we do not fall into temptation, and do not want what we wish, but be in harmony with God’s will, even if it contradicted our own feeling. He who prays with continuous submission is delivered from all temptations.
The Son asked his Father to take away from him the cup of wrath, which is symbolic of all bitterness, malice, and sin committed by the world and their punishment. That night, the Son of Man was made a sin for all the sinners of the world that we might become righteousness accepted to God. The Holy One bore the dirt of all men, and thus he became the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. The last goal of the holy Lamb was not taking away the sins of the world, but his death in the flame of God’s wrath instead of us that we may become delivered from the judgment. Jesus trembled before the wrath of his beloved Father, for all the judgments of the world history got ready to fall upon him who was innocent and destroy him.
No man can bear this struggle. Jesus was a true man, and weak in his human nature. This is why his Father sent him an angel to strengthen him and fill his body with excessive power that he might be able to bear the sin of the world together with the falling of God’s wrath upon him.
Jesus went on kneeling down and praying with the words of the Holy Spirit that he might not be affected by the factors of the world’s hatred, or be crushed by God’s wrath. No man can recognize or interpret this great divine prayer. The physician Luke indicated the severity of this struggle through his exact description of the prayer: his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
The disciples slept while Jesus was striving to redeem the world. They fell into the temptation, and did not partake of the striving for salvation, for they were worn out by the physical and emotional tension all the day long, sad at the mysterious prophecies, and afraid of their sense of wrestling between heaven and earth. They did not understand the truth at all, and it was easy for the devil to keep them away from the battle by investing sleep over them. Alas! This is the state of many believers. Today the world is redeemed, for every generation has to be born again. So when will you strive with Christ through your continuous prayers that the fruit of his redemption may be realized in his enemies? In this reading, Christ commands you twice to pray continuously, for triumph in the kingdom of God happens only through continuous prayer.