<p>22:42 <i>Saying: Father, if You be willing, remove this cup from me- </i>This may not simply mean 'If it's possible, may I not have to die'. The Lord could have meant: 'If&nbsp;<i>it</i>- some unrecorded possible alternative to the cross- is&nbsp;<i>really</i>&nbsp;possible, then let&nbsp;<i>this</i>&nbsp;cup pass'- as if to say 'If option A is possible, then let the cup of option B pass from me'. But He overrode this with a desire to be submissive to the Father's preferred will- which was for us to have a part in the greatest, most surpassing salvation, which required the death of the cross.</p><p>&ldquo;Such&nbsp;<i>great</i>&nbsp;salvation&quot; (Heb. 2:3) might imply that a lesser salvation could have been achieved by Christ, but He achieved the greatest possible. &quot;He is able also&nbsp;<i>to save them to the uttermost</i>&nbsp;that come unto God by him&quot; (Heb. 7:25) may be saying the same thing. Indeed, the&nbsp;<i>excellence</i>&nbsp;of our salvation in Christ is a major NT theme. It was typified by the way Esther interceded for Israel; she could have simply asked for her own life to be spared, but she asked for that of all Israel. And further, she has the courage (and we sense her reticence, how difficult it was for her) to ask the King yet another favour- that the Jews be allowed&nbsp;to slay their enemies for one more day, and also to hang Haman's sons (Es. 9:12). She was achieving the maximum possible redemption for Israel rather than the minimum. Paul again seems to comment on this theme when he speaks of how Christ became obedient, &quot;<i>even</i>&nbsp;to the death of the cross&quot; (Phil. 2:8), as if perhaps some kind of salvation could have been achieved without the death&nbsp;<i>of the cross</i>. Perhaps there was no theological necessity for Christ to die&nbsp;<i>such</i>&nbsp;a painful death; if so, doubtless this was in His mind in His agony in the garden.</p><p>The Lord had taught more than once that &ldquo;with God all things are possible&rdquo; (Mt. 19:26; Mk. 9:23), and yet He inserts here a condition: &ldquo;If it be possible&rdquo;. He recognized that God&rsquo;s plan was possible of fulfilment by any means, and yet He recognized that there was a condition to that. This issue is not really resoluble, at least not by any intellectual process. If, or rather when, we struggle with these issues, this balance between God&rsquo;s ultimate possibility and the fact there appear to be terms and conditions attached- then we are there with the Lord in Gethsemane. But we need to note that it was God who was being pushed to the limit here as well- for literally all things are indeed possible to Him, and He could have saved the world any way He wished. In His allowing of this chosen method we see the degree to which the cross was indeed His plan that He so wanted to see worked out.</p><p><i>&quot;</i>Let this cup pass&quot; is interpreted in Mk. 14:35 as &ldquo;That the hour might pass&rdquo;. He saw the cup and His &ldquo;hour&rdquo; of death as the same thing. The challenging thing is that He invites us to drink His cup, to share in His final hour&hellip; even when He Himself found this so hard to drink.</p><p>Paul uses the same Greek term &quot;from me&quot; in describing how also three times he asked for the thorn in the flesh to &ldquo;depart&nbsp;<i>from me</i>&rdquo; (2 Cor. 12:8). He saw his prayers and desires as a sharing in the Lord&rsquo;s struggle in Gethsemane, just as we can too.</p><p><i>Nevertheless</i>- The saying of these brief words lasted long enough for the disciples to fall asleep. &ldquo;Could you not watch with Me for one hour?&rdquo; (Mt. 26:40) suggests not &lsquo;even just for one hour&rsquo; but rather &lsquo;We&rsquo;ve been here an hour, and you couldn&rsquo;t watch with me even for that short period of time&rsquo;. So it took the Lord an hour to say the words recorded here, which can be spoken in a few seconds. We have a window here into the essence of prayer; the words can be spoken quickly, but saying with meaning can take far longer. There may well have been many minutes in between each word here. And doubtless He said the same words and repeated the ideas several times, which would explain the slight differences in wording at this point between the Gospel records.</p><p><i>Let not my will, but Yours be done</i>- Trinitarians need to note that the Lord&rsquo;s will was not totally the same as that of His Father.</p>