<p>14:35 <i>And he went forward a little- </i>Lk. 22:41 &ldquo;About a stone&rsquo;s cast&rdquo;, pointing us back to David&rsquo;s conflict with Goliath as a type of the Lord&rsquo;s final conflict with sin.</p><p><i>And fell on the ground, and prayed- </i>Paul's description of himself on the Damascus road falling down and seeing a Heavenly vision, surrounded by men who did not understand, is framed in exactly the language of Gethsemane (Acts 22:7 = Mt. 26:39); as if right at his conversion, Paul was brought to realize the spirit of Gethsemane. His connection with the Gethsemane spirit continued. He describes himself as &quot;sorrowful&quot; (2 Cor. 6:10), just as Christ was then (Mt. 26:37). His description of how he prayed the same words three times without receiving an answer (2 Cor. 12:8) is clearly linked to Christ's experience in the garden (Mt. 26:44); and note that in that context he speaks of being &ldquo;buffeted&rdquo; by Satan&rsquo;s servants, using the very word used of the Lord being &ldquo;buffeted&rdquo; straight after Gethsemane (2 Cor. 12:7 = Mt. 26:67).</p><p>To fall on the face is used in the Old Testament to describe men like Abraham and Moses falling on their face in the visible presence of God, e.g. before an Angel (Gen. 17:3; Num. 16:4; 22:31). Yet there was no visible manifestation of God&rsquo;s presence at this time; so we are to assume that the Lord Jesus intensely perceived the Father&rsquo;s presence even though there was no visible sign of it. It could be that the Angel from Heaven strengthening the Lord had already appeared, but this appears to come&nbsp;<i>after</i>&nbsp;the Lord had fallen on His face.</p><p>The Lord had foreseen how He must be like the grain of the wheat (note the articles in the Greek) which must fall to the ground and die, and then arise in a glorious harvest (Jn. 12:24). But soon after saying that, the Lord fell to the ground (same Greek words) in prayer and asked the Father if the cup might pass from Him (Mk. 14:35). It seems to me that He fell to the ground in full reference to His earlier words, and asked desperately if this might be accepted as the falling to the earth of the grain of the wheat, i.e. Himself, which was vital for the harvest of the world. Don&rsquo;t under-estimate the amount of internal debate which the Lord would have had about these matters. The spirit of Christ in the prophets testified Messiah&rsquo;s sufferings &ldquo;unto Christ&quot; (1 Pet. 1:11 RVmg.), but He still had to figure it all out. And this enabled an element of doubt, even though in the end He knew &ldquo;all the things that were coming upon him&quot; (Jn. 18:4). To doubt is not to sin. Another Messianic Psalm had foretold: &ldquo;In the multitude of my doubts within me, thy comforts delight my soul&quot; (Ps. 94:19 RVmg.). This aspect heightens the agony of His final crisis, when He unexpectedly felt forsaken.</p><p><i>That, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him</i>- See on Lk. 22:46. 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. &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>Matthew records the Lord's prayer that the cup might pass from Him; here, that the hour might pass. 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>