26:39 this cup. This “cup” was nothing less than the cup of God’s wrath against all the sin and rebellion of all the men and women through all the ages (compare Revelation 14:10; 16:19; etc.). Note also Psalm 16:5; in fact, the entire sixteenth psalm seems to suggest the very prayer that Christ may have prayed that night in the garden of Gethsemane.

26:39 not as I will. The Lord Jesus not only has taught us how to pray (Matthew 6:9) but also has set us an example. Our prayer must always be that God’s will—not ours—be done (I John 5:14), no matter how difficult that will may prove to be. Some have suggested that Satan was here trying to slay Jesus before He could go to the cross, and that the Lord was beseeching the Father to let that cup be removed, but this is highly speculative at best. Jesus was fully human and would suffer as a man on the cross as no man had ever suffered before, bearing the full weight of the sin of the whole world in His body, and even suffering for the first time the loss of His Father’s presence and approval. In His humanity, never calling on the resources of His own deity at all (note Philippians 2:5-8), it would be inhuman not to shrink from such a prospect! It was this cup that He would have removed if He could. Nevertheless, “not as I will, but as thou wilt,” He said.