Just before His Passion, Jesus prayed 3 times to His Father and asked that the chalice be passed. In all instances, he stated that it is your will (Father), not mine. As we know, Jesus then went on to lay down his life for ours.
I am wondering why Jesus did this. Surely he knew what His Father’s answer would be. He knew he was sent here specifically for that purpose. So, I think He had another reason for doing this. Was is to let us know we can petition the Father but, in the end, His will be done? Was it to show how He understood how frightening it was to go through with His passion but wanted to let us know our Father would always be there for us? Any other ideas? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Greg
You have identified an interesting issue regarding the emotional state of Jesus prior to the Crucifixion. One can see the differences by comparing each of the Gospels, especially John with the Synoptics. In the Synoptic Gospels, particularly in Mark, one can see how troubled and in agony Jesus was, from when He was praying in the garden until He expired. In the garden, He was “troubled and distressed”, he said His soul was “sorrowful even to death”. He asked that “if it were possible the hour might pass by him”.
Jesus says just a few words to Pilate in the Synoptics. On the Cross, he also says very little. In Mark He cries out in a loud voice: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In Luke His words are: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”.
The synoptics appear to show a very human side to Jesus. He is in distress and agony, he prays “fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground”, he prays three times that God will spare Him from the Cross. He says very little to the authorities, and appears to be cowed by all those lined up against Him. In a word, He acts like a man about to be executed and knows it will be painful and that he will die a horrible death.
In John, there is no agony in the garden, and Jesus does not pray to the Father for himself. He has a dialogue with Pilate, in essence challenging him and proclaiming His kingdom. While on the cross, Jesus talks to others and acts as if He is in control.
In reading the agony in the garden as described by Mark, one gets the feeling that, as he approached his crucifixion, Jesus was very human. He was thinking of the physical pain and suffering that He knew He would experience. Any person in that situation would go through the same agonizing emotions, even if one knew that they would be with God shortly after. The fears inherent in the human side of Jesus were overwhelming the divine side in these moments.
What does this tell me? That John had a different viewpoint than Mark and the other Gospel writers did about the nature of Jesus at that time. John viewed Jesus as one with God the Father from creation forward; Jesus was completely divine all the time He was among us. So John’s view of the Passion was of Jesus as above it all, in charge of His fate, with not a word of pain or agony in John’s description of the Passion. For how could God feel physical pain? The Synoptic Gospel writers have a much different point of view, stressing the human nature of Jesus over the divine during His Passion.
The Church resolved this dichotomy by defining the idea of the dual nature of Jesus, which was a big arguing point for a few hundred years. When you read early Church history and compare the earlier Apostle’s Creed with the later Nicene Creed, you can see the evolution of the Church’s position on the nature of Christ, and that the theology of John won out over that of Mark, so that the divine nature of Jesus trumps the human one. And then we mix together the differing renditions of the Passion to make it one homogenous story. Which is why we end up confused about the agony in the garden and Jesus’ prayer to “let the cup pass by Him” that we find in the Synoptic Gospels.
