Luke's version of Gethsemane includes a detail the other Gospels do not: an angel appearing to strengthen Jesus, and sweat falling like drops of blood. Luke is a physician by tradition, and he records the physiological intensity of the prayer with clinical attention. The cup Jesus asks to be removed is not a vague unpleasantness; in the prophets, “the cup of wrath” (Jer 25:15; Isa 51:17) is the concentrated divine judgment against sin. Jesus knows what he is about to drink. He asks once whether another way exists. And then: not my will, but yours, be done.

From the writers we read together

Brennan Manning

Franciscan priest and author of The Ragamuffin Gospel (1934-2013)

Manning's last major book, Ruthless Trust, was his most difficult to write and his most earned. He was dealing with his own aging, his own losses, and the aftermath of a lifetime of failures and recoveries. The title is the theology of Luke 22:42: trust that persists even when you have asked for the cup to be removed and it has not been. Manning called this “ruthless” because it admits no exception — not even the most legitimate suffering, not even the prayer that heaven does not answer the way you asked.

Manning was careful to distinguish surrender from resignation. Resignation says: nothing matters, it doesn't help to pray, I'll stop asking. Surrender says: I have asked, I will ask again, and I will hold the asking and the “thy will be done” together in the same breath, the way Jesus did. The distinction is the difference between a faith that has been defeated and a faith that has been purified. Gethsemane is not the end of Jesus's trust in the Father. It is the fullest expression of it.