Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour.
is.
John 11:33-35 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, …
John 13:21 When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Psalm 69:1-3 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul…
what.
Isaiah 38:15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
Luke 12:49,50 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? …
Father.
John 11:41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Matthew 26:53,54 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? …
but.
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Luke 22:53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
and what shall I say?
This rhetorical question emphasizes Jesus' internal struggle and His submission to the Father's will. It reflects a moment of decision, similar to the choice He faced during His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). It underscores His obedience and commitment to His mission, despite the personal cost.
‘Father, save Me from this hour’?
Here, Jesus contemplates the possibility of asking the Father to deliver Him from the suffering He is about to endure. This echoes His prayer in Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me" (Matthew 26:39). It highlights the real temptation to avoid suffering, yet His resolve to fulfill His redemptive purpose remains steadfast.
No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
This statement affirms Jesus' understanding of His mission and His acceptance of the path laid before Him. The "hour" refers to the appointed time of His crucifixion, a central theme in the Gospel of John (John 2:4, 7:30, 8:20). It signifies the culmination of His earthly ministry and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah's suffering and sacrifice (Isaiah 53). Jesus' resolve here is a testament to His role as the Lamb of God, willingly laying down His life for the salvation of humanity (John 1:29).
• Jesus reveals the depth of His humanity: “Now My soul is troubled” (John 12:27). The eternal Son truly feels sorrow and dread.
• This inner agitation is similar to the moment at Lazarus’ tomb—He “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11:33).
• Isaiah foresaw the “Man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3), and here we glimpse that burden.
• Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that He was “tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin,” so He understands every believer’s distress.
• The Lord voices the kind of question we often whisper: What do I pray when my heart is heavy?
• David once cried, “My soul is deeply distressed. How long, O LORD?” (Psalm 6:3), showing that the righteous may question without unbelief.
• Jesus’ words in John 11:41-42 prove that He approaches the Father openly, modeling honest conversation rather than rehearsed piety.
• Luke 22:44 portrays Him “in such agony…His sweat became like drops of blood,” reinforcing that openness before the Father is part of faithful living.
• The question is rhetorical; He is not vacillating but exposing the real tension between human desire and divine mission.
• In Gethsemane He prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).
• Mark 14:36 records the same struggle with the intimate cry “Abba,” underscoring trust amid turmoil.
• John 18:11 shows final resolve: “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?” The cross is not forced on Jesus; He embraces it.
• Here is the triumphant answer. The Son’s incarnation always aimed toward Calvary: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son” (John 3:16).
• Acts 2:23 declares the cross was “by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge,” so Jesus affirms that purpose, not fate.
• Philippians 2:8 highlights His willing humility: “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—yes, death on a cross.”
• Hebrews 12:2 urges us to look to Jesus, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,” showing purpose married to joy.
• Isaiah 53:10 proclaims, “Yet it pleased the LORD to crush Him,” not in cruelty but in redemptive love.
• John 18:37 captures His mission statement: “For this reason I was born and have come into the world.”
Jesus lets us overhear the tension between real human anguish and unwavering divine purpose. His troubled soul assures us He knows our pain; His refusal to seek escape assures us of His steadfast love. The cross was not a tragic detour but the very hour for which He came, fulfilling the Father’s saving plan and inviting us to trust Him with every troubled moment of our own journey.
(27) Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?--The word rendered "soul" is the same word as that rendered "life" in John 12:25. (Comp. especially Matthew 16:25-26.) It is the seat of the natural feelings and emotions, and, as the fatal hour approaches, our Lord is in that region of His human life troubled. There is a real shrinking from the darkness of the death which is at hand. The conflict exists but for a moment, but in all its fearfulness is real, and then the cup of the world's woe is seized and drunk to its bitter dregs. Men have sometimes wondered that St. John passes over the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, but the agony of Gethsemane is here, and the very words of Matthew 26:39 are echoed. Men have wondered, too, that in the life of the Son of man a struggle such as this could have had even a moment's place. Not a few, indeed, would at any cost read the words otherwise. But they cannot be read otherwise, either on the written page or in the hearts of men. That troubled soul asked, "What shall I say?" Blessed reality! In that struggle humanity struggled, and in that victory humanity won.Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.--It is uncertain whether the first words of this sentence are a prayer, or whether they should be read as a question. In the latter case the meaning would be, "What shall I say? Shall I say, Father save Me from this hour? But no: for this cause came I unto this hour. I cannot shrink back or seek to be delivered from it." As a prayer the meaning would be--"Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause, that I may be saved from it, came I unto this hour. The moment of agony is the moment of victory."
The real difficulty of the verse lies in the words "for this cause," for which a meaning must be sought in the context. No interpretation of them is free from objection, but that which seems to have, upon the whole most probability, understands them as referring to the words which follow, and reads the clause, "Father, glorify Thy name," as part of this verse. The sense of the whole passage would therefore be, "Father, save Me from this hour; but Thy will, not Mine, be done; for this cause came I unto this hour, that Thy name be glorified; Father, glorify Thy name." (Comp. Note on Luke 12:49-50.)
Verses 27-30. -(2) The anticipation of Gethsemane. Verse 27. - Now, at this moment, has been and yet is my soul troubled ("concurrebat horror morris et ardor obedientisa," Bengel). In John 11:33 we hear that he troubled himself, and shuddered wrathfully in his "spirit" (πνεύμετι) at the contemplation of all the evils and curse of death; now his whole ψυχή, i.e. his life centered in its corporeal environment as a man, the self which the Son of God had taken up into the Divine essence, was in depth of agony, preluding the strong crying and tears to which Hebrews 5:7 refers. These perturbations of his soul and spirit can only be accounted for by the uniqueness of his Personality, the capacity for suffering, and the extent to which he was identifying himself with the sinful nature with which he had invested himself. Sin is the sting of death. He had by the nature of his incarnation become sin for us. Martyrs, freed from sin, delivered from its curse and shame and power through him, face it with calmness and hope; but there was infinite space in his breast for all the curse of it to rain its horrible tempest. He felt that the hour of his extremest travail had come upon him. And what shall I (must I) say? What is the regal passion of my heart? What is the right revelation for me to make to you? What is the prayer for me to offer to the Father? It remains a great question whether the next utterance is the primary answer of the question itself, or whether it continues the interrogation - whether, i.e., the Lord lifts up for a moment the cry of heart-rending grief, Father, save me from this hour! or whether he said, Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? The first view supposes in the first place actual uncertainty and awful bewilderment, and then a most intense cry (Hebrews 5:7) to him who was able to save him from death. Save me either from the death itself, or from the fear and horror which accompanies it (Lucke, Meyer, Hengstenberg, and Moulton). It need not be a prayer to leave the world unsaved, to sacrifice all the work on which he had come. We are told by the apostle (Hebrews 5:7) that he was "heard" (ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας) and delivered from human weakness which might have rebelled in the intolerable darkness of that hour. Father, save me from this hour; the equivalent to the prayer, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," with its grand "nevertheless," etc. If this be its meaning, we have a scene nearly, if not closely, identifiable with the agony of the garden. The correction which immediately follows augments the comparison with the scene in Gethsemane recorded by the synoptists. The R.T. and Revised Version have put their note of interrogation after ταύτης into the margin, and not into the text. Ewald, Lange, Kling, Tholuck, Lachmann, accept this punctuation, and Godet regards it as an hypothetical prayer, although he does not place the interrogation after ταύτης. The self-interrogation of the previous utterance at least reveals the presence of such a desire, but one which vanishes as the mysterious hour engulfs and wraps him round. If this be the true interpretation, then the clause that follows must be, Nay this I cannot say, for on account of this very conflict - for this cause - only to fight this great battle - I came steadily forward to this hour. I cannot pray to escape from it. If, however, we have the expression of an actual though momentary prayer, and if we give it the meaning, "bring me safely through and out of this hour," it corresponds with the Divine trust in the Father's love which, in the extremity of the anguish and desertion, he yet reveals, and the ἀλλά becomes equivalent to "Pray, this I need not say; the end is known" (Westcott). I know that I shall be delivered, for this cause, viz. that I should encounter and pass through the hour I came into the world, and have reached the final crisis. This is, to my mind, more satisfactory; the interrogative prayer gives a sentimental character to the utterance out of harmony with the theme. Godet thinks that the fact that, according to the synoptists, our Lord in the garden did actually offer the prayer which he here hesitates to present, is evidence of the historic character of both accounts. I differ from him, because the sublime answer to the prayer here given would seem to preclude the necessity of the final conflict. The circumstance that he did offer the prayer as interpreted above, a prayer which was veritably heard, is in harmony with the narrative of the agony.
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