Saying, Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done.
Father.
Matthew 26:42,44 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done…
Mark 14:36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.
John 12:27,28 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour…
willing, remove.
Luke 22:17-20 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: …
Isaiah 51:17,22 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out…
Jeremiah 25:15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
not.
Psalm 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
if You are willing,
This phrase acknowledges God's sovereignty and Jesus' submission to His divine plan. It reflects the tension between Jesus' human desire to avoid suffering and His commitment to fulfill God's will. This submission is a model for believers, illustrating the importance of aligning personal desires with God's purposes.
take this cup from Me.
The "cup" symbolizes the impending suffering and crucifixion Jesus is about to endure. In the Old Testament, the cup often represents God's wrath and judgment (e.g., Psalm 75:8, Isaiah 51:17). Jesus' request to have the cup removed underscores His awareness of the physical and spiritual agony He is about to face, fulfilling prophecies such as Isaiah 53.
Yet not My will,
This phrase highlights the dual nature of Christ, fully human and fully divine. Jesus expresses a natural human desire to avoid pain, yet He prioritizes divine will over personal preference. This submission is a key aspect of His role as the obedient Son, contrasting with Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
but Yours be done.
This ultimate submission to God's will is central to the Christian understanding of obedience and sacrifice. It reflects Jesus' role as the perfect servant, fulfilling prophecies like Isaiah 42:1. This act of surrender is pivotal in the narrative of salvation, demonstrating the path of true discipleship and trust in God's plan.
• Jesus opens with intimate trust, addressing God as “Father,” reminding us of the relationship that undergirds every prayer (Matthew 6:9; John 17:1).
• The term shows Jesus’ eternal Sonship while modeling how believers may approach the throne of grace with confidence (Romans 8:15).
• Christ immediately acknowledges the Father’s absolute sovereignty (Matthew 6:10).
• This phrase teaches us to measure every request against the flawless will of God, echoing the wisdom of James 4:15—“If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
• Submission comes first; desire comes second.
• “Cup” pictures the full measure of divine wrath and suffering awaiting Jesus (Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17).
• He expresses authentic anguish without sin, revealing the real cost of redemption (Matthew 20:22; Mark 10:38).
• The request shows that honest lament belongs in faithful prayer—Jesus does not hide His dread of the cross.
• Jesus has a human will, yet He chooses voluntary alignment with the Father (John 4:34; John 5:30).
• In this surrender He fulfills Philippians 2:8: “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross.”
• The clause demonstrates that holiness is not absence of struggle but victory through submission.
• Obedience, not comfort, is Christ’s priority; the Father’s redemptive plan takes center stage (John 6:38-40).
• Hebrews 5:7-9 explains that through this obedience He became “the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”
• Isaiah 53:10 foretold it pleased the Lord to crush Him; here, Jesus consents to that pleasure for our salvation.
Luke 22:42 captures the perfect balance of honest human desire and unwavering divine submission. Jesus, fully God and fully man, lays His request before the Father yet yields entirely to the Father’s plan. In doing so, He models prayer, reveals the depth of His sacrificial love, and advances the Father’s saving purpose for the world.
(42) Not my will, but thine, be done.--See Notes on Matthew 26:39. Here there is a more distinct echo of the prayer which He had taught His disciples. He, too, could say, "Lead us not into temptation," but that prayer was subject, now explicitly, as at all times implicitly, to the antecedent condition that it was in harmony with "Thy will be done."Verse 42. - Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. The three synoptists give this prayer in slightly varying terms; "but the figure of the cup is common to all the three; "it was indelibly impressed on tradition. This cup, which Jesus entreats God to cause to pass from before (παρά) his lips, is the symbol of that terrible punishment, the dreadful and mournful picture of which is traced before him at this moment by a skillful painter with extraordinary vividness. The painter is the same who in the wilderness, using a like illusion, passed before his view the magical scene -f the glories belonging to the Messianic kingdom" (Godet). If thou be willing. He looked on in this supreme hour, just before "the Passion" really began, to the Crucifixion and all the horrors which preceded it and accompanied it - to the treason of Judas; the denial of Peter; the desertion of the apostles; the cruel, relentless enmity of the priests and rulers; the heartless abandonment of the people; the insults; the scourging: and then the shameful and agonizing lingering death which was to close the Passion; and, more dreadful than all, the reason why he was here in Gethsemane; why he was to drink this dreadful cup of suffering; the memory of all the sin of man! To drink this cup of a suffering, measureless, inconceivable, the Redeemer for a moment shrank back, and asked the Father if the cross was the only means of gaining the glorious end in view - the saving the souls of unnumbered millions. Could not God in his unlimited power find another way of reconciliation? And yet beneath this awful agony, the intensity of which we are utterly incapable of grasping - beneath it there lay the intensest desire that his Father's wish and will should be done. That wish and will were in reality his own. The prayer was made and answered. It was not the Father's will that the cup should pass away, and the Son's will was entirely the same; it was answered by the gift of strength - strength from heaven being given to enable the Son to drink the cup of agony to its dregs. How this strength was given St. Luke relates in the next verse.