Pray that you may not enter into temptation

 

 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him. 

 

- Luke 22:39–51 

 

Yesterday we read that, at the Last Supper, the Lord said, "Simon, Simon!  Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  But he said to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death."  Then He said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me."  And He said to them, "When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?"  So they said, "Nothing."  Then He said to them, "But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.  For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me:  'And He was numbered with the transgressors.'  For the things concerning Me have an end."  So they said, "Lord, look, here are two swords."  And He said to them, "It is enough."

 

  Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.  When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."  And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep?  Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."  My study Bible describes Christ's agony as the product of His human nature.  In asking that His cup be taken away, it says, Christ reveals His human will.  As Jesus submits His human will to the Father, He reveals His divine will to be one with the Father's, and moreover shows that each one of us must also submit our own will to God's will (see The Lord's Prayer, Luke 11:2).  Christ willingly takes in Himself the voice of weak humanity, and thereby conquers weakness.  My study Bible quotes Pope St. Gregory the Great:  "The words of weakness are sometimes adopted by the strong in order that the hearts of the weak may be strengthened."

And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"  When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.  But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this."  And He touched his ear and healed him.   My study Bible tells us that this healing is recorded only by St. Luke the physician.  It shows the manner in which we are to treat our enemies.  In patristic commentary, it is noted that there is a spiritual meaning here, in that it is Christ who gives people the ability to hear the truth, and thereby come to salvation (see Luke 8:8; 14:35).

Jesus tells the disciples twice, during His agony, that they must pray:  "Pray that you may not enter into temptation," and again, "Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."  This is before and after His own time of deep prayer, sorrow, and agony, His spiritual struggle to do as He knows God the Father wills for Him.  Let us know how Jesus deals with this time of great struggle and temptation.   He prays:  "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  This struggle, in other words, He gives to the Father as well.  An angel appears and strengthens Him, yet such is His agony that His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  This is natural, for what is more terrifying than the prospect of death?  What is more natural to a human being than to recoil from death itself?  And yet, Jesus is given this task by the Father; He is the One who will journey through death voluntarily, meeting death with His holiness in order to defeat death once for all, for all of us.  He will bring His presence even to this greatest "sting" of the evil one.  Christ is life Himself ("I am the way, the truth, and the life" - John 14:6), and in this journey and this mission, He will meet death and defeat it.  For He is life for all of us.  His very purpose is for the life of the world, and this will be achieved through His death on the Cross, and His Resurrection for us all.  But let us really pay attention to His teachings to the disciples.  He Himself needs prayer, and it is the one thing He counsels to the disciples, that they must pray so as to avoid falling into temptation.  Prayer remains for us the number one weapon we have in our lives.  It is not only for the avoidance of temptation, but so much more.  For Christ, who is life itself, is present with us in prayer.  When we pray, and repeat His name and call upon Him in prayer, we are asking Him to be with us in our lives and circumstances as well.  We are asking Him to help us to battle our temptations and help us in our struggles.  We are also asking Him to be present so that our own repentance becomes not simply a casting away of something that is improper or not good for us, but also so that we might change to become more like Him in the place of what we want to change.  He guides the way.  And this kind of prayer is what is involved in the process called "theosis" by the Orthodox.  That is, becoming more like Him, taking on the traits of the fruit of the Spirit.  In this kind of prayer, we allow Christ in to the deepest corners of the self, and we invite Him to help us to find ourselves -- the true nature that is created in God's image and likeness.  Poignantly, Jesus prays in a Garden, and He prays to overcome His own earthly nature to follow God, even as our earliest ancestors broke with God in a Garden once upon a time, and brought death into the world.  Jesus is in this garden, in agony, praying for Himself that He might follow God's will and complete His mission for all of us, for the life of the whole of the world, for all of creation, to restore us more fully to life as is promised, a life "more abundant" than what we know.  This process is available to us, as we pray and allow that prayer to dwell deep within us, and Christ to come and live there and work His grace and transforming power in us.  Sometimes we will also find ourselves in great struggle, like Him, even when we don't have the same challenges and can't possibly fill the same shoes.  But He has gone first, and so He is there for us, calling us forward in our own lives with our own crosses, so that we may be like Him and manifest His life for the world as well.  As we may experience our own agony, in the many forms and afflictions that may be characterized as death of one sort or another, let us remember that we are thereby also called to Resurrection in many ways -- to participate in His grace in this world and beyond.