rwp - Matthew:26:38-39

rwp@Matthew:26:38 @{Watch with me} (\grgoreite met' emou\). This late present from the perfect \egrgora\ means to keep awake and not go to sleep. The hour was late and the strain had been severe, but Jesus pleaded for a bit of human sympathy as he wrestled with his Father. It did not seem too much to ask. He had put his sorrow in strong language, "even unto death" (\hes thanatou\) that ought to have alarmed them.

rwp@Matthew:26:39 @{He went forward a little} (\proelthn mikron\). As if he could not fight the battle in their immediate presence. He was on his face, not on his knees (McNeile). {This cup} (\to potrion touto\). The figure can mean only the approaching death. Jesus had used it of his coming death when James and John came to him with their ambitious request, "the cup which I am about to drink" (Matthew:20:22|). But now the Master is about to taste the bitter dregs in the cup of death for the sin of the world. He was not afraid that he would die before the Cross, though he instinctively shrank from the cup, but instantly surrendered his will to the Father's will and drank it to the full. Evidently Satan tempted Christ now to draw back from the Cross. Here Jesus won the power to go on to Calvary.