Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

26:36 Gethsemane means "oil press," indicating a garden area among the olive groves on the Mount of Olives where olive oil was prepared. The traditional location of Gethsemane is now marked by the modern Church of All Nations, which was built over a fourth-century Byzantine church.

26:37-38 Jesus asks his inner circle of disciples (Peter, James, and John) to share with him this agonizing time of anticipation and sorrow as he faces the cross.

26:39 fell on his face. In this typical posture of abject humility in prayer, Jesus lays his life before his Father in complete honesty and surrender. Jesus is facing the most severe temptation of his life, at the moment when he is ready to accomplish the culmination of his life's mission--to bear the sins of the world--which is what this cup signifies. See note on 20:22-23.

26:41 Their temptation was to succumb to physical sleep and so fail in their responsibility to support Jesus. It may point also to the temptation to deny Jesus when he is led away to the cross (cf. vv. 31-35).