Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 26:39

"And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." — Matthew 26:39 (ASV)

He went a little farther — Saint Luke adds (Luke 22:41) that it was about a stone’s cast. The eight were left, we may believe, near the entrance of the garden; the three, apart by themselves, further on; the Master, still further, by Himself. The three heard the words that came from His lips with a half-consciousness that revived afterward in memory, but they were then numbed and stupefied with weariness and sorrow. It was now near the dawning of the day, and their eyes had not closed in sleep for twenty-four hours.

If it be possible, let this cup pass from me — We shrink instinctively from analyzing or commenting on the utterances of that hour of agony. But, happily, words are given to us where our own words fail. Thus it was, we are told, that He learned obedience by the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). He had spoken before to the very disciples who were now near Him of the cup which His Father had given Him to drink (Matthew 20:23). Now the cup is brought to His lips, and His human will at once shrinks from it and accepts it. The prayer He had taught His disciples to use, Lead us not into temptation, is now His prayer, but it is subordinated to that other prayer, which is higher even than it: Thy will be done.

In the prayer If it be possible, we recognize, as in Mark 13:32, the natural, necessary limits of our Lord’s humanity. In one sense, with God all things are possible, but even the Divine Omnipotence works through self-imposed laws, in the spiritual as in the natural world, where ends cannot be obtained except through their appointed and therefore necessary means. Some have rashly said that God might have redeemed mankind without the sufferings and death of the Son of Man, but the higher laws of the Divine Government made such a course—if we may venture to say so—morally impossible.