John Calvin Commentary Matthew 26:42

"Again a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, thy will be done." — Matthew 26:42 (ASV)

Again he went away a second time. By these words, it seems as if Christ, having subdued fear, came with greater freedom and courage to submit to the will of the Father. For he no longer asks to have the cup removed from him, but, leaving out this prayer, instead insists on obeying the purpose of God.

According to Mark, however, this progress is not described. Even when Christ returned a second time, we are told that he repeated the same prayer. Indeed, I have no doubt that each time he prayed, fear and horror impelled him to ask that he might be delivered from death.²⁰⁷

Yet it is probable that, at the second time, he labored more to yield obedience to the Father, and that the first encounter with temptation animated him to approach death with greater confidence.

Luke does not explicitly state that he prayed three separate times. Instead, Luke only says that when he was pressed with anguish, he prayed with greater intensity and earnestness, as if he had continued to pray without any interruption. But we know that the Evangelists sometimes omit circumstances and only quickly cover the substance of what took place.

Accordingly, when Luke says towards the end that Christ came to his disciples, it is a hysteron proteron;²⁰⁸ just as, in another clause, he relates that an angel from heaven appeared before he speaks of Christ’s anguish. But this inversion of order is not illogical. For, to inform us that the angel was not sent without good reason, the necessity for this appearance is stated afterwards. Thus, the latter part of the narrative serves, in a way, as an explanation for the former.

Now, although it is the Spirit of God alone who imparts strength, this does not prevent God from employing angels as his ministers. And from this we may conclude what excruciating distresses the Son of God must have endured, since it was necessary for God’s assistance to be granted to him in a visible manner.

²⁰⁷ “A requerir qu’il ne veinst point a ceste mort;” — “to ask that he might not com to that death.”;” — “to ask that he might not com to that death.”

²⁰⁸ Hysteron proteron (ὕστερον πρότερον) is a figure of rhetoric, by which the natural order of events is reversed. — is a figure of rhetoric, by which the natural order of events is reversed. — Ed.