Matthew 26:39 “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Our Beloved Lord well knew the great Sacrificial Sufferings that were ahead of him. These Sufferings began this same night and continued until midafternoon the next day. After hanging on the Cross from mid-morning until midafternoon, His Sufferings ceased when “he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). The physical Sufferings were grotesque and painful beyond human comprehension. Physicians have described the Sufferings in medical terms, emphasizing that the agonizing pain was prolonged and beyond human endurance. But, our Dear and Most Beloved Lord came to Sacrificially Suffer what no human being could Suffer. This suffering was so dreadful that when “it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44) our Beloved Lord completed what He came to do. He came to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Thus, to “save his people from their sins”, it was necessary for Him to “bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24) that He might fulfill this prophecy: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalms 103:12). It appears that, toward the midafternoon, the full pain and shame of our sins were placed in His Perfect, Innocent Body. The anguish reached an incalculable severity, it so awfully afflicted Him that He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). His Suffering was so severe that “his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14); the prophet wrote that “many were astonied at” him; that is, they were absolutely stunned at His appearance as He Suffered in Anguish. I believe the scene was so awful that loving believers could hardly look upon Him; for, they would themselves be so severely weakened, as they themselves were overcome with grief, that all they could do would be to fall down before Him and pitifully cry out their love for Him. If it were possible, oh that I could, fall down before my Suffering Savior and cry unto Him, “I am so sorry for my sins for which You now Suffer”! But, we can show our “love” to Him by keeping His “commandments” (John 14:15), and by taking “up” our “cross daily, and” following Him (Luke 9:23). And, we can never forget that it is Jesus Christ alone “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (I Peter 2:24)!