When Jesus' Prayer Was Answered "No"

Read Matthew 26:30-56

      Does Jesus know what it is like to have a prayer answered “no”?  He does, and it is here.  Many have faced death bravely, but no one ever died like Jesus died, bearing the sins of the world and exhausting the wrath of God against all of it.  “Gethsemane” means “oil press,” and certainly Jesus’ crushing begins in earnest here, sweating “great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44) as he prayed his anguished prayers.    

      In the first garden (Eden) man’s “not your will, but mine” traded away paradise in exchange for death for all.  Now the second Adam is in another garden (Gethsemane), and his “not my will but thine” will purchase life everlasting for all who believe.