Matthew 26:36-39,42 NASB95
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” [37] And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. [38] Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” [39] And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” [42] He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
God had a plan for mankind’s redemption from the reign of sin that was already in place before the Fall. Jesus always knew all the things that were coming upon Him – John 18:4 – (because He was the plan) even before His agonizing at Gethsemane. When Jesus told Peter, John, and James, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death,” He wasn’t primarily referencing what He saw about the physical suffering He was going to endure. He saw broken, and ruined humanity as a result of the reign of sin and the fact that He would have to become collective sin that we might become new humans set free from the evil disease of sin. “ Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us completely how, and with his wounds, we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
When Jesus went away the 2nd time and prayed, he repeatedly said, “if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will Father be done.” Why is this particular prayer worded differently than the first and 3rd time that Jesus prayed in His appeal to the Father? I believe when Jesus said, “if THIS CANNOT PASS AWAY unless I drink it,” the “THIS” He was referring to was the suffering and destruction that humanity was experiencing under the cruel reign of sin. Jesus was saying to the Father that if the only way for human brokenness and suffering to pass away was for Him to take it all upon Himself at the cross so that He could raise up a new humanity in His resurrection, he was prepared to drink the cup of crucifixion, becoming sin on our behalf. “He (the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:21. GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD!