Christianity Today: Praying in the Shadow of Gethsemane, by John C. Peckham (Andrews University; Google Scholar; Author, Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict (2024)):
Even the most spiritually mature adults can struggle with the purpose and effect of their prayers—particularly when God seems absent or silent in their hour of greatest need, despite how faithfully and fervently they pray. If God is perfectly good, all-powerful, and knows our needs before we ask (as Jesus himself taught in Matthew 6:8), how could our prayers make any difference in God’s action? Wouldn’t God already know, will, and do whatever is preferable regardless of whether or how we pray?
These are not easy questions to answer, and they bring up sticky theological quandaries, such as how God’s sovereignty and human free will could possibly coexist. On this issue, Christians land on various parts of a spectrum, seeing it as some form of divine determinism, an optimistic vision of human partnership with God, or something else. Some see prayer primarily as a personal devotional practice that does not influence divine action, while others assume that unanswered prayers reflect the lack of faith of those praying. …
Christ’s prayers in Gethsemane are especially profound and shed significant light on how to pray faithfully amid such questions.
It was the night before Jesus was to be crucified. In deep distress, he withdrew to pray, as he often did. Enveloped by profound darkness, “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matt. 26:38), Jesus instructed his disciples to pray, moved a little way off, and “fell with his face to the ground,” praying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39).
If it is possible? How could anything not be possible for God? Jesus also prayed, “Father! All things are possible for You” (Mark 14:36, NASB). Why, then, did he pray, “if it is possible”?
Taken together, these verses indicate that, in one sense, all things are possible for God—as all-powerful, God can do anything that does not involve a logical contradiction. But in another sense, some outcomes might not be possible for God —for example, those that require him to break his promises, behave contrary to his nature, or act against his overarching will.
Could Christ have avoided the cross? He certainly possessed the power to do so. Later, when Peter tried to save Jesus by cutting off the ear of one of those sent to arrest him, Jesus rebuked him and said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matt. 26:53–54).
The real question is, could Christ have avoided the cross and still saved sinners? To which the answer seems to be no. This passage shows us that it must not have been possible for Christ to fulfill his overarching mission—to save the world from sin and defeat suffering and death itself—without facing the cross.
“If it is possible” seems to indicate that some avenues are not available to God in keeping with his goals and commitments. God was committed to justifying sinners (while himself remaining perfectly just) and to demonstrating his love in such a way that darkness would be defeated for good (Rom. 3:25–26; 5:8; Rev. 21:4). Because of this, God could not bring about his greater desire of saving humans without the suffering of the cross. In the ultimate act of love and justice, Jesus willingly chose to lay down his life (John 1:17–18) and “for the joy set before him he endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2).
But Christ’s midnight prayer in the garden of Gethsemane didn’t end there. After praying, “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me,” he added, “yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39). Later, Christ prayed twice more, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (vv. 42, 44). Interestingly, this last phrase appears earlier in the Book of Matthew when Jesus teaches his followers how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13). Understanding this context sheds even more light on Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. …
It was not the Father’s desire or preference that Christ should suffer and die—as Scripture tells us, God takes no pleasure in anyone’s death (2 Pet. 3:9; Ezek. 18:32), let alone that of his beloved Son. Yet Isaiah says, “It was the Lord’s will to crush him” (53:10). In what sense? Strictly because this was God’s only route to redeem sinners and save the cosmos from darkness.
God’s will to remedy all that has gone wrong in our fallen world is what I call his remedial will. This is distinct from his ideal will—which Scripture makes clear was, from the beginning, that no sin, evil, or suffering would have occurred at all.
With this understanding, we can pray for deliverance from suffering and death with confidence that such prayer aligns with God’s ideal will. Yet we also recognize God’s remedial will might take another course due to countless other factors in the cosmic conflict, many of which we cannot see. As such, we should follow Christ in praying, “if it is possible”—given what is available and preferable, and given everything God knows about all factors involved, whether seen or unseen.
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