Matthew 26:44

And he left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words.

This passage is the basis for the assumption, allowed even by Plummer and others, that repeated prayers are acceptable. To this it may be replied that "repeated" prayers are indeed acceptable, provided only that they are PRAYERS. Furthermore, there is absolutely no precedent for rote prayers, mumbled or shouted over and over, without intermission. Christ did nothing like that; and one needs a strong imagination to find any permission in the Lord's thrice-repeated prayer for any such thing as that exhibited in the Rosary. True, Christ repeated the prayer three times, over a span of at least an hour; but, as noted above, there is a definite progression in the prayers, and they were, in each case, separated by intervals of time sufficient for Christ to return to the sleeping disciples. Add to this the significant change in the second prayer from the first, and a probable further change in the third from the second, and this solemn triple prayer plainly refutes the type of glib, rote prayer it is alleged to allow.

Luke's account adds a number of significant details in the scene depicted here. The apostles' sleep is attributed to sorrow (Luke 22:46), and he mentioned the great drops of blood falling to the ground. That detail was of special interest to Luke the physician. "Commentators give instances of this blood-sweat under abnormal pathological circumstances."[13] Men under torture have been observed to sweat blood, a phenomenon always followed immediately by death. If such was the type of blood-sweat endured by Jesus, it would explain the necessity of angels coming to strengthen him (Luke 22:43).

The blood-sweat, a portent of immediate and impending death, is thought by some scholars to be "the cup" which Jesus prayed to be removed, thus referring it primarily to the agony of that hour and not to the crucifixion. Supporting that view is the fact that no angel on the morrow was required to minister to him on the cross, whereas such supernatural power was required in Gethsemane. L. S. White, pioneer preacher of the gospel and profound expositor of the Scriptures, held this view, affirming that Christ, sweating the blood-sweat, and knowing that he was about to die in Gethsemane rather than upon the cross, prayed for the cup to pass. In this view, God answered the Saviour's prayer for the cup to pass, not by removing the cup, but by sending an angel to strengthen him. One may only wonder at the agony which produced such a phenomenon. Perhaps it was not meant for mortals to know the full story of that hour.

But none of the angels ever knew How deep were the waters crossed, Or how dark was the night our Lord passed through Ere he found the sheep that was lost!