Luke 22:41

And he was parted from them about a stone's cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

The taking of Peter, James and John to a position nearer to himself, the triple repetition of the prayer, and other important details were omitted in Luke's account; and for a discussion of those things, reference is made to the comments under the parallels in this series.

Remove this cup ... The ascendancy of our Lord's human nature is evident in this scene. The utter repugnance of so horrible a death as Jesus confronted sent the Saviour to his knees; and there, wrestling with God in prayer, he brought his human nature into submissive compliance with the Father's will.

The implications here are profound. There was no way God could remove the cup of suffering from Jesus without abandoning the purpose of human redemption. Some have interpreted the "cup" as agony itself, so great that Jesus was in imminent danger of dying before he ever came to the cross. Whether this was truly the "cup" or not is uncertain, but the appearance of an angel to strengthen the Lord in that agony surely suggests that it was at least an element in it.