Luke 22:42

The context

Luke 22 places the prayer on the Mount of Olives, after the supper and the prediction of Peter's denial. Jesus withdraws from the disciples, kneels, and prays about the cup; the passage notes his anguish and the disciples' sleep. The prayer is answered not by the cup's removal but by the arrest that follows.

What it establishes

Two things are held together: a real request that the cup pass, and a submission that leaves the decision with the Father. The prayer is not resignation in advance; the desire is stated plainly, and then yielded. Luke presents the struggle as genuine and the outcome as obedience.

What it does not establish

It does not resolve the later christological question. How a divine and a human will relate in one person was argued out centuries afterward, and this verse is not a definition. Nor does it teach that prayer should always end in resignation. It records one prayer, in one hour.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• How could Jesus have been GENUINELY tempted if He could not sin?!
• So God hears every prayer? I asked for a new car and got nothing. Therefore God does not exist.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.