After Jesus and his disciples spent the afternoon celebrating Passover inside a room in Jerusalem, he needed to be alone to pray to God. Three of his disciples accompanied Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane before Judas and the Roman soldiers led him to the Pharisees. According to verse 37 of Book 26 of Matthew, Jesus “began to be sad and very heavy.” He told his disciples: “My soul is overwhelmed with pain and ready to die. Stay here and watch with me.” Later, he fell face down on the ground and prayed: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be removed from me. But not as I want, but as you.” (Matthew 26:38-39).
In Gethsemane, Jesus seemed unusually fearful. Throughout the Gospels, he is always brave, strong and collected. He is the Christ who created heaven and earth. As the Son of God, he never showed any kind of fear. But in the garden he was not only worried about his fate, but he trembled, stuttered and paced frantically between God and his disciples. He asked God if there was another way, but he received no answer. He fell face down, too weak to even stand (Matthew 26:39). Lucas says that he was so distraught that his forehead was sweating blood.
Many Christians are under the misconception that Jesus agonized only from the physical pain he would endure the next day, which included being flogged, beaten by Roman guards, placed a helmet of long, sharp thorns on his head, and ultimately crucifixion. But Jesus seemed more consumed by the “cup.”
Why did Jesus ask the Father if he could remove the “cup”? It was the cup of wrath that contained all the sins of humanity and He would bear them on the Cross. All sins fall on the individual who does not accept Jesus’ sacrifice when death comes; the sinner goes to hell where torment is violently inflicted every second for eternity.
God probably gave Jesus a glimpse into the horrors of hell to show him and prepare him for all the afflictions he would experience on the Cross. What Jesus felt was hell itself, already haunting his soul, while visions of hell terrified him to the marrow of his soul. For a time, Satan probably tempted Jesus. If He took the cup, He would pay for the sins of everyone living on Earth. To be saved from going to hell and enjoy eternal life in heaven, the soul must believe in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.
To get an idea of what hell is like for every sinner who goes there, we must ask those who went there after death and soon came back to life. Ronald Whitaker was an atheist and “hardcore” sinner. Many years ago, he became seriously ill with acute hemorrhagic necrotic pancreatitis and knew that death was fast approaching him. That night as he lay in a hospital bed, his body slipped many times in the “darkness” that frightened him so much that he called it “unspeakable terror.” Many testimonials from other unrepentant sinners who claimed to have traveled to hell after temporarily dying, woke up “screaming”, “terrified” and “scared” after witnessing many other people being tortured by huge and ferocious demons whose bodies they were tearing apart. Some claim they saw burning souls whose bodies repeatedly disintegrated and then became whole again.
We cannot begin to understand what the only Son of God went through in Gethsemane. All we have are the Biblical Scriptures from Matthew and Luke that record what Jesus told them. We know that before the mob came to arrest him, he had received the strength and joy that prepared him to endure physical torture and drink the spiritual cup of God’s wrath so that believing souls could go to heaven and enjoy eternal life.