“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Hebrews 5:7
After the Passover Supper Jesus withdrew to a garden he had frequented with His disciples, the Garden of Gethsemane located in the Olive grove. It is here that He prays His greatest and most earnest prayer. Luke 22:39-46:
39 Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. 40 There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.” 41 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. 45 At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”
The first time he said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). The second time he said, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42).
Jesus does not ask for the cup to be removed, but instead asks for God’s will to be done in view of the revealed fact (the angel strengthening him) that the cup cannot pass. He went on praying for success in drinking it.
The intense prayer in the garden of Gethsemane reveals Jesus’ greatest act of obedience and submission to God.
Concerning Jesus’ obedience, Jonathan Edwards says:
This was the greatest act of obedience that Christ was to perform. He prays for strength and help, that his poor feeble human nature might be supported, that he might not fail in this great trial, that he might not sink and be swallowed up, and his strength so overcome that he should not hold out, and finish the appointed obedience.
He was afraid lest his poor feeble strength should be overcome, and that he should fail in so great a trial, that he should be swallowed up by that death that he was to die, and so should not be saved from death; and therefore he offered up strong crying and tears unto him that was able to strengthen, support and save him from death, that the death he was to suffer might not overcome his love and obedience, but that he might overcome death, and so be saved from it.
When Paul says of Jesus’s resurrection, “Therefore God has highly exalted him” (Philippians 2:9), the “therefore” refers to Jesus’s unwavering obedience unto death: “Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore . . .” (Philippians 2:8). God saved Jesus from death because he was obedient. Because He was obedient His prayers were answered.
If Jesus had not been obedient unto death, he would have been swallowed up by death forever and there would be no resurrection, no salvation, and no future world filled with the glory of God’s grace and God’s children. This is what Jesus prayed for “to him who was able to save him from death” — that is, save him from a death that would not succeed its saving mission
Isaiah 53:10-11
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.