Exploring The Mind of God (Hebrew Word Study)Намуна

Let This Cup Pass from Me

And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 KJV)

If God is perfect in love and loves us with this perfect love, why did He hesitate to go to the cross, as this passage suggests? Did Jesus really have a time of indecision, worried about giving up His life, and then finally, after a long struggle, surrender and say, “All right, already, Father, You win. I’ll go if You order Me to”?

Overwhelmed by Love

The dialect Jesus spoke was an Old Galilean form of Aramaic. When I read this passage from the Aramaic version of the Bible, I come up with a somewhat different rendering. First and foremost, the Aramaic word that is used for “cup” is kasa. It is identical to the Hebrew word kavas, which is also the word found in other Semitic languages that is used for a stork and/or a pelican. In ancient times, these two were considered the same bird.

The stork was noted for its tender, loving care of its young. Legend teaches that, in times of famine, the mother stork would peck at her breast until it bled and then feed her chicks with her own blood. Legend also has it that if one of the stork’s chicks died, she would resurrect her young with her own blood.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was praying that this kasa (cup, nurturing love) would “pass” from Him. The Greek word translated “pass” is parelthato, which means “to avert,” “to avoid,” or “to pass over.” But if Jesus spoke this word in Aramaic, which was later translated into Greek, it is possible that He used the term ’avar. The Aramaic ’avar has a comparable word in Hebrew with a wide range of meanings. The word itself is a picture of a river overflowing onto its banks. You could say that it is “passing over,” but more correctly, it would be rendered as “overwhelming.” Jesus might have been praying that this cup, or this nurturing, sacrificial love would overwhelm Him so that His mind and emotions would not dread the coming pain.

Matthew 26:37 says that Jesus became “sorrowful.” In Aramaic, the word for “sorrowful” is kamar, which means “to burn” or “to kindle.” It is used to signify a burning love or compassion. As Jesus was about to make the sacrifice of His own life, His entire being was filled with a burning love and compassion for humankind, such that He says, “If it is possible, let this cup, or this nurturing love, ’avar, or overwhelm, Me.” In Aramaic, the word that is translated here as “if possible” is shekev, which literally means “if this happens.” Once more, Jesus was saying that if this suffering was going to happen, then let a burning, nurturing love for humankind overwhelm Him so that all He would think about was that love. It was the sacrificial love Jesus had for each one of us that helped Him to endure the horrendous pain and torture He went through in His sufferings.

Taking on Our Suffering and Pain

Thus, in the garden of Gethsemane, I don’t believe Jesus sweat drops of blood due to a fear of His impending torture and death, or even the pressure of taking on our sins. (See Luke 22:44.) At that moment, I believe He saw and knew the tremendous agony, pain, and suffering of humankind. He was so filled with love for each one of us that He could not endure the knowledge of what our pain and suffering was like.

God could not fully understand human suffering until He took on human flesh. And being sinless, Jesus did not fully understand the torment of sin until the cross. But when He carried the sins of the world, He understood what the torment of guilt and condemnation was really like. Often, the mother of a sick child will pray that her child’s suffering and pain could somehow be placed upon her. At Gethsemane, Jesus understood our suffering and pain and knew He could take it on. It was His knowledge and understanding of what sin had done to us and His empathy for our suffering that caused Him to sweat drops of blood.