In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. This passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews is an echo of the story in the gospels of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. His prayer there was that “this cup would pass from him.” However, on this Good Friday we recall that Jesus had to drink the cup of suffering completely — he was not saved from death. But the Bible insists that “he was heard.” Perhaps the author is remembering the second half of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane: “Yet not my will, but thine be done.” It is easy to wonder if God is hearing our prayers when we don’t get what we ask for. Gethsemane teaches us that God always hears us but that the wisdom of God is deeper than ours and that sometimes we get something better than what we asked. Jesus was not spared the sorrow of Good Friday but he was given the ultimate joy of Easter Sunday. Let Gethsemane be our school of prayer.
