If Christ is the Almighty then why?

Question

why does He pray in the Garden of Gethsemane when He's bleeding from every pore? Why does He beg His Father to remove the cup from the lips if He is the Father? Why does He say "Not my will, but thine own" if they're the same person?

Just so I avoid some of the angry mobs, I know it's impossible to avoid them all, I have read the Bible, a few times, I'm just reading this part now, and I've never understood it, and I've asked different people, and they don't really answer my question, so I'm just looking for what other people think

I'm sorry, maybe im just stupid, but i still don't understand.... if He is God, then why does He pray to Himself? wasn't His example of prayer done during the Sermon on the Mount? What kind of example would it be for Him to make out of something He was doing for us so that we wouldn't ever have to go through it?
And I am praying for answers, I just understand that sometimes I have to look outside myself to find them. That not all of the answers that I'm looking for are going to come in the soft whisperings of the Holy Spirit, but the words of a friend, or even a stranger. I'm just looking to understand.

bt... no where in the bible does it say that God wants an army of ignorant blind sheep... infact, somewhere it says something to the effect of "o be wise, what more can I say" or something, I'm not a scriptorian, how am i supposed to be wise if i take every word I'm given and never ask questions when i become confused?

wow, you guys are totally awesome, thanks so much for all the insights! I'm really impressed that there aren't any (except one) answers that were mean! That's totally cool! In a forum that's usually overflowing with insults from both sides of the spectrum, I really appreciate people taking my question seriously.

Also, just anther part that's got me curious... if everyone else was sleeping, how does anyone know what Christ was praying? And if it's a three-in-one type deal, then why do we call Him the Father and the Son? If they're the same person, then wouldn't calling Him the Son be taking away some of His authority? A father is the head of the household, the first born is the next in line, historically speaking, and the most important of all the children, but if you started calling your dad "son," don't you think that would be a little disrespectful?

Answer 1

No angry mob from me, that is a very legitimate question. It also isn't an easy one.

Jesus is omnipotent, all powerful. Within Him is infinite action potential, unimited ability to cause to be.

But the reason He prays, submits to the weakness of His body, and asks the Father to "take this cup from Me" is not a result of limited power. It is a result of His nature. Though He has unlimited power, His nature determines what He does with it. (Bear with me here, I'm going to be thurough.)

First, Jesus had 2 natures- a human nature, and a divine nature. This is because Jesus is fully human, and fully God. Not half God-half man, but fully both. "All the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily" (Colossians 2:9). And yet He was human (1 Timothy 2:5). This is not different personalities, or different minds, but different influences within Him. A whole human body, with human cravings, emotions, and a finite human brain, inhabited and controlled directly by God Himself in His fullness and totality.

It is Jesus' divine nature that determines what He does with His omnipotent power. God's divine nature is holy, just, loving, and consistent. God loves us, but He is holy, and will not go back on the Word of His law. This is why Jesus had to die for our sins, and why He couldn't just snap His fingers and make our sins dissapear. He had to carry out His Word, He had to be consistent, He had to enforce His law. Just like the Bible says it impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18) it is impossible for God to violate His nature of righteousness, truth, love, and holiness in any way. Numbers 23:19 sums it up nicecly: "God is not a man that He should lie, nor a human being, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?"

Now that we have that established, showing why God could not have saved us any other way except for Christ's death on the cross, we can look at why Jesus did what He did in Gethsemane.

Jesus' human nature came into play here. He knew in His divine nature that, although it was within His power to call armies of angels to rescue Him if He wanted (Matthew 26:53), He knew that if He did, He would condemn every human being who ever lived to Hell for eternity. He, out of love (not out of obligation), did not do this. But He still had the human nature, and His human nature did not want to die. He did not want to die. He did not want to see His disciples scattered in fear when He was arrested. He did not want His family to have to mourn while He was in the grave. He did not want to experience the agony of death, especially death on the cross.

Have you ever been stressed? Well, Jesus was very very stressed. He was not afraid- He knew what the end result would be. But He also knew the horrible door He would have to walk through to reach it. His human side was in agony. So what did He do? Give in to His flesh like the sinners He was trying to save, and use His power to save Himself? No. Did He get angry at the Father because there was no other way? No. Did He bottle it up and let it consume Him? No.

Instead, He bowed and talked to His Father, and expressed to Him His anguish, while still affirming that He would follow the Father's will, which was also in His divine nature. He talked to His Father, let it out, and let the thoughts of His human mind be heared before the Father's throne.

He did exactly what David often did in the Psalms centuries before by expressing His honest thoughts and feelings to the Father, not putting on a "religious happy face", yet still realizing who the Father was, and surrendering to the divine, not the earthly. This is exactly what we should do, and is yet one more example Jesus left for us to follow.

I hope this helps, and sorry for being so lengthy. There was just some things that have to be understood to completely understand the whole thing.
God bless!

Edit- Why did He pray to Himself? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, and He is God. But they are also three persons, in the sense that they have distinct identities. As a human being, Jesus was subject to human weaknesses, and had to act appropriatly. Furthermore, just as I said earlier, He was under stress and was letting it out. It could be said that He was channeling the stress He had to the Father, giving it to Him.

You are good and right to keep asking questions and trying to understand- though you do have to be able to trust God even when you don't understand. But if you are doing that, and seeking as much wisdom as you can, you are very much right to do so.

Answer 2

Jesus is there because he does in fact know what is coming. He always knew why he came to earth. Understand at this point he still has not sinned, but accepting the sins of the world happens at his death, the exchange of death (the shed blood) for the world's sins. Rather, at this time the human (and he is that too, here in Gethsemane) Jesus is under great pressure. He is a man, going to take all of what is about to happen.

Remove this cup refers to the question 'isn't there another way' but of course he knows the plan of salvation always has been death at the cross. So he just confirms God's will: "Not my will, but thine own".

You understand the trinity, well, Here Jesus is the earthly part, the human flesh that is suffering tremendous pressures. They are the same person.

Answer 3

It is called the The Trinity...If you're on R&S a lot, you would find many answers concerning God ,Jesus, &The Holy Spirit.. being explained as simply as possible..3 in 1 person.. God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. And the Best way to discribe it in my opinion, is this : 1 apple divided into 3 pieces, but it came from the same 1 apple.Hope this helps....

Answer 4

Jesus has all the authority of the Father. He is the Savior. Jesus repeatedly mentioned He does not come of His own, but the One who sent Him. Thus, there is something else outside of the fleshy parts of Jesus which has authority. It is true the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are God. It is not true that they all ride in the same car together. They each know what the other thinks. The Father knew Jesus would ask for a pardon from dying on the cross, in much the same way when your kid breaks something and you wait for him/her to come tell you.

Answer 5

Because Jesus is both all God and all man.
The man in Him was asking God if there might be another way to accomplish the salvation of mankind because the God part of Him knew the torment to come in the next few days.
It was not just some angry mobs. He was hauled before Pilate, pronounced guilty without proof and sentence to be crucified because the crowd demanded it.

He was tortured. His beard was jerked out of his face. His clothing was removed and he was beaten 40 lashes worth with a cat-o-nine-tails (which is a leather whip with nine straps loaded with shards of rock and glass). This beating opened up the flesh and exposed his bowels.
A heavy robe was sent for and placed directly on his bloody, cut back. A crown was formed of a local briar whose spines were about 4 inches long and jammed down on his head.
His beating left him in such a state that he was unrecognizable as a man

He was then forced to carry one of the beams of the cross on that torn up back approximately 4 miles to the edge of the city.
His hand feet were nailed into that beam and second beam was placed across the first and his hands nailed to that one.
He stayed in that position for the next six hours.


Wouldn't that make you want to pray and sweat blood if you knew it was coming??!!!??

Answer 6

He is giving you a guide, example. Same as mathematic class. If the teacher only read the formula for you but never explain it practically, will you understand?
He was born as human, to show us how much He cares about us, dealing with the sin of human and so on.
As human, He shows how human should act as human.

Answer 7

Christ in His humanity suffered. Asking the Father to think of another way was a similarity to us. But going through it anyway was what God would do, and did. I would hate to be beaten and nailed, but if I knew God was going to get glorified on account of it i would go through it.

Answer 8

It is the essence of the sign of His love, that He was willing to lay down His divinity to bear the sins of man as a man, not as God. Had He not done this, we'd have no hope because there is no other way (as Jesus says when praying to the Father - words that Jesus says, not for His sake, but for ours, so that we would KNOW that His death is the only way) but that each man must die for their sins. Jesus' death, because He was sinless, yet He bore our sins (yours, mine, and "the world's" i.e., John 3:16) then pays the price for ALL the sins of ALL who will believe.

Answer 9

Jesus did everything totally out in the open.

He was a human being, in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was learning, in the garden.

He knew what tomorrow would bring.

He learned obedience, in the garden, what it is and the cost of it.

Then he was ready.

Answer 10

Jesus Christ is God. There are three Gods in one. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We live by faith. Don't try to figure everything out, just accept it and believe it.