Gethsemane is “The Olive Press”. It is the garden that liberates the sin of the Garden of Eden and stamps God’s character on us. In the stamping, the olives are crushed and the oil flows. It can also be akin to the foot stomping of the grape, where the finest wine – or new wine comes from. Our feet are to be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6: 15), and they, in Christ, crush the head of Satan, while Christ’s heel was bruised.
This is Dr. Luke’s account, so it would make sense that he highlights the intense sorrow and physical effects from the strain of the impending separation from the Father, and the knowledge that His disciples will not be there for Him. Of course, He knew that and wasn’t really looking to them for His strength (the angel sent would provide that), He wanted this time to be a teaching for the disciples of the strength they will need to face this world without His physical presence. How would they know they were sleeping and unaware, unless they experienced it in front of Him?
So, in verse 39, Jesus does what is normal for His schedule – He goes to the garden (this is how Judas knew where to find Him) and in verse 40 He prays for the disciples, that they enter not into temptation (allusion to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve entered into a pact with the devil). In verse 41 Jesus goes a stones throw away and prays (not so much for them to see Him); they were too overwhelmed with what was happening to them, but so that He could see them. Even in pain, He’s the Shepherd. Verse 42 finds Jesus surrendering His earthly will to the eternal will/plan of God and in verse 43, the angel summoned then strengthens Him.
Verse 44 shows the anguish of His soul, the droplets of blood, and verse 45 shows the disciples in their exhausted sleep – the sorrow they could not bear themselves. Jesus reminds them to wake themselves up and get up and pray so they avoid temptation to fall. They needed to be in an alert position.
In this place – From Garden to Garden, we find a place of personal victory. Calvary won over sin, but Gethsemane won over the will.
Jesus took on Himself the sin He abhorred, was willing to be separate from the Father He adored, all so our souls could eternally be stored in the original Garden of God – the Paradise.