"Father, let this cup pass from Me." (Jolm. xii. 47, and Mark xxvi. 29.) It is, however, only fair to say that the first of these prayers is greatly qualified by the context, and the second by the words, " if it be possible."
We may note here, as elsewhere, what an example of thank- fulness, as well as prayerfuluess, our Lord always supplies. Well if it was followed ! His people are always more ready to ask than to thank. The more grace in a heart the more humil- ity, and the more humility the more praise.
Chrysostom remarks : " Who now ever prayed in this man- ner? Before uttering any prayer, He saith, 'I thank Thee,' showing that He needed not prayer." He also says that the real cause of our Lord saying this was to show the Jews He was no enemy of God, but did all His works according to His will.
Origen observes : " If to those who pray worthily is given the promise in Isaiah, ' Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am,' what answer, think we, could our Lord receive? He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus. He was heard by the Father before He prayed; His request was granted before it was made ; and, therefore, He begins with thanks."
Musculus, Flacius, and Glassius, think that our Lord refers to prayer He had been putting up secretly when He was "groan- ing in spirit and troubled," and that He was then wrestling and agonizing in prayer, though those around Him knew it not. We may remember that at the Red Sea we are not told of any audi- ble prayer Moses offered, and yet the Lord says, " Wherefore criest thou unto Me? " (Exodus xiv. 15.)
Quesnel observes : " Christ being about to conclude His pub- lic life and preaching by the last and most illustrious of His miracles, returns solemn thanks to His Father for the power given to His human nature to prove the authority of His mis- sion by miracles."
Hall observes : "Words express our hearts to men, thoughts to God. Well didst Thou know, Lord, out of the self-sameness of Thy will with the Father's, that if Thou didst but think in Thy heart that Lazarus should rise, he was now raised. It was not for Thee to pray vocally and audibly, lest those captious hearers should say, Thou didst all by entreaty, and nothing by power."
42.— [And I knew that Thou hearest, etc.'] This verse is so ellipti- cal that the meaning can hardly be seen without a paraphrase. " I do not give Thee these thanks as if I had ever doubted Thy willingness to hear Me ; on the contrary, I know well that Thou always hearest Me. — Thou dost not only hear all my prayers as Man, both for myself and my people; Thou dost also ever hear Me, even as I hear Thee, from the mystical union there is between the Father and th,e Son. But I have now said this