‘And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down on the ground.'
The greatness of Jesus' struggle against the horror that faced Him comes out in these words. On the one hand was the need of an angel to strengthen Him bodily in His humanness (compare Mark 1:13; Matthew 4:11; and see Matthew 26:53). On the other was the physical effect caused by His struggle, His ‘agony' caused by His awareness of what He was facing, an agony in which He was aware of far more suffering than the cross could ever bring. His prayers became more earnest until He, as it were, sweated blood. What this last indicates it is futile for us to consider in too much detail. Possibly Luke saw in the great drops of sweat the blood that would shortly replace them. Possibly it is highly figurative. Or perhaps, as it can in moments of great stress, blood did mingle with the sweat that flowed from the pores of His skin. But all that we really need to recognise is that the description was intended to bring out the torture of His soul. And it is important that we do recognise that. It would have been so easy to think of Jesus as sailing through all His trials without a problem had it not been for this experience. We would have underestimated it. Here we learn that having been made man, it was as a man that He faced His destiny. He was being tempted in all points like as we are, and yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). In His inward struggles He did not call on His supernatural powers, for it was as Man that He had to overcome.
These two verses are lacking in a large number of good manuscripts and witnesses (p75; B; corrected Aleph; A; T; W; f13; etc.). The early date and widespread nature of these witnesses indicate that the words were quite possibly not there in the original manuscript, although Epiphanius (4th century AD) among others argues that in fact the verses were omitted for doctrinal reasons early on, and we can certainly see why it might be so. They may well have been seen as too ‘human' for the glorified Jesus.
However, the widespread nature of the evidence for omitting them cannot be seen as supporting this argument. Such a large scale decision to omit them would hardly have been feasible once manuscripts were widely spread. Nevertheless evidence for their inclusion is also fairly strong (Aleph; D; L; X; Gamma; Delta; Theta; Psai; f1 etc.), and even more so as the words were known to Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tatian and Hippolytus. All this therefore emphasises that the inclusion, if it be such, was very ancient and also widespread, and it suggests therefore that the words were inserted very early on, because of well remembered eyewitness testimony, even possibly having been added later by Luke after the first copies of his manuscript had gone out, on someone who read his Gospel informing him quietly of what had been omitted. They serve to bring out the cosmic nature of the struggle which was taking place, and its resulting intensity. And this intensity is especially brought out by the need for Him to be strengthened beforehand in preparation for it, rather than at the end as in Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13. Here then there is the reversal of the usual process (a typical Lucan chiasmus?).