30. But perhaps He may be thought to have
feared to the extent that He prayed that the cup might be removed from
Him: Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee:
remove this cup from Me St. Mark xiv. 36.. To take
the narrowest ground of argument, might you not have refuted for
yourself this dull impiety by your own reading of the words, Put up
thy sword into its sheath: the cup which My Father hath given Me,
shall I not drink it St. John xviii. 11.?
Could fear induce Him to
pray for the removal from Him of that which, in His zeal for the Divine
Plan, He was hastening to fulfil? To say He shrank from the
suffering He desired is not consistent. You allow that He
suffered willingly: would it not be more reverent to confess that
you had misunderstood this passage, than to rush with blasphemous and
headlong folly to the assertion that He prayed to escape suffering,
though you allow that He suffered willingly?