“He…offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Heb 5:7, KJV).
Jesus performed many mighty works without outward signs of strain, but these words describe His praying. J. Oswald Sanders writes: “‘Epaphras is always wrestling for you in his prayers,’ wrote Paul to the Colossians (4:12).…The word ‘wrestling’ is that from which our word ‘agony’ is derived. It is used of a man toiling at his work until utterly weary (Col 1:29), or competing in the arena for the coveted laurel wreath (1 Cor 9:25). It describes the soldier battling for his life (1 Tim 6:12), or a man struggling to deliver his friend from danger (Jn 18:36). It pictures the agony of earnestness of a man to save his own soul (Lk 13:24). But its supreme significance appears in the tragedy of Gethsemane. ‘Being in an agony He prayed more earnestly’ (22:44), induced by His identification with the sins of a lost world.…True intercession is costly.…It cannot be costless and crossless.”