Matthew 26:44

‘And he left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words.'

The same pattern is repeated, but Matthew feels that he has already said enough to convey the essence of what happened. Unlike Luke he does not bring out the growing intensity of Jesus' anguish. He has packed all the obvious anguish into the first prayer. He does, however, want us to know that it has not gone away, and that it endures. ‘He said the same words', and note the repetition of ‘again'. He wants us to know that the same anguish is continuing right to the end. There is no respite for Jesus. In His humanness He had looked for support from His human friends, but now He has come to recognise that He must carry the burden Himself. He must enter the darkness alone.