Before the conspiracy to condemn Jesus was enacted, Jesus took time to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and pray. All three of the synoptic Gospels have an account of this moment. Luke sets his account with many changes from Mark's account, which was most likely Luke's main source. Specifically, Gethsemane is not mentioned in Luke's account. From there, the words of Jesus change from a specific command of action in Mark to a call to the disciples to pray.

Again Mark continues in a much more specific manner mentioning the disciples who are there and adding more physical commands of Jesus to them. From there they both describe Jesus' self-isolation and retreat into prayer, with Mark describing him throwing himself to the ground a little ways away while Luke does the same thing saying that he withdrew a distance of a stone's throw. Both accounts record similar words; with Mark adding that all things are possible through the Father, beyond different wordings toward the same theme.

Luke then adds the appearance of an angel that gives Jesus the strength he needs in his anguish. He then adds that Jesus sweat as though his blood was falling to the ground. After this his prayer has concluded and he returns to the disciples, who are sleeping. In Mark the disciples are sleeping merely because they are exhausted, while Luke describes them as grieving. Luke repeats the words that Jesus gave to his disciples at the beginning of this narrative as its conclusion. Mark, however, has Jesus harshly rebuking the disciples for sleeping, then returning to his place of prayer twice with the same results from his disciples each time he returns.

Examining Luke's revisions of Mark's text for this brief narrative, the reader can find two attempts to revise this story thematically. The first attempt is to present Jesus as more of a deity-like figure than that as a man. The second is to present the disciples in a better fashion.

The reader notices the deification of Jesus in many examples in this episode. In the beginning, Luke removes commands similar to that of a human leader and adds prophetic mandates for prayer. This continues in a section that Luke removes from Mark's account. According to Mark, Jesus specifically says to James, Peter, and John that he is distressed and agitated and elaborates further that he is "deeply grieved, even to death." Luke makes a point to remove these human emotions from Jesus' preparation for his crucifixion. Furthermore, when Jesus escapes into prayer, according to Mark, Jesus uses the childish address for father, Abba, as he commences. However again, Luke removes this humanistic reaction, to replace it with a much simpler, more stoic expression of Father.

Jesus' deification continues in a section that Luke added, separate of the writings that Mark offers. In this section Luke describes an angel coming to help out Jesus. Jesus shows signs of human emotion in this brief moment, described by Luke as anguish and needing of strength. These emotions are however erased from Jesus as Luke alludes to another miracle of Jesus. Drops of sweat from his body appear to turn to blood as the reach the earth below. Even momentary lapses into humanity presented by Luke are cured by Jesus' godliness.

Along with the thematic change in the presentation of Jesus, Luke presents the disciples in a different fashion as well. Mark's presentation is very condescending, where Luke compassionately observes their few faults.

In the beginning of the story, the importance of the disciples is eluded to in the first word of this episode. Mark describes "they" coming to the garden, while according to Luke it is only "he". Mark then describes Jesus giving commands to the disciples similar to requests asked of a child. He asks them to stay still and stay awake. Luke however has a much grander request of them and that is to pray. When Jesus returns to prayer in Luke's account, Jesus is much more forgiving of the acts of the others in the garden with him. Jesus understands that they had fallen asleep out of grief and only asks them again to pray. Mark however takes a much more belittling stance against them. When Jesus discovers that James, John, and Peter are asleep, Jesus speaks in a disappointed tone. Instead of treating them in the way that Luke's Jesus does, Mark's Jesus commands them again merely to stay awake. When the same result occurs after two more sessions of prayer, Jesus' disappointment grows and peaks.

One possible explanation for the deification of Jesus is actually a cultural boundary that has arisen since the time of Jesus. Today, the stoicism of Jesus in Luke's Gospel can be read as an attempt to show the Deity of Jesus more fully. However it may have been an attempt to appeal to the Greek audience Luke was writing for. Greek culture respected reason as the most important aspect of all life. Because of this they disliked emotion as getting in the way of reason. When a man was able to shed emotion, they were able to live a life controlled by reason, which was highly respectable in Greek culture. Luke's stoic Jesus can be read not as an attempt to remove the humanity of Jesus in a modern context, but as an attempt to make Jesus more of the ideal man in the context of Ancient Greece.

The different roles that are assigned to the disciples, and the different reactions to them are much easily explained. Mark constantly degrades the disciples in his Gospel; something that the other synoptic authors constantly revise. However, when Luke revises the approach to the disciples in this episode, he is not only improving the view of the disciples which is a change that has been made many times between Luke and Mark's Gospels, he also shifts more of the focus on this episode onto Jesus, which is another attempt that Luke constantly makes. Since Luke is not going at great lengths to describe the shortcomings of the disciples, he is better able to describe the greatness of Jesus Christ. Much of this episode as it appears in Mark's Gospel is Jesus' interaction and reaction to the disciples. Luke is able to shift that focus onto Jesus more specifically, and his preparations for his oncoming assassination.