Not My will but Your will be done…

Was reading Mark 14 this morning and was struck again by a number of things in the last hours of Jesus’ life before He went to the cross to pay for the sin of the world and bring peace between man and His Heavenly Father, for anyone who puts their trust in Him.

Mark 14:32-42 says:

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”
He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words. And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. Then He came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” (NKJV – www.blueletterbible.org)

What strikes me every time I read the above passage are the words “Take this cup away from Me…” (Please have mercy on the following words all you who have studied the word of God far more than this writer and understand that whatever I say after the words of Scripture above, could be suspect to heresy. Not my intention, but the word of God is the truth, anything I have to say about the word of God falls just short of His word of course.)

Many who have read this passage and have written about what they believe Jesus means by “cup” – well I will just say there are numerous views on what did He mean and what was His intentions. Going through cancer, again gives me a taste of being given something from our heavenly Father that I would have never asked for but going through what I have gone through, I can see His wisdom in some ways.

John the Baptist, when seeing Jesus, proclaimed,

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And all through the OT we catch glimpses of what the Father and the Son had planned before the beginning of the foundations of the earth. Jesus came to die, as planned, on a rugged cross, shedding all of His blood, and being mocked and scorned by men. He did this with joy – (Heb. 12:2) and with full knowledge that this would happen – (Mark 10:32-34).

So I have to ask the question, “When Jesus said, ‘take this cup from Me’, or ‘let this cup pass from Me’, why would He be asking the Father to undo everything that He for joy was ready to do and why would He ask the Father to undo everything that He told His disciples would happen?” I believe He was not asking the Father to undo His death on the cross, but to undo the possibility of Him dying that very hour in prayer. His mind and His soul was very well informed with what was going to happen in the hours to come, but I believe His human flesh was so burdened and overwhelmed that any other man would have died just at the thought of what Jesus would be going through. So He may be asking the Father to take the “cup” that He had in His hands at that moment – which would have brought about His death, but not the way they had planned before nor the way prophesized. Hence – “Not My will but Your will be done.” Like He may have been saying, “this is not the way we planned it, not my will (which was to go to the cross) but Your will, which is what was taking place at that moment.” (The quotations are there not because of what He said, but to just clarify what He may have meant.)

All of this to say, in every way our Savior Jesus is so great. People die sometimes just because they give up hope. They give up the will to press on. Jesus could have done that, but He sets the example for me and for you to endure at all cost. Endure for His glory and for His name’s sake. Whatever comes my way, I want to be like our Lord Jesus and if that means going through great pain or great loss here on earth, “Not my will, but Your will be done” Amen.