If it is Your Will...

“As You Will”

(Matthew 26:36-46, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 12, 2008)

Matthew 26:36-46 ³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." ⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." ⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." ⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."

Introduction – A point of no return…

America’s most famous theologian, Jonathan Edwards, preached for twenty-three years to his 18^th century church in Northampton, Massachusetts until a time of great controversy arose which led to their formal rejection of him. Though he tried for some time to work out a resolution, it was not to be. Edwards came to the occasion of his last sermon to that congregation, a forthright exposition of 2 Corinthians 1:14, pressing upon them the fact that he and they would both have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ one day. At that emotionally-charged moment, he did not hold back. It was a point of no return. He laid out many things before them, but one of the final things that he urged was the duty of those who were on different sides of the recent controversy to join together regularly in prayer. He earnestly pledged to pray for the congregation and asked their fervent prayers for him. Interesting…

Our Lord, in the Garden of Gethsemane, reached a monumental point of no return. He knew that He would soon depart from His little flock of disciples and they would all be scattered from Him. Perhaps more than any other episode in the Bible, we see in Gethsemane that Jesus Christ did not hold anything back as He went to the cross. Though His situation in the garden as He moved toward the cross was in some ways like nothing else that any man has ever faced, there is a point of contact here with all people of faith who have ever found themselves at the end of something important; when the road ahead is very hard, and there simply is no way of going back to an earlier day. At such a defining time for the future of one’s life; a time which so many have faced, usually against their own will, and often without the effectual comfort of friends, the thought comes that the only one we can turn to is God Himself. We have much to learn about our Lord, and much to learn from Him from His time of agony in that place.

The Master’s instruction (36-38)

Jesus was called the “Son of David,” because He was a descendant of King David. The place where He was known to be with His disciples, called Gethsemane, at the Mount of Olives, was the same location where 1000 years before Christ, His ancestor David left Jerusalem in sorrow after His son Absalom had turned against Him and had won the hearts of so many of the people. David had reached one of those defining moments. Life could never be the same again. Now Jesus came to this place of sorrow, and mourned deeply as He prepared for the hours ahead.

It amazes us to see our Savior, the God-Man Jesus, in such trouble and asking for His closest companions to stay with Him. The text says that He began to grieve and to have a very heavy heart. He told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” The word that is translated “very sorrowful” comes from the combination of two words, one that means “around” and another that refers to grieving or weeping. It is an intensified word referring to severe grief. We might think of it as a sobbing heart; some kind of all-out grieving that touched the entire landscape of His soul. We know that this was what the Lord was referring to because He said that it was a kind of sadness that could lead to death. When He said He was so very sorrowful, “even to death,” He was not referring to His coming death on the cross. He was saying that He was so grieved with what was happening that He was about to die right there in the Garden of Gethsemane. That was the depth of grief that He had. If you think it impossible that the divine Jesus would grieve like that, our text this morning demands that you embrace more fully the reality of His true humanity and the place of the deepest grief in the human condition during this present age.

His request was that these three disciples would simply be near Him, at least to a point, while He experienced this grief. They should wait with Him. The mention of prayer came later. Jesus had not yet been betrayed, arrested, convicted, abused, or crucified. Why was He so grieved? There must have been something about the horror of that moment and about the evil of our sin and the curse that required this sacrifice that was inconceivably sad. This was a deep grief that our Lord experienced as part of His identification with us as we go through this fallen world, but it was more than that as we hear from His words.

The humble request (39)

He fell on His face before God, and He prayed. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” From these words we know that our Savior was also considering the personal cost of the plan of salvation. What did it mean for the eternal Son of God who was the delight of His Father to have to face the punishment that we deserve? What was it like for the holy Son who never knew sin, to now face the prospect of being the sin offering for us? We will never know what it was like for Jesus to die on the cross as the object of God’s eternal wrath in our place. Because of His willingness to take this final step, because He simply refused to turn against the will of His Father, we have been rescued from the wrath of God that was surely coming against us.

It should be clear to all of us that this humble request of Jesus, “Let this cup pass from me,” was denied. This urgent prayer that displayed such depth of sorrow was simply not possible. It was not possible for God’s mercy and justice to be gloriously displayed except through this soul-wrenching grief and atoning death. This was the only way, and it was so costly that the Son of God almost died from the grief of His consideration of what was ahead of Him.

What we cannot miss here is the humble submission of our Lord. “Not as I will, but as You will.” All of this was way out of our league. We did not have the necessary character to ever face the choice that Jesus faced, nor the record of perfect obedience to the Law of God that would make this payment satisfactory to the Father. He was the only One who really had the choice to go to the cross, and that was what He chose when He said, “As You will.”

Willingness and weakness (40-44)

The disciples were sleeping during this worst grief of their Lord. We are told in Luke’s gospel that they were weak because of their own sorrow. They knew that He was going to die. If they had not understood that fact, at least to some degree, their statements of readiness to die with Him would not have made much sense. Earlier in this gospel Peter had objected to the idea that the Christ would die. Now they seemed to have received that part of the message, though they did not yet seem to understand or accept the concept of His resurrection. All He asked them for in Gethsemane was one hour, and they could not seem to give it. They were overwhelmed with what had already taken place. Their sorrow sent them to sleep. Though they would have done well to watch and pray for their own sake, and though the spirit was willing, their flesh was weak. We feel this kind of weakness regularly in ourselves.

It was during this time when our Lord had no friend with Him who could stay awake, when He was about to die from His own grief, that He achieved such a great height of obedience to the plan of God for the salvation of sinners. We see here something that only He could have revealed to us; the perfect resolve of a submissive will, the kind of will that we should have every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Thy will be done.” This experience would have been immensely powerful if it happened only once. The Lord prayed with this intensity three times. With the amazing strength of holy obedience He was now ready to die for us. There was no other way but the cross.

Thy will be done. (45-46)

It was time to go. It was time for the cross. Jonathan Edwards had things to say to his people, and he said what he thought he had to say, but then it was time to go. He would not be their shepherd any more.

Jesus went forward to His greatest act of shepherding love. He would soon lay down His life for His sheep. The time for sleeping was over, even among weak and grieving disciples. It was time to remember what they could remember from those things that they had been given so far, and to move forward with the plan of God. The Son of Man was about to be handed over to various authorities. His betrayer was arriving. Somehow this was the will of God. This was the price that had to be paid for your salvation. The cross would be the farewell sermon of Jesus Christ, written in lines of blood. There was no turning back, because there was no other way.

Do not think that something has gone wrong when you find that you have a grief that is so bad that you really wonder if it could bring about your death. Jesus had a grief like that for you, and He told us to follow Him. Do not waste your suffering. There are certain changes in us that can only be accomplished through grief. Take your refuge in the One who carried our sorrows. Do not waste His suffering. Do not miss the necessity of it. Do not miss the power, the efficacy, and the hope of it. There is no such thing as grief insurance in this life. When real loss strikes it is better to grieve and live, than to pretend that you don’t have to grieve. Jesus grieved. Grieve as you must. Rest and pray, but do it all with hope. Have confidence in the One who led the way for you, and who lives forever to intercede for you. Look for the resurrection to come. Turn to God when you feel all alone. Pray for great things with a humble submission to the will of God. That’s what Jesus did for you, and He was heard.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Note David’s grief in 2 Samuel 15:30. How is this a reference point for what Christ faces 1000 years later?

2. How deep was Jesus’ grief here (see also Luke 22:44)? Why was He grieving? What is the significance of this?

3. What do you make of the role of the disciples in this episode (see also Luke 22:45)?

4. Is it weak and faithless for us to make all of our prayers conditional upon the Lord’s will?