Not My Will but Yours: Luke 22:39-46

Jesus spent his entire ministry prophesying of his death and resurrection. At times He passed out of men's hands because his time had not yet come; but when the time was right, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. The night that the Passover began, when the lamb was to be slaughtered, Jesus foretold his death in the upper room. He bade Judas to complete his schemes.

Hours later he went to the garden, as was his habit, where any friends or traitors might know to find him. He knew what was in the hearts of all men, and he knew what had to be accomplished to fulfill the Scriptures.

Then he prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me."

He must die or be proven a liar. He must rise from the dead or the Father's eternal decrees would fail. Yet he asked the Father for another way, and as John Calvin said, "The vehemence of desire took away from him the immediate recollection of the decree, so that he did not at that moment reflect, that it was on this condition that he was sent to be the Redeemer of mankind." Vehemence of desire? He prostrated himself on the ground that he had made, sweated blood, and an angel came to strengthen him.

After Good Friday comes triumphant Resurrection Sunday. But righteous, innocent Jesus, in the garden, dreaded the cup that was his, and justly so. He suffered beatings and mocking, execution on a filthy Roman cross, and endured the full brunt of the Father's just wrath. He died. He would have to be inhuman not to fear, and he was fully human.

"Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done."

How can the two parts of the prayer be reconciled? Can a request deviate from God's will and remain pure? How can Christ request that the eternal decree be revoked and yet not venture into sin? Again, Calvin says,

"There is a certain kind of indirect disagreement with the good pleasure of God, which is not faulty and is not reckoned as sin; if, for example, a person desires to see the Church in a calm and flourishing condition, if he wishes that the children of God were delivered from afflictions. We see how those prayers are holy, which appear to be contrary to the will of God; for God does not desire us to be always exact or scrupulous in inquiring what he has appointed, but allows us to ask what is desirable to the capacity of our senses...

"And though the Spirit of God governs us, so that we wish nothing but what is agreeable to reason, still we owe to God such obedience as to endure patiently that our wishes should not be granted."*

Christ submitted himself to his Father's will, learning and practicing the obedience for which the Father would exalt him. He restrained his feelings and gave himself into his Father's hands. He fulfilled his Father's will and conquered death to be our Savior.

by Jenn Lawrence

*John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries Volume XVII (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 231-33.