Not my will, but yours

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS 

Mark 14:32-42

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."  35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."  37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."  39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. 41 Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!" 

NIV

This has always been an interesting part of the gospel as Mark gives the account of Jesus praying about going to the cross. Certainly, we know Jesus did have some special affection for Peter, James, and John as they were the three he took with him when he healed the rulers’ daughter and at the transfiguration. Therefore, it seems right he asked these three to go with him while he prayed. But this record of his soul being overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death is problematic in some sense. The Greek word translated as overwhelmed really has a deeper meaning. This Greek word carries the meaning of greatly grieved, intensely sad. What is bothersome is that Jesus is fully God, yet fully man. Could his human nature be that more powerfully in controlling his emotions than his divine nature? Before the foundation of the earth, God has determined or at the very least foreknew all that would happen and that Jesus would have to suffer on the cross for the redemption of mankind. It was a foregone event that Jesus knew all along, even before time, that he would go through. So why now is He so intensely saddened over going through this experience that would be the salvation of his creation? It would seem our scholars are all about this idea of death and that it is alone the most feared of all experiences of man, therefore Jesus, being fully man, feared this idea of having to die, of death itself. However, did he just not tell his disciples that after he has risen he would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee? He knows death would not be his end, as he was divine and knew that this was the plan all along and that he would also be resurrected so that we too would be resurrected. What is that intense sadness? Why is his soul troubled? He wanted Peter, James, and John, to witness his prayer. We believe that even on the cross that Jesus never stopped teaching the truth. So here he wants his disciples to hear the truth about those times they, as well as we might go through difficult times that may cause our soul to be troubled. We see this in Paul’s letter to the Colossians from a situation in prison that was horrific, as N.T. Wright puts it, filled with the smell of rot, excrement, and death all around him in the dark and damp. What we would think a prayer might be as “Lord, get me out of here” was a prayer for others to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.  This is the truth Jesus was teaching his disciples. That even though we can be faced with what appears to be unpleasant times, even difficult times, hurtful times, painful times, we are to look to our God and confess our full faith in his will for our lives. This is how we are to face life and death, in accordance with God’s will, not ours. There is the rub, for it is most common for us to want what we want and in many cases when we want it. We trust the Lord, but sometimes it seems we trust ourselves more in regard to what we want to do and how we want to do it. Yes, some would say that God gave us a brain and intends for us to use it in the determination of our lives. But Jesus is divine and was there at creation and nothing was made that was not made by him, yet he showed us the way, “not what I will, but what you will”.