Mark 14:35,36 - Gethsemane: Not My Will, But Thy Will.
Mark 14:35,36 - Gethsemane: Not My Will, But Thy Will.
Mark 14:35,36 (NLT) He went on a little farther and fell to the
ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him
might pass him by. "Abba, Father," he cried out, "everything is
possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I
want your will to be done, not mine."
Was Jesus trying to get out of what lay before him when he
prayed, "Please take this cup of suffering away from me"? No, but he was
expressing his human emotions--his aversion to the pain, torture, and
suffering that would be the end result of his obedience to God's will. In
his prayer, Jesus was aware of what doing the Father's will would
cost him, but he also saw beyond the horrible experience of
crucifixion and recognized that this was part of the plan from the beginning
of time. He would take on the sins of the entire world in order to
bring us salvation. His death would give us life.
Anything worth having costs something, but sometimes that cost
is difficult for us to handle. What should you do when you seek
God's will and don't like what you hear? Jesus gave us an example in
this passage. First, pray. Second, seek support from other believers.
They may have a more objective viewpoint and can offer good advice.
Third, focus on the purpose God has given to you. You have to be
willing to not only seek his will but to follow it as well. [The One
Year Bible for New Believers re Mark 14:35, 36]
Now Jesus seemed to be shut out from the light of God's
sustaining presence. Now He was numbered with the transgressors. The guilt
of fallen humanity He must bear. Upon Him who knew no sin must be
laid the iniquity of us all. So dreadful does sin appear to Him, so
great is the weight of guilt which He must bear, that He is tempted to
fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father's love....
He felt that by sin He was being separated from His Father. The
gulf was so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered
before it. This agony He must not exert His divine power to escape. As
man He must suffer the consequences of man's sin. As man He must
endure the wrath of God against transgression....
As Christ felt His unity with the Father broken up, He feared
that in His human nature He would be unable to endure the coming
conflict with the powers of darkness....
The sins of men weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of
God's wrath against sin was crushing out His life....
From His pale lips comes the bitter cry, "O My Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from Me." Yet even now He adds, "Nevertheless
not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
Three times has He uttered that prayer. Three times has humanity
shrunk from the last, crowning sacrifice. But now the history of the
human race comes up before the world's Redeemer. He sees that the
transgressors of the law, if left to themselves, must perish. He sees the
helplessness of man. He sees the power of sin. The woes and lamentations of a
doomed world rise before Him. He beholds its impending fate, and His
decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. He accepts His
baptism of blood, that through Him perishing millions may gain
everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity,
happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has
fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will
become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin. His prayer
now breathes only submission: "If this cup may not pass away from
Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done."
Having made the decision, He fell dying to the ground from which
He had partially risen.
But God suffered with His Son. Angels beheld the Saviour's
agony. They saw their Lord enclosed by legions of satanic forces, His
nature weighed down with a shuddering, mysterious dread. There was
silence in heaven. No harp was touched. Could mortals have viewed the
amazement of the angelic host as in silent grief they watched the Father
separating His beams of light, love, and glory from His beloved Son, they
would better understand how offensive in His sight is sin.
The worlds unfallen and the heavenly angels had watched with
intense interest as the conflict drew to its close. Satan and his
confederacy of evil, the legions of apostasy, watched intently this great
crisis in the work of redemption. The powers of good and evil waited to
see what answer would come to Christ's thrice-repeated prayer.
Angels had longed to bring relief to the divine sufferer, but this
might not be. No way of escape was found for the Son of God. In this
awful crisis, when everything was at stake, when the mysterious cup
trembled in the hand of the sufferer, the heavens opened, a light shone
forth amid the stormy darkness of the crisis hour, and the mighty
angel who stands in God's presence, occupying the position from which
Satan fell, came to the side of Christ. The angel came not to take the
cup from Christ's hand, but to strengthen Him to drink it, with the
assurance of the Father's love. He came to give power to the divine-human
suppliant. He pointed Him to the open heavens, telling Him of the souls
that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He assured Him
that His Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that His
death would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan, and that the
kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High. He
told Him that He would see of the travail of His soul, and be
satisfied, for He would see a multitude of the human race saved, eternally
saved.
Christ's agony did not cease, but His depression and
discouragement left Him. The storm had in nowise abated, but He who was its
object was strengthened to meet its fury. He came forth calm and
serene. A heavenly peace rested upon His bloodstained face. He had borne
that which no human being could ever bear; for He had tasted the
sufferings of death for every man. {DA 685-694}
When you have a Gethsemane experience, pray what Jesus prayed:
"Not what I will, but what You will". Jesus could submit to the abuse
of men because He had already submitted to the will of God.
[Chapter by Chapter Bible Commentary by Warren Wiersbe]
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