Thy will be done

Matthew 26:42

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

In this passage of Christ’s passion, we have the record of His prayer to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane. This is the place where His sweat was as “great drops of blood.” This was the height of His conflict, the zenith of His passion. This was the moment where worlds collided and universes converged. For the flesh and the spirit were at war. The Lord Jesus never sinned once, but was given a body of flesh that He may know our needs, cares, and temptations. The Father allowed Him to experience the greatest battle of all, the battle waged between the flesh and the spirit. The Lord Jesus knew the path of suffering that lie ahead. And if I may venture upon my own opinion for a moment, I would say that I am not sure that it was the pain that troubled Him. But the perfect, sinless, Son of God understood that shortly thereafter He would take on the sin of the world, and be separated from His Father so that He could be judged for our sin. The separation would be the greatest agony. Justice and love would meet. Good and evil would come together in that great moment of Christ’s death on the cross. But that great agony began in the garden, as the weight of my sin, the weight of the world, and the weight of His sacrifice became almost unbearable. But, in this garden moment, Jesus came to a place of complete surrender. And this is for our learning. This is the one moment all of us must come to. Without this moment, we will never fulfill God’s plan. The hardest night of the soul is the most pivotal night of the soul. The most strenuous and the most difficult decisions are, no doubt, the most vital. He was sorrowful and very heavy, but He came to a place of full obedience to His Father’s will.

Jesus said, as He went to pray the second time, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” There are some cups that cannot pass. They cannot pass away until they are drunken to the dregs. They must be completely emptied and fully imbibed. It will not pass away except it is drunk! And Christ had just this kind of cup. It would not pass away. He had to drink it. But Christ here gloriously shows us how to handle our own Gethsemane. When we are at war, in the hottest battle with the flesh, how are we to get through it? How can we possibly drink the cup? There is only one answer, and it is in Christ’s own words. Thy will be done. Not as I wilt, but as thou wilt. Not my will, but thine. This must be the heart cry of our souls. This must be our Gethsemane. After this giving up; after this full surrender came the cross. And Christ, it is written, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God. There is no throne without a cross! No joy without sorrow! No crown without suffering! It is a necessary channel. It is an invaluable component! We cannot fulfill our Father’s will without being willing to submit to His will, and endure the suffering.

And now, my friend, may I ask you: are you willing to suffer if it means the Father’s will may be accomplished in you? Have you come to a moment of decision, to a pivotal moment of surrender? It is essential for you! Let us come to it today. May this holy day be a day when we, as Christ did, will say, “Thy will be done!”

“Father, we thank you for the example of Christ, who yielded all and submitted all to the will of His Father. There is no doubt that the world would not be saved, we would not have eternal life, and there would be no hope of the resurrection, if Jesus Christ had not submitted to His Father in the loneliest and darkest night of His passion. Help us now, by Thy grace, to submit fully to Thy will, whatever may be entailed in that will. We say with our Savior, and with the aid of your Spirit, Thy will be done. In Christ Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”