Mat. 26:39 ... "And going a little further 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.'"
When Jesus reached the end of His earthly mission, He had fully delivered the message God had sent Him to preach. He had also confirmed its veracity by the miraculous deeds that had caused people to marvel. There remained, however, one colossal task without which all His teaching would have been meaningless. He was left with the duty to suffer death in the place of all men to pay the penalty for their sins. Now that horrible ordeal awaited Him on the morrow.
It was well into Thursday night, and He had finished the Passover meal with His apostles in the upper room of someone's house in Jerusalem. Leaving the city and heading east, they descended into a valley, crossed the Kedron Brook, and began to ascend the Mount of Olives. Somewhere up its slopes they went into a garden called Gethsemane. At the entrance Jesus left eight of the men to watch while He went further with Peter, James, and John. Then He left them behind and found Himself a private place to pray.
His prayer actually defies human analysis and explanation. We know the words He spoke, which are simple and easy to understand. But their poignancy and extreme depth of meaning transcend comprehension and expression. And yet, what His prayer does convey that we are able to grasp is so utterly important to us that it is essential we make the effort to investigate it and meditate upon it.
Why Jesus recoiled at the prospect of suffering and death, we do not know. Yet, it is certain that He knew He had been appointed to experience it. An eyewitness reports that a few months before, 'Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed," (Mat. 16:21). Neither do we know why Jesus prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me," when it is certain that He knew He must drink it. He had once asked a couple of His disciples, James and John, "Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" (Mat. 20:22). We are left to speculate on these two unknowns.
Jesus' resolution to submit to the terrible prospect of suffering and death is, however, very clear. It presents to us the greatest lesson we can ever learn. In fact, it is the lesson we must learn for eternal survival. After Jesus asked God to spare Him the cup of suffering and deliver Him from the torture of crucifixion, He concluded, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Being now resigned to the will of His Father, His inner conflict was totally resolved. Rising from the ground with absolute composure, and holding His emotions in check with a spiritual grip like steel, He went forth to meet His foes, suffer the worst they could give Him, and then rise in utter triumph from the grave into which their cruelty had put Him. Complete surrender to God's will was the key to mastering every conflict and winning total victory.
This is the lesson that Jesus teaches us from the Garden of Gethsemane. As long as we cling to our own will and try to shape our future, we will always be torn by inner strife and find life an endless confusion of trouble and misery. But when we conquer our spirit and yield to God's will in the real way that Jesus did, we will discover new strength and peace that cannot be overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. The afflictions will still come, as they did upon our Lord on that frightful Friday, but we will have the power to endure them, even unto death if need be, (Rev. 2:10), and then emerge beyond it as a victor in eternity.
