"Let Your Will Be Done"
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April 05, 2015 |
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 "…Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will"
(Mark 14:32-36).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Palm Sunday is one week before Easter. The one week period from then to Easter Sunday is known as Passion Week. As written in the twelfth chapter of John, people of Israel heard that Jesus who had revived the dead man Lazarus would enter into the city of Jerusalem at the Passover. They welcomed Him waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna!"
A few days later, Jesus had the Last Supper with His disciples and went to Gethsemane on Mount of Olives to pray. Judas Iscariot, one of His twelve disciples, appeared with the officers of the high priests. In God's providence, Jesus was captured, sentenced to crucifixion by Pilate, suffered from all kinds of afflictions and mocking, and died on the wooden cross.
1. The suffering of Jesus
Jesus is the Son of God. He came to the earth in flesh and was crucified without any sin. Some people think that because He is the Son of God, Jesus didn't feel any pain, even when He was going through the sufferings.
When the Roman soldiers put the thorns on His brow, He felt the pain of the thorns piercing into His head. The whips of the Roman soldiers had sharp metal pieces embedded, and on the edge of the whip were sharp hooks. When the whip, known as a scourge, was laid across the body, it would wrap around the body completely, and when the whip was drawn back, flesh would be ripped from the body. Jesus was scourged so many times. How painful it must have been! His whole body was covered with red blood, and He lost all His strength making it difficult for Him to balance Himself.
He had to carry the heavy cross and move up to the Golgotha. Nailed through His hands and feet, He had to take all the pains until His physical life was over. He also had pain in His heart. God opened the way of salvation giving up His Son's life, but still so many people were going the way of death without realizing God's heart. So Jesus had tremendous pain in heart.
If we know the sufferings that Jesus received for us, we cannot say something is difficult even when we are going through trials. To compare our difficulties with His sufferings, they may be quite bearable. So with faith, we should overcome any kind of trials with joy and thanks remembering that Jesus took the more difficult way for us. We should then overcome them just as He did.
2. The heart of Jesus when He was going through these sufferings
The following Scriptures from Mark 14:32 say that the night before He was arrested, Jesus went to Gethsemane with His disciples. He told them to pray, and He separated a short distance from them and prayed alone.
Before He prayed, in the verse 34, Jesus said, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death." Literally, it seems that Jesus was saying He had so much pain in heart that He was dying. Jesus did not talk about the sorrowful and painful feelings like men of flesh. He said this in order to let us know the crucifixion would be made possible due to the love of God and it would never be something easy.
At that time, Jesus had many kinds of feelings in His heart. Just before the crucifixion, He thought about the deep providence and great love of God for mankind. Also, He had feelings of pity for those who would be left on earth. He recollected many things in addition to these.
Jesus Himself experienced and felt the pains and sorrow of mankind while He was on earth. He also had great pain in heart thinking of people who were not able to realize the great love of God. For this reason Jesus said, "My soul is deeply grieved."
The more spiritual heart you accomplish, the more of this heart of the Lord you will be able to understand. By spiritual inspiration you will feel it in your heart why Jesus said what He did at that time. If some think Jesus made a negative confession, they do not understand His heart and they have not cultivated their hearts into spirit yet.
It's the same when we read the Bible and listen to the sermon in a service. If a person uses fleshly thoughts while listening to the message, and furthermore, if they judge the sermon, then it shows that their heart is far from the heart of spirit. Men of spirit will not judge others merely by the words and expressions made. They will feel the heart of the other person contained in the words, and realize the meaning by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
3. Jesus' earnest plea
In Mark 14:36, Jesus prayed, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will."
Jesus knew better than anybody the love of God and the providence of salvation. Saying "Remove this cup from Me" was not a plea to avoid the sufferings.
Jesus also had humanity. In view of this humanity, the way of cross was never an easy thing. Jesus said this to express that the way was very difficult to take as a man, but He still took it with only His love for God.
And He continued to pray, "…yet not what I will, but what Your will." This means no matter what kind of sufferings He would face, He would just follow the will of God. Jesus obeyed the will of God completely, and He fulfilled it joyfully because He had perfect assurance in God's providence and trust in Him.
Hebrews 12:2 says, "…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." The suffering on the cross was a shame in a fleshly sense, but in a spiritual sense it would lead many souls who were to go to Hell, to Heaven.
However, some people said, "I am under trials, so how can I pray? Why is this test given to me? It is too hard, so please let me get by it quickly." They do not commit everything to God in prayer. If we really have faith we must not pray with resentment or lamentation. We should look back upon ourselves to figure out what caused us to be faced with such trials.
Namely, when we commit sins or fall into spiritual slumber, God allows trials. "God, if I have to go through this, I will. But, protect me from bigger trials. Let this trial pass quickly, too." Some may pray like this, but this is still not a prayer of goodness. With words they say they will take up the trial, but they really would rather avoid it in some way.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the prayer to move God's heart is of beautiful confession of goodness and faith. It is to give thanks for allowing for trials from heart and to profess faith in renewal. Even though we do not know when the trial is going to be over, we have to commit ourselves to God and pray that He will change us more completely.
If we can pray to let God's will be done, not our own will, from our hearts, like Jesus, in any kind of situation, God will guide us to the best way. I pray in the name of the Lord that, just like Jesus who took the way of the cross and became resurrected, you will receive the glory of resurrection.
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