Lesson 88: Christ the Sacrifice, part 1
Mark 14:36 - And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
What a contrast within the space of a few hours! What a transition from the quiet elevation of that, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, FATHER I WILL,” to that falling on the ground and crying in agony. “My Father, not what I will.” In the one we see the High Priest within the veil in His all-prevailing intercession; in the other, the sacrifice on the altar opening the way through the rent veil. The high-priestly “Father, I will,” in order of time precedes the sacrificial “Father, not what I will;” but this was only by anticipation, to show what the intercession would be when once the sacrifice was brought. In reality, it was that prayer at the altar, “Father, not what I will,” in which the prayer before the throne, “Father, I will,” had its origin and its power. It is from the entire surrender of His will in Gethsemane that the High Priest on the throne has the power to ask what He will, has the right to make His people share in that power too, and ask what they will.
For all who would learn to pray in the school of Jesus, this Gethsemane lesson is one of the most sacred and precious. To a superficial scholar it may appear to take away the courage to pray in faith. If even the earnest supplication of the Son was not heard; if even the Beloved had to say, “NOT WHAT I WILL!” how much more do we need to speak so. And so it appears impossible that the promises which the Lord had given only a few hours previously, “WHATEVER YOU SHALL ASK,” “WHATEVER YOU WILL,” could have been meant literally. A deeper insight into the meaning of Gethsemane would teach us that we have just here the sure ground and the open way to the assurance of an answer to our prayer. Let us draw near in reverent and adoring wonder, to gaze on this great sight—God’s Son offering up prayer and supplications with strong crying and tears, and not obtaining what He asks. He Himself is our Teacher, and will open to us the mystery of His holy sacrifice, as revealed in this wondrous prayer.
To understand the prayer, let us note the infinite difference between what our Lord prayed a little ago as a Royal High Priest, and what He here supplicates in His weakness. There it was for the glorifying of the Father He prayed, and the glorifying of Himself and His people as the fulfilment of distinct promises that had been given Him. He asked what He knew to be according to the word and the will of the Father; He might boldly say, “FATHER, I WILL.” Here He prays for something regarding which the Father’s will is not yet clear to Him. As far as He knows, it is the Father’s will that He should drink the cup. He had told His disciples of the cup He must drink: a little later He would again say, “The cup which My Father has given me, shall I not drink it?”
It was for this He had come to this earth. But when, in the unutterable agony of soul that burst upon Him as the power of darkness came upon Him; and He began to taste the first drops of death as the wrath of God against sin; His human nature, as it shuddered in the presence of the awful reality of being made a curse, gave utterance in this cry of anguish, to its desire that, if God’s purpose could be accomplished without it, He might be spared the awful cup: “Let this cup pass from me.” That desire was the evidence of the intense reality of His humanity. The “Not as I will” kept that desire from being sinful: as He pleadingly cries, “All things are possible with You,” and returns to the still more earnest prayer that the cup may be removed; it is His thrice-repeated “NOT WHAT I WILL” that constitutes the very essence and worth of His sacrifice. He had asked for something of which He could not say: I know it is Your will. He had pleaded God’s power and love, and had then withdrawn it in His final, “YOUR WILL BE DONE.” The prayer that the cup should pass away could not be answered; the prayer of submission that God’s will be done was heard, and gloriously answered in His victory first over the fear, and then over the power of death.
Prayer: Blessed Lord Jesus, Gethsemane was Your school, where You learned to pray and to obey. It is still Your school, where You lead all Your disciples who would learn to obey and to pray even as You. Lord, teach me there to pray, in the faith that You atoned for and conquered our self-will, and can indeed give us grace to pray like You.