Yet Not as I Will

In Matthew 26 we read where Jesus went to a place just before his arrest, and he asked his disciples to sit with him while he prayed.  Jesus then began to be “sorrowful and troubled.”  He even told his friends he was near death and wanted them to “keep watch” with him.

After this plea, Jesus then prays to his Father and asked that “if possible” the cup of death would be taken from him. And then comes the prayer of all prayers, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus had just finished having his last dinner with his friends, and he had just told them all that he knew they would all fall away from following him.  Yet he asked these same guys to stay with him and be with him while he prayed.  Why did Jesus do that, knowing how weak these men were?

Jesus then prayed to God to provide another way, other than his death, if at all possible.  Why would Jesus do that, when he knew the very reason he was sent to earth was to die?

I believe Jesus demonstrates here that it is he who knows the heart of man, that it is evil to the core, yet he entrusts us with his own heart – pure to the core.  He also shows us that he knows what heartbreak feels like, and how facing death is near impossible.  Jesus KNOWS our pain.

But what Jesus knew is what we must strive to know as we walk with the Lord and read his word. 

Obeying God’s will in our lives has far greater rewards than any pain we face.  And it’s His will that we must week, not our own comfort.

This is a hard pill to swallow, until we think about the resurrection….then it’s glorious!