Below is the text of the message given in the evening Lent service in Gettysburg on March 21 and in Onida on March 25. The scripture is Matthew 26:36-45.
In these Lent services, we’ve been talking about our reluctance to follow Jesus all the way. We’ve talked about how we like our lives the way they are. We’ve talked about the risks involved in following Jesus all the way. We’ve talked about how we really are not sure we can trust God enough to give up everything and follow Jesus. We say we want to follow Jesus, and on some level we do. It’s just really hard for us to follow him all the way, because we know that “all the way” leads to the cross. None of us really wants the cross.
Maybe it can make us feel a little better to realize that Jesus really did not want go all the way, either. Jesus knew that “all the way” lead to the cross, too. Jesus did not really want the cross any more than you or I do.
In our reading from Matthew, we read Jesus’ prayer. This was the night that Jesus was arrested. In fact, praying like this was the last thing Jesus did before they came and arrested him.
Jesus knew what was going to happen to him. He knew the torture he was going to get. He knew about the beatings and the whippings that were coming. He knew all the people he’d called his friends were going to disown him. Even the ones who’d been with him for years and were closest to him we’re going to going to deny even knowing him. He knew he was going be crucified. Nails were going to be driven through him, he was going to be hung on a cross, and he was going to be abandoned, left to die.
Jesus did not want to go through that. No one in their right mind would want to go through that.
How tempted do you think Jesus was to not go through with it? He could have, you know. When it came right down to it, the Roman authorities, Pilate and Herod and the rest, really did not want to kill Jesus. He could’ve avoided death. He could’ve backed down, apologized, asked for forgiveness. He could’ve admitted that the Jewish authorities were right and pledged loyalty to them and their interpretation of God. It would’ve been easy for him to do.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But wait a minute. How could he have done that? He was Jesus. He was the divine Son of God. He had to do what he did.” Well, I don’t think so. After all, Jesus was the divine Son of God, but he was also fully human. That means he was subject to all the same temptations we are. That means he had the ability to choose what he was going to do. He had the ability to say no to God the Father if he had chosen to do so.
That’s why what Jesus went through in the garden of Gethsemane was so hard. That’s why he spent so much time praying about it. The version of this in the gospel of Luke says Jesus was praying so hard he started sweating, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. That’s where the phrase “sweating blood” comes from, when Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane right before he was arrested.
Jesus knew what he was supposed to do. Jesus also knew what was going to happen to him if he did it. Jesus did not want to disobey God the Father, but Jesus also did not want to be tortured and killed. He desperately wanted to avoid having to make that choice.
Which means that, in this respect, Jesus was just like you and me. Most of the time, we know what we’re supposed to do. We know we’re supposed to follow Jesus Christ. We know we’re supposed to follow him all the way, even if that means following him to the cross.
We really don’t want to, though. We don’t want to follow all the way to the cross. We don’t want to have to face the cost of following Jesus that far.
So, a lot of times, we pray what Jesus prayed. We pray for some other way. We pray for some way we can obey God without paying the price. We pray for God’s will to be done in some way that does not involve a cost to us.
It’s okay to pray that. Jesus prayed it. Jesus prayed, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Jesus was praying for God the Father to not make him go through with this. Jesus was praying for God the Father to find some other way, any other way, anything that would let Jesus avoid the suffering and death that he knew was coming.
Ultimately, though, Jesus prayed the words that are the key to his decision. Many of you know them. Jesus prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
That’s what we pray every time we pray the Lord’s prayer. We pray, “Thy will be done.” Do we really mean it? Are we really willing to surrender our will to God’s will? Or is it just something we say automatically, because we think we’re supposed to, without really thinking about what it means?
Jesus meant it. We know Jesus meant it because of what he did. Jesus allowed himself to be arrested. He allowed himself to be tortured. He allowed himself to be beaten and whipped. He allowed them to pound nails through him and hang him on a cross. He allowed himself to die, abandoned and alone.
He did not have to. He could’ve backed down. He could’ve taken the easy way out. He had all kinds of chances to do it. He could’ve backed down when he was went in front of the high priest Caiaphas. He could’ve backed down when he was brought in front of the Roman governor Pilate. He could’ve backed down when he was brought before King Herod. He did not do it. He saw it through. Jesus followed God’s will all the way to the cross. He did it because he really meant it when he said he wanted the will of God the Father to be done, rather than his own will to be done.
“Thy will be done” is an easy thing to say. It’s not an easy thing to mean. It’s an even harder thing to do. Jesus knows that, because he experienced it himself on this earth. Jesus understands why we struggle with it, because he struggled with it, too.
Ultimately, though, Jesus won his struggle. Jesus was able to put God’s will ahead of his own. That’s what Jesus asks us to do, too. That’s what following Jesus all the way to the cross means. It means that we’re willing to do what God wants us to do, no matter what it is, no matter where it leads, even if it leads us to the last place we want to go.
Jesus won his struggle. Jesus wants to help us with our struggle, too. If we trust him, if we rely on him, and if we have enough faith to believe that God’s will is better than ours, we can win our struggle, too. We can follow God wherever God leads us. We can say, and truly mean, “Thy will be done.”
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