Following God's Will

This is the message given in the Good Friday services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on April 2, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Mark 15:1-47.

            Jesus is arrested.  He is accused.  He is flogged.  He is mocked.  He is beaten.  He is spat upon.  

            Finally, Jesus is led out to Golgotha.  The place of the skull.  He is nailed to a cross.  The mockery continues.  And finally, Jesus dies.

            There are all kinds of things a person could emphasize in regard to this story.  But as I was reading it again this week, something struck me.  I’d known it, of course, but I’d never really thought about it.  What struck me was that, while all this was going on, while all these things were happening to Jesus, Jesus said nearly nothing.  He simply accepted what was happening to him.

            Eight words are all that are attributed to Jesus.  The first four are when Pilate asks Jesus if he’s the king of the Jews.  Jesus responds, “You have said so.”  The last four are while Jesus is hanging on the cross.  Jesus says, “Eloi, eloi, lama, sabachthani.”  We’re told that means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

            And that’s it.  Jesus says no more.  And a little while later, we’re told, “Jesus breathed his last.”

            There were so many things he could have said.  He could have defended himself.  He could have thrown the accusations right back at his accusers, the chief priests and the teachers of the law and the rest.  He could have justified the things he had done.  He could have shown how false the accusations against him were.

            He could have done that, but he did not.  He stayed silent.  Jesus allowed himself to be killed without even trying to mount a defense for himself.  And he could have easily defended himself, because there really was no basis for the charges against him.  

            So why didn’t he?  Why did Jesus not say anything?  Why did he not even try to defend himself from these baseless charges?

            Because Jesus knew he was following the will of God the Father.  Jesus knew this was why he had been sent to earth.  Jesus was in fact, the Savior.  He was sent here to save us from the consequences of our sins.  And the way he was to do that was to accept those consequences himself.  You and I are the ones who deserve death.  But Jesus died in our place, so we can have eternal life.

            Jesus could have avoided this at any number of times, in any number of ways.  He could, of course, have simply not started his ministry in the first place.  He could have recognized the authority and status of the religious leaders, the Pharisees and others, and subordinated himself to them.  He could have just not gone to Jerusalem at all, avoiding the issue.  He could have raised an army and defeated his enemies.  And, of course, he could have used his divine power to destroy all opposition and establish himself as the ultimate authority on earth.

            Jesus could have done any of those things.  But he did not.  Jesus was obedient to God the Father.

            It had to be tempting.  After all, Jesus did not want to go through all this.  Who would?  

            In John Twelve, shortly after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, Jesus acknowledges how hard this is for him.  He tells the disciples, “My soul is troubled.”  Jesus knew how hard it was going to be to go through this.  But he goes on to say, “What shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour?’  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.”

In Matthew Twenty-six, we’re told about Jesus going to Gethsemane.  He goes off by himself and prays.  He prays that, if there’s any other way for God the Father to give salvation to human beings, for God to use that other way instead.  He prays that three times.  But each time, after he prays that, he says, “May your will be done.”

Jesus knew how hard this was going to be.  He did not want to do it.  But he knew that what he wanted was not important.  What was important was what God the Father wanted.  What was important was that God’s will be done.  He knew that it was God’s will that he be killed on a cross.  He knew he could not bring salvation and eternal life to humans if he did not go through with God’s will.  And so he did.  Jesus followed the will of God the Father, regardless of the consequences.  Even when the consequence was death on a cross.

So how about you?  And how about me?  Are we able to do what Jesus did?  Are we willing to follow the will of God, regardless of what the consequences of that might be?

That’s not an easy question to answer.  It’s not easy for a few reasons.   One of the biggest of those reasons, though, is that, so much of the time, we don’t even think about it.  We don’t spend much time even thinking about what God’s will for our life is, much less whether we’re following God’s will.  And if we don’t even think about what God’s will for our life is, we cannot possibly say whether we’d follow it to the point of death.

Now, I may be painting with too broad a brush here.  Maybe you do think about what God’s will for your life is.  Maybe you’re consciously following it.  I hope so.  That’s awesome if you are.

But I think a lot of us don’t really think about it that much.  We just kind of do what we do, you know?  We go about our lives, day after day after day.  We get up, we work at our jobs, we go home.  Maybe we go to the basketball game or something.  Then we go back home and go to bed.  

And I’m not saying that’s sinful or anything.  But is it really the way God wants us to live?  Is that really God’s will for our lives?

Maybe it is.  Maybe you are perfectly following God’s will for your life.  But maybe not.  And the thing is, if we never think about what God’s will for our lives is, how will we know? 

It’s important that we know.  Jesus knew, and it sustained him through all the hard things he had to do.  It sustained him even through his death on a cross.  We need to know, too, if we’re going to withstand all the things life can throw at us.

How can we know?  Well, I think the first thing we should do is pray.  And you’re thinking, well, typical pastor response.  Pray.  That’s his answer to everything.

Well, not quite everything.  I mean, it’s not the answer to what’s two plus two.  But it is the answer to a lot of things.  Or, more accurately, it’s the start of the answer to a lot of things.  Praying is not the only thing we should do.  But it is, quite often, the first thing we should do.

Pray.  Ask God what His will for your life is.  Ask God if you’re following it right now.  Maybe you are.  But ask.  

If the answer is yes, then fine.  But ask again at some point, because God’s will for our life may change as we go through life.  I don’t mean that God changes His mind.  But as we grow, as we develop, as we gain new skills, as we become better able to handle things, God can use us in different ways.  It happened to me.  I think it was always God’s will that I eventually become a pastor.  But it was not God’s will that I become a pastor right out of college, because I could not have done a good job of it then.  God had to lead me through some intermediate steps, so I could get to the point where I could be a pastor.

But on the other hand, the answer may be no.  If it is, ask God what you need to change.  Ask God what it is that God wants you to do.  And then, ask God for the courage to do it.  Because it can be scary to ask God what His will is for your life.  God may lead you in a direction you never thought of.  

Now, God won’t lead us to do something we’re not capable of doing.  God was not going to lead me to play basketball for the Boston Celtics.  But God has led me to do some things I never would have thought I could do.  Because if it’s God’s will that we do something, God will make sure we have the ability to do it, with God’s help.

It can be scary to ask God what His will is for our lives.  But the rewards are incredible.  Because there is no greater feeling in the world than knowing that you are where God wants you to be and that you are doing what God wants you to do.  The feeling of God’s presence in your life, when that happens, is the most awesome feeling in the world.

It’s that feeling that sustained Jesus through his last day of life on earth.  He was going through terrible torture.  But he was able to endure it because he knew he was where God wanted him to be and he knew we was doing what God wanted him to do.  And he felt the reward that comes from that.

That feeling will sustain us, too.  So ask God what His will is for your life.  And follow it.  It may be hard.  It may be very hard.  But when we’re following God’s will, we can handle it.  And the reward will be incredible, on earth and in heaven.