Not My Will, But Yours Series

And it is a very dangerous prayer not to pray because the exact opposite would be to pray, "My will be done, not your will be done." How horrible would that be to say to God, "I don't want to do your will. I want to do my will."

But instead Jesus prays, "Not my will, but your will be done." And I want to put it in context and then we will read the whole passage. This is towards the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. He has just finished the passover meal. He is with his disciples. He is now going to the Mount of Olives. He's going to the Garden of Gethsemane. If you ever get a chance to go with us to the Israel trip, we will take you to that spot where Jesus went and prayed right in that same proximity with olive trees that are over 2,000 years old that they believe were there when Jesus had his prayer meeting. It's pretty cool to be there in that exact location.

So Jesus is there. He's praying. He's about to be betrayed. He is about to be punished. He's about to be whipped and beaten, a crown of thorns put on his head. He is about to be crucified. He is about to have the sins of the world placed upon him, and he's feeling this heaviness and he's in this agony. I want you to know that when he prays this prayer, so you fully understand, he's saying, "Not my will be done, but your will be done." It is not the physical pain that's bothering him, although that's very real. The thing that is weighing him down is the fact that he knows it's God's plan to put all the sins of the entire world on him and the punishment for all the sins of the entire world onto him. And so that is weighing on him. That is crushing him. Because he has known no sin. He has never sinned. And yet all the sins of Hitler and Stalin and Genghis Khan, and you fill in the blank, your sin, my sin, everyone's sin. There is over six billion people on this planet right now, let alone all of history, that are going to be placed on one person who has never known any sin. And so the tension, the depth of pain that is there, the agony that is there, this is what he's struggling with. This is the moment that is going on. So it is not anything light.

That's why Isaiah 53:4 5, it says, Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

So in the context of all this that's going on, we read in Luke Chapter 22, starting in verse 39, it says, 39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.

Now interesting, just for a moment, it was his usual pattern to go and pray. Could we say about us it's our usual pattern? Is there anything usual and normal about our pattern of prayer, or are we haphazard? Whenever we have a crisis, then I'm sure to go to you. But Jesus was always in a place of prayer.

40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.