He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26: 39, NKJV.
Father in Heaven please teach us unconditional submission to Your Divine will. In the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.
Today we will look at the second prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. His first prayer was that He might be enabled by the Father to glorify Him in the hour of trial. Jesus was obviously aware that these were going to be the most excruciating moments of His life. Yet it would appear, from our Scripture for today, that only as He began to feel His separation from the Father did it dawn on Him just how difficult this last encounter with the Adversary would be! We tend to forget that Jesus became a man, He not only appeared to be one. If He was going to be victorious in this final hour, then He needed the help of the One who had sustained Him throughout His human existence. Perhaps now we can understand a little better why His heart broke when our sins hid the face of the Father from Him.
Let us take the time to look at this prayer through a spiritual microscope.
O My Father, if it is possible . . . If you are looking at this statement the way I did when it dawned on me what the Savior was saying, I suppose your question would be, “Is anything impossible for God?” A very valid question. Jesus Himself has said that, “with God all things are possible.” Are we to conclude that His petition is a contradiction to this statement of faith upon which so many of us have placed all our hope? Why is the Savior saying to the Omnipotent God, “if it is possible”?
Permit me to wrestle with this question for a while – from a human point of view. That is quite a big feat for a mere mortal to undertake, is it not? Yet somehow I believe that we are blessed, and God is glorified, when we allow our faith to lift us above and beyond our human weakness and limited sphere to the very Throne Room of God; into the presence of His Shekinah glory; before the Mercy Seat – where Justice and Mercy embrace and kiss each other, to learn of Him!
Are there situations in life, that, because of who God is, it is impossible for Him to act? Before you answer let us look at a passage of Scripture that you no doubt have seen before, but never stopped to analyze:” ‘ “Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there‘ ” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar” ‘ “(Genesis 19: 22) Emphasis provided. Why were the hands of the angels who were about to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities “tied?” Let me submit another verse for your consideration: “And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt” (29) Emphasis provided.
In chapter 18 of Genesis there is recorded the conversation between God and His friend Abraham, where Abraham is holding God to His unchanging and matchless integrity (not that anyone has to do that), ” ‘Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” (Genesis 18: 25)? Abraham had been interceding for the city where his nephew Lot and his family were living, and God had given His word to Abraham that He would not destroy the righteous with the wicked.
Just a reminder that the question we are wrestling with is, “Is anything impossible for God? Let us begin to draw a conclusion. The Son prays to the Father and says “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Why would it not be possible for this cup which would determine our salvation pass from the Savior? I very humbly submit the following for your consideration:
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55: 11). Jesus’ suffering, death, burial, and resurrection had all been prophesied (sent forth from the mouth of God). All through the New Testament Jesus, as well as other authors of the Bible, repeatedly make mention that “All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet . . .” (Matthew 21: 4). You see, the prophets spoke and wrote the words that came forth from the mouth of God, and these words could not return without fulfilling the purpose for which they had been sent forth. He was “A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth;” “And they made His grave with the wicked-but with the rich at His death (Isaiah 53). He felt forsaken by God. They shook their heads at Him saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him deliver Him”;” They pierced [His] hands and [His] feet”; “They [divided His] garments among them, and for [His] clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22) . Therefore, there was no other way. It was not possible for God to lie (Hebrews 6: 17, 18; Numbers 23: 19). His words had to fulfill their purpose.
Add to that thought the reality, that because of God’s great love, no matter what the word is that goes out of His mouth, we can all say without fear of regret – “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”