Scripture Matthew 26:36-46. CEB.
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He said to the disciples, “Stay here while I go and pray over there.” 37 When he took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, he began to feel sad and anxious. 38 Then he said to them, “I’m very sad. It’s as if I’m dying. Stay here and keep alert with me.” 39 Then he went a short distance farther and fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it’s possible, take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.”
40 He came back to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay alert one hour with me? 41 Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.” 42 A second time he went away and prayed, “My Father, if it’s not possible that this cup be taken away unless I drink it, then let it be what you want.”
43 Again he came and found them sleeping. Their eyes were heavy with sleep. 44 But he left them and again went and prayed the same words for the third time. 45 Then he came to his disciples and said to them, “Will you sleep and rest all night? Look, the time has come for the Human One to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up. Let’s go. Look, here comes my betrayer.”
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As we are still focused on prayer for the rest of January, I would ask everyone to pray for healing for our nation this week. And for all the world, as the entire world deals with the coronavirus pandemic. May the vaccines be distributed to all, and may effective treatments be found.
I think most of us are pretty familiar with these words from the Gospel according to Matthew. We usually hear them on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. These are words that lead us directly into Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. We also usually hear about the lack of faithfulness by Peter, James and John, who kept falling asleep instead of keeping watch as Jesus asked them to. Today, however, we are going to look more closely at what Jesus was praying.
Jesus knew from the beginning of his ministry that if whatever he preached and taught went in opposition to the Temple, chances were excellent that he would be arrested, or possibly even killed. He knew his Scripture and the history of his people. He knew how prophets, people who spoke unwelcome truth to power, were typically treated. He knew also that if the leaders of the Temple could find anything indicating insurrection against Rome in his words, that his very life would be on the line. Rome did not tolerate insurrection. Just a few chapters earlier, when Peter tried to convince him to stay away from Jerusalem - because by this time ALL of Jesus’ followers knew the dangers - Jesus said “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”. (Matthew 16:23). He knew what was ahead if he continued on the road he was traveling. He was ready. He was able at that moment to say, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
Jesus was also human and it is important for us to remember that. As he grew closer to the inevitable end of his earthly ministry and his life, he kinda didn’t want to go. He did not want to die, yet. He especially didn’t want to die the kind of horrible death he would suffer at the hands of the Romans. So he went aside from his disciples to pray by himself. To speak privately with his Father about what was coming.
And when he prayed he said, “Do I have to?”
Three times he asked, “Do I have to?”
The first time he said: If it is possible, take this cup of suffering away. However, not what I want, but what you want.
The second time he said: If it is not possible that this cup be taken away unless I drink it, then let it be what you want.
And then we are told . . he left them and again went and prayed the same words for the third time.
I’m pretty sure every one of us, at some point in our lives, has turned to another and said, “Do I have to?” For example, when children are told to clean their room before they can do the thing, whatever the thing may be, Or worse, when they are told they have to take their little sister along with them to that thing, they might say, “Mooomm. Do I have to?” Yes. You do.
Unlike children, however, Jesus followed up his “Do I have to?” with “Not what I want, but what you want.” Not my will, but yours. This is the most perfect prayer.
There are a number of stories in Scripture in which someone is told to do something they do not want to do. Moses complained to God because he didn’t speak well so he thought someone else should lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Jonah ran away rather than speak to the people of Ninevah. Lot tried to bargain with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Barak refused God’s direction to lead Israel’s army unless Deborah went along with them. Each of them eventually did the thing God directed. Each of them paid a price for their initial refusal. It is painful to try to sidestep God’s will.
Jesus’ prayer began with “Do I have to?” and ended with “Your will, not mine, be done.” We are not told whether God spoke to Jesus during this prayer time, but I do know that sometimes no answer is THE answer. Jesus knew what was ahead on his path, and maybe he hoped that he wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the end, but he knew what he had been called to do. He knew he would pick up the cross that was before him.
In 1517 Martin Luther tacked 95 theses or statements for discussion on the door to the cathedral in Wittenberg. He had issues with a number of practices and theological understandings in the Roman Catholic Church. His teachings - like justification by faith - did not go over well. The pope excommunicated him for heresy. Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire declared him an outlaw. At the trial where he was asked to recant his teachings, he said “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.” God’s will, not his.
Martin Luther King, Jr. really didn’t want to be one of those activist ministers. The pastor right before him at Ebenezer Baptist Church had been fired for his activism. But he agreed to help with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He got a call one night, threatening his life. He sat at the kitchen table having coffee and prayed “God, do I have to do this?” And in his heart he heard these words, “Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever." Three days later his house was bombed. It did not stop him. There would more threats, beatings, arrests . . . he knew where his path would inevitably lead. He continued to choose God’s will, not his own right up to his final day.
I’m pretty sure I’ve told my story here before. . . how I started going to church after being away for 25 years and how after a few months I was sitting in a jail cell telling the women there that they didn’t have to keep coming back to jail if they would just stop using drugs and alcohol, when I heard a voice in my mind say, “You need to be doing this for me.” I said to God, “Do I have to? I do not want to do this.” A year later I was at Chapman University on my path to the ordained ministry. My path hasn’t taken me any terrible places like it did for Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., -except maybe student loans - but it wasn’t what I had planned to do with my life. It wasn’t what I wanted. But God’s will, not mine. . .
Someone once asked me how I knew whether a certain choice was God’s will. I responded that as far as I could tell the thing that was harder to do was almost always God’s will. If one choice was harder than the other AND I didn’t want to do it, it was pretty much a given that it was God’s will. It would have been easy for Jesus to turn away and return to Galilee. Martin Luther would have loved to avoid excommunication. Martin Luther King, Jr. only ever wanted to be a preacher and pastor like his father. All I ever wanted to be was a secretary.
When we pray “Your will be done, not mine” we are praying the perfect prayer. It makes no demands. It does not bargain or make excuses. We lay out whatever is going on in our lives, whatever choices lie before us, as part of the conversation with God, and even if part of that conversation is “Do I have to?” the end part, the “Your will not mine” part is perfect.
Do we have to? Yes. Yes, we have to. We have to seek God’s will and follow it. We can be pretty sure it’s God’s will if it serves God’s people, and not our ego or greed or lust for power. We can be pretty sure it is God’s will if it embodies God’s love of humanity, justice for all persons, compassion for all persons, and mercy. We can be pretty sure it is God’s will if it is a harder of the choices.
We have decisions to make all the time - big ones and small ones. Shall I take on another job? The extra money will be helpful. Sleep is over rated. Shall I add another class to my schedule this semester? I’d love to finish up this semester. Shall I take the job that pays more, or the one that helps people more? Shall I sleep in, or attend worship on YouTube when it premieres? Shall I prepare a nice healthy dinner or call for a pizza? (OK, I’m pretty sure God would prefer that I have pizza.)
Our discipleship challenge this week, then, is to simply pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, in each of our choices. No demands, no bargaining, no excuses, no running away, no telling God what the “right” answer would be. When we have a choice to make, and it becomes clear that one choice is almost certainly God’s will, let us then make that choice. Let us choose to be God’s servants in every way.
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