That’s a Big If

[This is a preview of Wednesday night’s message, which will premier at 7 pm EST.]

He leaves them and walks further into the Garden about the distance of a stone’s throw (Luke 22:41). Matthew Henry suggested this was about 50 or 60 steps.

After He goes further into the Garden, He falls to the ground on His face (Matt. 26:39, Mark 14:35). This is the posture of total surrender. Face to the ground — this is pure anguish, humility, and dependence. This is the physical expression of a soul under crushing weight. The One who will soon be lifted up on a cross first bows low before the Father. The sorrow of the previous verse now manifests itself in complete prostration before God. This is the natural response of holiness under the shadow of God’s impending cup of judgment.

He prays.

In His first prayer, Matthew records that He says, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). Mark would record that He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Luke would record only one of His three prayers. We don’t know which one, but he records Jesus saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

We’ll just exegete Matthew’s version. He says, “O my Father…” Even in His deepest agony, His relationship is still intact. The intimacy between them is undiminished. He does not say “God” as if He was some distance figure — He says, “My Father.” Intimate. Close. The deeper the suffering, the deeper the reliance upon God.

Even as He anticipates the moment of forsakenness on the cross, here in the Garden He leans into His loving relationship to the Father.

Then we hear an honest cry out of His humanity: “If it be possible…”

I remember O’hair once said, “You know, that’s a big IF.”

The Lord isn’t saying “I won’t do this.” He’s saying, “I don’t want to do this. IF it be possible, let this cup pass from me”. He’s giving the Father a wide berth for any possibility to get Him out of the suffering to come. “Is there any other way? Is there any path by which justice can be satisfied and sinners redeemed without this cup of sorrow?”

This is not just a cup of suffering — this is God’s judgment.

You remember, in Scripture, the cup usually represented the wrath of God poured out against sin. In Revelation, you had the cup of His indignation (Rev. 14:10) and the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath (Rev. 16:19). His cup was the terrifying judgment of God. He’s contemplating here about being made sin, bearing God’s curse, drinking the full measure of divine judgment. He is not thinking about nails or thorns — He is thinking about becoming the sin-bearer of every soul. This is the terror of the cup.

Then He says a word that changes everything: “Nevertheless.”

It’s not so much resignation as it is a resolution. Real anguish has been expressed. A real request has been made. And then, He chooses perfect submission. “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Here we see God in His humanity choosing obedience. His human will naturally recoils from the cup, but His divine will brings Him into full submission to the Father.

There is no conflict in the fact that He wanted out but then voluntarily yielded Himself to the will of His Father. Again, this is the great reversal of the Garden of Eden. In Eden, the first Adam said, in effect, “Not Thy will, but mine,” and plunged the world into sin and death. In Gethsemane, the last Adam says, “Not my will, but Thine,” and He sets in motion redemption for all believes Him by faith. This verse is the hinge of history. The victory of the cross is not first won on the hill at Calvary, it is first secured in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Lyrics to a song we wrote: “The victory wasn’t on the hill— It was won when He said, ‘I will’”

I loved how William Kelly wrote, “From this table our Lord goes to Gethsemane, and His agony there. Whatever there was of sorrow, whatever there was of pain, whatever there was of suffering, our Lord never bowed to any suffering from men without, before He bore it on His heart alone with His Father. He went through it in spirit before He went through it in fact… Thence our Lord goes forth; not yet to suffer the wrath of God, but to enter into it in spirit before God… As the cross was of all the deepest work and suffering, so most assuredly the Lord did not enter upon Calvary without a previous Gethsemane.”

He makes another point I loved. He argued that Gethsemane was, for Christ, His moment of choice. You cannot have a Calvary without first having a Gethsemane. And you cannot have a Gethsemane without first having a tempting in the wilderness.

The tempting in the wilderness was the trial run. The Garden of Gethsemane was the actual test, and all of this was the God-ordained process by which the Lord would learn obedience through the things He suffered (Heb. 5:7-8).