A Model of Surrender
They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”
—Mark 14:32-36
We know what happens next. Jesus surrenders to guards. He is tried, tortured and killed, just as the prophets foretold. He rises again on the third day, He appears and teaches for forty days, and then He ascends to heaven. In His prayer, Jesus acknowledges God the Father’s sovereignty saying, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible….” And then He asks sovereign God almighty to “remove this cup from me” but in the next breath He clarifies who He serves. Jesus clarifies that He serves God the Father and He is not asking God the Father to serve Him. He clarifies this by saying, “yet, not what I want, but what you want.”
We know what happens next, and God clearly does not “remove this cup” from Jesus. He drinks the cup set before Him. He chooses to fulfill His mission on earth. He chooses to pursue God’s will and from our earthly perspective it costs Him dearly – He endures agony and death – but He completed His earthly task, He conquered death, He formed a path leading to God, allowing our reconciliation and atonement, and He sits in glory forever.
What cup is before you?
Jesus knew God’s will with certainty. He knew what was before Him and He grieved. He did not want to do it, yet knowing it was what God wanted, Jesus walked towards and through the suffering designed by men with evil in their hearts and carried out by others merely doing their jobs. As Jesus met with Pilate and Pilate washed his hands of the matter, Jesus knew Pilate was merely doing his job. As guards destroyed His back with spike laden whips and drove spikes through His body, He knew they were merely doing their jobs and He asked God to forgive them. Men designed the arrest, torture and crucifixion with evil in their hearts and God allowed it. It was part of His loving, gracious plan for all of humanity, and God revealed His glory through it.
As the accounts of Jesus’ death demonstrate, God certainly transforms evil acts to good, and He reveals His glory through awful situations. But this does not mean we should allow injustice to proceed. God calls us to serve as His people loving mercy and kindness, doing justice and walking humbly with Him (see Micah 6:8). The problem with a great deal of the injustice around us is its faceless nature – just as the religious leaders’ plan to kill Jesus was carried out by many others who simply did their jobs, injustices today are often created by well-intended policies carried out by lots and lots of people doing their jobs, and the combined effects are often tragic.
Jesus knew God’s will with certainty, but our vision is typically not so clear. We are usually unable to see God’s plan as it relates to our daily struggles, so we study His holy word, we commune with Him, we pray, and we worship and discuss His holy word with others, and we engage in fellowship with others and we serve Him, and as our faith and trust in Him grows, our ability to discern His will is enhanced, we begin to see others with love, and we move through each day one step at a time praying for guidance.
Paul shared in struggles similar to ours. His vision was not perfect. He was blessed with heavenly visions and direct communication with the Holy Spirit I have not experienced, and he struggled with a painful, lingering condition. He prayed for God to take it away, but God said Paul needed the condition to keep him humble and God promised to give him His holy grace and power to allow Paul to handle the situation, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God allowed the thorn to position Paul to better serve, so that God’s glory might be more fully revealed through him.
Paul responded celebrating his weakness, boasting about the thorn, exulting God in response to it all saying, “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Paul understood God’s will because he had ears to hear God speak to him. For the rest of us, we often are unable to piece together the puzzle until we have the benefit of hindsight, until after the painful struggle ceases for a time and we can look back and see God’s hand at work. Joseph encountered horrific hatred through his flesh and blood. Joseph was the youngest and his brothers hated him. To make the situation worse, Joseph dreamed dreams indicating his family would bow before him. Worse yet, Joseph told his family about the dreams, so his brothers’ hatred grew, and they sold him to slave traders heading to Egypt and told their father he had been killed. Their hearts were so enraged with hatred and jealousy they wanted to kill him, but in an act of mercy they sold him as a slave. In their hate-filled state, even mercy was diabolical.
In Egypt, Joseph was a slave and prisoner, and through God’s anointing, he gradually caught Pharaoh’s attention and earned his respect. When Joseph was thirty years old, Pharaoh appointed him with authority over the land of Egypt. In response to dreams in which he saw famine in the future, Joseph stored up all the food he could, and when famine came, Egypt was prepared. Joseph’s family was starving. His brothers came to Egypt seeking food and they bowed before Joseph. Joseph held all the power, and he demonstrated his power before them, but rather than strike out with vengeance he eventually said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:4-5). (See Genesis 37-45 for Joseph’s story.)
Probably not initially, probably not as slave traders marched him away in shackles, probably not as he sat in prison, but eventually Joseph saw God’s hand over the entire situation. God did not fill his brothers’ hearts with hatred, but He allowed it. God did not cause them to sell Joseph into slavery, but He allowed it. Their hearts held evil, they acted with evil intent, they were responsible for their actions, they grieved the awful choice they made, and God used the situation to preserve life. God revealed His glory through it.
Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus knew what was about to happen to Him and He asked God to remove the cup from Him, but only if that was what God wanted. Paul asked God to remove the thorn from his flesh and God said “no.” Joseph suffered consequences of great evil for a long time. Through dreams God offered Joseph assurance and at the right time God revealed His glory through the situation.
I encourage you to consider this in two ways. First, consider yourself. What cup is before you? What thorn is in your flesh? What evil are you facing, enduring, suffering? Like Jesus and Paul, ask God to take it away. If His response is similar to His response to them, pray for God’s grace and power to fill you as you go through the trouble. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Presence fully that you might move closer to Him through it all, ask Him to clearly guide each step you take, ask Him to send you His holy servants to help you in your time of need, ask Him to reveal His glory through the entire situation, and never cease praising and worshiping God because regardless of our situation He is worthy of our praise.
We each have our share of trouble. Sometimes praying, “yet, not what I want, but what you want” involves silent, motionless surrender, as demonstrated by Jesus. Other times the same prayer leads to surrendering our desires and our tasks for the day and replacing them with God’s to-do list for us. With this in mind, how might you help your brother or sister in need? Do you see someone suffering evil? What might you do to help? Do you see someone with a thorn in their flesh? What might you do to remove the thorn or otherwise alleviate their suffering? Do you see someone sold into slavery – slavery of addiction, debt or another of the myriad of its manifestations around us? Do you see policies leading to systems perpetuating injustice? What might you do to constructively make a difference?
May God’s glory shine upon you, may the Holy Spirit fill you and fully transform you, and may the love of Christ flow through you in such a way that the world knows you are His disciple. Amen.