Love Says No – Matthew 26:36-46

How many people do you know who have given up on God because He didn’t answer a prayer for them that they felt needed to be answered if God is a God of love? I have heard it many times. I’ve read about it in novels. And it seems very compelling because we almost cannot help but believe that God is here for us and that His love would never fail to deliver us. After all, wouldn’t we do anything for our children?

Wouldn’t the Father do anything for His Son, Jesus? Jesus is hurting, knowing that great suffering is coming as he anticipates his arrest and crucifixion. He prays to the Father to be rescued from the cross.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matthew 26:36-46 ESV)

Jesus needs to pray and Gethsemane, an olive grove on the side of the Mount of Olives, seems the ideal place.  Jesus needs a level of privacy for this and yet some relational back up so he takes only three of his apostles, Peter, James and John, further into the grove and leaves even them to pray for him while he goes further and prays alone.  The dread he is feeling is moving him to great sorrow as he faces death and moving him to get away from it if possible.  He needs the support of his friends in prayer and he needs to hear from the Father.

Three times he asks the Father if he can avoid dying but each time is careful to add that he is there to do the Father’s will, not his own.  He comes away with the realization that he cannot avoid the cross.  He has overcome the temptation to flee and he warns his close friends that prayer is the thing that will keep them from temptation.

It is astonishing that the one who was heard by the Father so that he healed the sick and raised the dead, now does not get what his flesh so deeply desires, that is, to live.  The Father says no to him because what seems like the most wrong thing to happen to the Messiah is the very thing that needs to happen for our sake.  If Jesus doesn’t die, we do.  If he doesn’t pay the penalty for our sins, we must.  The Father was loving him and us at the same time, but it meant His beloved Son had to die.

And here, after Jesus has told his disciples that sheer will power will not keep them from failing to stay with him, he explains what the right process for winning over temptation is prayer, and such prayer that involves expressing our desire to yield to temptation but wrestling to a willingness to do whatever the Father wills. In intimate conversation with the Father we find empowerment to obey.