Matthew 26:36-39
Not as I Will

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

New International Version

The prophet Isaiah knew how it would be when he wrote in Isaiah 53:7 that he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. There would be no protest, no resistance, no appeal to the crowds, simply quiet, humble obedience as the unthinkable happened.

There was nothing in the hours to follow that would meet our expectations at all. There almost was -- Peter, with the same spirit as those Texas heroes defending the Alamo, drew a sword to fight against impossible odds, but Jesus halted the battle quickly. Luke's gospel even reports that Jesus healed the ear that Peter had cut off in his aborted attack. When the disciples saw this unbelievable response from Jesus, they ran.

Nothing would happen that would signify the importance of the doomed man. The religious authorities would be outraged enough at Stephen to stone him themselves, but they were content to turn Jesus over to the Romans as yet one more opposing the occupation. Pilate recognized something different in Jesus and resisted the calls for execution, but in the end, Jesus was just another one of many condemned by the Roman governor. Jesus endured a hideous death, but crucifixion was not unusual in the occupied territories, and Jesus had to share Golgotha with two other men. He was placed in a tomb, a gesture of love by a rich follower, but a tomb was not unusual. It was all so ordinary, so routine, as if the man had been nothing special at all.

Maybe that was part of why he prayed for some other way. It certainly would be in our culture. We scorn those who give up and give in too easily. We admire heroes who squarely face unbeatable odds, win or lose, just like the end of the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." We want confirmation that somehow we had an impact, we made a difference.

That sneaks into our spiritual lives as well. We feel the need to fight for what we believe. We want to be bold in demonstrating our faith. When we make sacrifices for the work of God, we want others to know so that our sacrifice might inspire sacrifices from others. We tell stories about the heroes of our faith and praise their impressive accomplishments. If we're not careful, we find ourselves patterned after Peter, and not after our Lord.

Beware! Following Jesus means denying ourselves, letting God break us of our human nature, so that we can like Jesus take up our cross in quiet obedience and humility. God will call us at times to stand quietly and humbly with no response, like Jesus before his accusers, and we will not know why. God will call us at times to let the wrong win over the right like Jesus in Gethsemane, and we will not know why. God will allow us at times to be embarrased, humiliated, and defamed, and God will tell us to accept quietly all the slander and insult with no defense, and it will seem to us like the ruin of all we were doing for the Kingdom. But it would not be faith if we had to know why in order to obey. It is enough that God knows why.