Tomorrow will be our final post in the prayer series. Remember to join us for the Good Friday Service, 7:00 PM at First Baptist Church in Oakland, 159 North Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. (MK)
Day #40: “Jesus Prays in Gethsemane” (Ben Chidester)
Mark 14:32-36 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Is it sinful to ask God to remove us from trials? To cry out to Him for relief when they seem too heavy to bear?
As the hour of his crucifixion drew near and the weight of the task bore down on him, Jesus for a time became exceedingly sorrowful. So much so, that he prayed for his Father to remove him from this trial.
At first glance, that might seem scandalous. How can any trial be too great for God? How can any trial cause God to feel sorrow and anguish? But we forget that Jesus is not only fully God, but he is also fully man. And as a man, he experienced the psychological anguish of the task before him: bearing the punishment of the sins of the world. There are times when our sins are brought before us and we sense acutely their deserved guilt. But can we even imagine facing the punishment of our sins and others?
Thanks be to God that we never need face that – not even the punishment due our own sins. But thanks also that our God is a compassionate, heavenly Father who understands our frail human frame. We can tell him when we are sinking beneath the weight of trials, and we can even be so bold, as Jesus was, to pray that God would remove the trial from us. Ultimately, we must be willing to obey God in all things, as Jesus was, and we must not resist what he has clearly revealed. But to bring before him our frailty and our sorrow and to ask him to make another way if possible… is no sin at all – it is our acknowledgment that we are human.
Are you walking through a trial right now that feels too great for you? To follow in the steps of Jesus through trials is to express to God the sorrow you may be feeling and even to be so bold as to ask God if another means of accomplishing his will through you might be possible. But ultimately, we must be willing to follow the Lord wherever he would call. When that seems too difficult, remember that the Lord has walked those steps before you. He knows our frame; he remembers that we are but dust. He has even taken our frail, dusty frame upon himself to journey to the Cross. Thanks to him, we never have to endure the burden of the guilt and punishment our sins deserve. Let us follow in his steps, sacrificially laying down our own will, and praying to God: “not my will, but yours be done.”