A Gethsemane Moment

Jesus withdrew from his disciples about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done." Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. Luke 22:41-44

An anguished, stooped Messiah sweats in urgent, passionate prayer, hair pasted to his skull and runnels of tears down his cheeks.

Remove this cup!

What kind of masochist would relish such a drink? Of course he pleaded to have it removed as if a hasty waitress had put it there by accident.

But no mistake. This was the script he seemed to know (Luke 9:22); over and over, a scene mentally rehearsed as if all of his life funneled to this moment.

Remove this cup!

Weary, betrayed, his closest friends—he begged them to stay awake—a choir of snores, this lonely Messiah huddled in the Gethsemane darkness, in a garden not unlike the first garden where human beings first said NO! to God. The same serpent whispered that the Lamb of God duties and obligations need not be followed.

Only chumps suffer for others’ sins.

Yet not my will but yours.

He stayed with the Greater Will. He wanted something different: another drink, another path. But he continued the course, fulfilled his duty, won the victory.

The traditional wedding service contains a segment called the Intent to be Married. The bride and groom declare their purpose before God and the congregation. "Do you take this woman/man to be your wife/husband? And will you stand by her/his side, in all love and honor, duty and service, faith and tenderness, to live with her/him and cherish her/him in the holy bond of marriage?"

When I pore over the service with a couple before their wedding day, one might comment from time to time, "I understand loving and being tender and cherishing my spouse. But what is this duty and service part?"

Sometimes, love means we perform a duty or service we do not want to do. Love is not all candlelight dinners and seductive winks. It also makes the tough decisions to fulfill obligations or duties whether or not they meet our needs or spike our thrill scales through the roof.

M. Scott Peck wrote, ". . . real love does not have its roots in a feeling of love. To the contrary, real love often occurs in a context in which the feeling of love is lacking, when we act lovingly despite the fact that we don’t feel loving."

Jesus loved us so deeply that He performed a duty that required great sacrifice. We act similarly when we choose to fulfill a loving obligation to God, country, community, or family, especially when we don’t feel like it.

Not my will but yours.

Amen.