Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
I’m thinking about Jesus in the garden, Gethsemane. The part where he says, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death”. What a powerful verse this is. Think about it, really think about it. Jesus knew what was going to happen. He knew long before. Jesus had a heavy heart for all mankind. Why? Because Jesus bore the weight of all our sin, all mankind.
When Jesus took on this weight it meant a separation from the Father. The pain of this separation was as great as the weight he carried and took on for all of us. I can’t imagine how great this pain, this sorrow was. With a heavy heart Jesus prayed to His Father that if it were possible, not to allow Him to go through what was coming. But even knowing the pain that was coming, feeling the weight, the sorrow, immense as it was, He still said “not as I will, but as You will”.
The sorrow expressed in these verses, the pain, knowing what was coming. Meditating on how Jesus must have felt, what was going to happen, all because of our sins. It’s unfathomable. There is no way to adequately describe it. There is no way to fully understand what this must have been like. The desire to simply not have to go through it would be so great. And yet, Jesus bowed to the will of God.
This is what we all must do, every day. No matter what we are going through, no matter the pain, no matter the sadness, no matter the difficulty, we must also bow to the will of God. God’s plan is far greater than anything we could even begin to hope for. The eternal rewards are better than we could ever imagine.
Jesus bowed to the will of God to save us all. Shouldn’t we bow to the will of God in thanks?