“Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.””
(Mark 14:35–36 NIV)
I have puzzled over this for years. Just couldn’t quite understand how God himself would ask the Father to take the cup from him, allow him to escape the horror of his destiny. Of course I would. But this was Jesus! My Lord and my God!
Jesus lived so well, in perfect intimacy and harmony with the Father. He knew what the Father wanted him to do, to say, where to be, who to heal. He lived a perfect sinless life. My Jesus lived full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and total self-control that only he could exhibit.
So why, then, this human weakness? Why this foible? Why would Jesus pray that the Father would take this cup from him?
And then I read that Jesus said:” Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
In reading the daily devotional from a dear pastor and friend in the UK, the answer has dawned on me. It was like an instantaneous brilliant thought. (I know it wasn’t from my brain).
The pastor’s daily devotional which he entitled “God’s Health Plan” is here:
http://www.pen4god.co.uk/Twitter/page5.html :
“Many years later even Jesus prayed that there might be another way from the one He knew He had to take, although He acknowledged that His Father’s way was the right and only one for Him to take.”
Jesus is fully man and fully almighty God. I’ve never given him the fully human part of his person. I’ve always thought of Jesus as fully God though. Except, maybe when he was a baby, you know, sleeping in that feeding trough.
This passage clearly states that Jesus is man but God as well. The fully human side asked for the cup to be taken away. The fully God part of Jesus said he would follow the Father’s will.
Thank you Father!
Any comments about this passage would so be appreciated.
tannngl 
Pingback: Giving Up “Control” to Achieve Freedom. « Energy of the Heart
I agree it is a challenging scripture. A so he was also fully in God’s will. I read similar takes on that over the last months. It adds to the inspiration He provides. It seems always reavealing, beyond our frailties. I’m glad you posted it, there is a lot to appreciate there.
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An advent study in particular I was thinking of. I’d have a hard time paraphrasing it right now. Much as you summed it up.
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Thank you for noting you’ve read this elsewhere. It helps confirm what I feel is enlightened revelation.
God bless you Bullright.
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It also demonstrates that there really was no other way… for salvation of mankind. It does reveal His human side.
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God became part of his own creation! It’s such an awesome thought! A righteous God becoming part of the creation which fell. The second Adam. Son of man. A lot of phrases in scripture become clear.
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Here’s another thought: (speaking of phrases)
Sean Hannity is fond of saying let not your heart be troubled. (and he bases that on?)
The quote is from John 14 “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” KJV
I heard a pastor say actually, aside from Jesus, actually you should be troubled about everything. It makes you think. Sure Jesus is the only hope against it all. Outside Him, we rightfully should be very troubled indeed. It is the only answer.
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Context is so important in reading the Bible. I believe you’re right.
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God did not ask the Father. It was Jesus Christ, the Nazarene man of flesh and blood who asked his Father, the Only One God, that the time of tribulation and fear might pass. Jesus prayed several times to his Father and learned his onlookers and pupils also to pray to his Father, and not to him. Jesus has always given his Father the honour of doing all the work and never claimed that he was God. We also should remember that God, who does not lie, said about this Nazarene man, that Jesus was His beloved son.
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I’m afraid you and I fully disagree. It would take God himself to pay for the sins of the world’s men and women, not another human being. There is much throughout the Bible that tells us that Jesus existed before time, created the creation, before Abraham, he said, “I AM”. As my Lord humbled himself, placing himself under the Father, in such a profound way, I am to also.
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Where does the passage says that Jesus is fully God?
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It does not clearly state that in these few verses as it does in other portions of scripture.
However, Jesus addresses his Father as abba, daddy.
Jesus is the only Son of the Father. They are of the same make up. As you and your father are. If your father was God, so would you be diety. And this is how the Jewish leaders saw it and the reason they charged him with blasphemy more than once.
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So you think we are not children of God? Because you then would consider, like some Jewish leaders misunderstood, that it would mean we are deities?
You yourself agree that Jesus called Jehovah God Father and did not call him himself. He would not speak to himself and would not pray to himself. That would be in a certain way very hypocritical or very strange. Jesus prayed to his Father to whom we were also to pray “Our Father”. But this does not make us gods nor God, although saying those words we accept that God is our Father, like He is the Father of Jesus.
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We will just have to disagree on this. My reading of Scripture tells me many times over that the Lord Jesus is also part of the Godhead.
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Jesus also knew he could not do anything without his Father, who is bigger than him Jesus:
“then jesus answered and said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do. for whatever things he does, these also the son does likewise.” (John 5:19 MKJV)
“you have heard how I said to you, I go away and I am coming to you [again]. if you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I go to the father, for my father is greater than I.” (John 14:28 MKJV)
Jesus did not go to himself or his own place, but to his Father.
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You and I totally disagree and I doubt either of us will be able to convince the other.
I’ve debated this with others ad infinitum. You will not leave what your religion teaches you. I will not budge from my faith in Jesus, the one I repent to, and the one I call, as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God”.
Bless you for your visit to this blog. If you would like more portions of Scripture that prove his diety check here:
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/jesusgd2.htm
http://carm.org/jesus-god
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