Not My Will

It's one of those ice-breaker questions we all get asked from time to time: would you want to know how and when you're going to die? Consider the question carefully. Would you live differently? Knowing that information, how would you live?

If I'm honest with myself, it's very likely I'd spend a good deal amount of time obsessing over my impending demise. I mean, yeah, I'd want to make sure my family would be provided for, that I'm spending as much time with them as possible, that I'm leaving a mark... blah, blah blah. The truth is, I'm a very selfish person. I hope I'd be more concerned with my family, but when your death is there, just staring you in the face? Even knowing the Glory to which I am headed when my time on earth is done... there's still that little bit of fear and uncertainty about what's coming. Will it hurt, for example? I hate pain, and I have to be honest, it's likely I'd fixate on that point.

Yet, Jesus knew exactly what He was in for. He understood the prophecies concerning Himself -- He inspired them, after all, and breathed them into the minds and hearts of the prophets. But His time on earth was spent serving His fellow man -- and more importantly, teaching us how to live once His part had been played. The very life of Christ was a lesson in how to walk with God. He taught us how, and then provided the way.

But even Jesus had that moment of doubt. Will it hurt? Oh, yes. So much so that we invented a new word just to describe the very unique pain of death on a cross: excruciating. And before the cross? Torture. Hours of it. Humiliation. Emotional and physical pain heaped upon more pain until finally the body would just give up out of sheer exhaustion. That's what Jesus was looking forward to, as He prayed in Gethsemane, literally bleeding in grief and emotional torment.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”(Luke 22:42)

Consider that. Hebrews 12:2 tells us, "for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
That joy was not His being at the right hand of God: that was already His seat. The joy of which Paul is speaking is that you and I would be given the chance to walk, once again, with the Creator of the Universe. His joy was to be reunited with His beloved creation. 

And for that joy, knowing the pain, the shame, and the torment that was coming, He willingly sacrificed not only His body, but His very will, to the cause of His Father.