This is the last of seven core characteristics of Jesus we’ve been called to imitate and thus disciple our kids toward using the ACT Bible Study Method. Learn more about this family discipleship method here.
TLDR: Jesus coming to earth was an act of obedience, an attribute he continued every minute of every day of his earthly life. This obedience was not always easy, but what enabled him to live in obedience no matter what was his desire to bring glory to the Father.
After celebrating the Passover feast with his disciples, Jesus takes them to the Mount of Olives to pray (Luke 22:39). Jesus knows what is in store over the coming hours. He would soon be arrested and paraded through several illegal trials. He would be beaten within an inch of his life, and then be nailed to a cross, left to die a slow, painful death. In these final quiet moments before that encroaching storm, Jesus needs to draw strength from the Father, so he kneels in prayer (Luke 22:41). We might not think much about kneeling in prayer. Some of us might pray this way at times, so we might quickly read over this detail. But kneeling was not the general prayer posture of Jesus’ day. Standing or sitting was. When Jesus kneels, it’s a clue about the intense emotion he feels in the moment (Matt. 26:38).
Take this Cup
We see this intensity of emotion in what Jesus prays about. At the center of his prayer is the request for the Father to “take this cup away” (Luke 22:42). We can’t be sure what Jesus meant by “cup.” Some think it might have been the physical suffering that was coming. Others think it was bearing the weight of sin and suffering the Father’s wrath. Jesus would become sin on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21) and the thought of this was perhaps too much to bear.
It’s important that we work through what Jesus meant by “cup” as we study this passage, but we shouldn’t focus on that so much that we miss what is around it. What Jesus said right before and after the “cup” is just as important as what that “cup” is.
“Father, if you are willing…”
Then the request.
Then, “Yet not my will but yours be done.”
Yet Not My Will but Yours
Do you see why this is so important? This moment in the garden is the most challenging of Jesus’ life—even more than the three temptations by Satan in the wilderness. Taking this cup away might have been the boldest request Jesus could have made. We may not know exactly what Jesus meant by the “cup,” but we do know it had something to do with the cross. Yet, that cross was at the center of the Father’s eternal plan of redemption. And now, mere hours—perhaps even minutes—from this plan going into overdrive, Jesus asks the Father for another way. Do you see the boldness? That boldness, however, makes what surrounds it even more compelling. As excruciating as this moment is, Jesus is fixated on obeying the Father. The Father’s will is more important than his will. Jesus doesn’t want what he wanted if the Father doesn’t want it, too. No matter how difficult the cup would be, Jesus would endure it if it was what the Father willed. Why? Because Jesus loves the Father. Yes, Jesus loves us. Yes, he died for us. But we were not primary on his mind in that moment—we never are. The Father was and the Father is.1 And praise God that Jesus obeyed the Father out of love! Without it, we would still be bearing the cup that Jesus took. We would still be separated from God. We would still be under his wrath. We would still face an eternity of suffering, apart from God.
A Perpetual Posture of Obedience
As we teach our kids about obeying God, we need to position obedience not as an accessory to our lives, but as the priority. Doing God’s will should be our primary focus, and our obedience should be done unconditionally out of love. This is the obedience that marked Jesus. To imitate him requires that we obey likewise.
But we don’t want to “super-spiritualize” our obedience either. A “God said it; that settles it” mentality might be theologically true, but it’s theologically incomplete. Jesus wrestled with obeying the Father in the garden. His struggle wasn’t one of whether to obey or not, as the bookends of his request prove. He was going to do the Father’s will—that was not in question for him, and it shouldn’t be for us. His struggle was one of wishing there were another way for the Father’s will to come to pass. He shows us that sometimes obedience is painful. Sometimes it’s costly. That is what gave him pause. And his struggle in that moment gives us permission to do likewise. It’s OK for us to wish God had another way. It’s OK for us to fight against our flesh that recoils from obeying God or from doing hard things. There’s nothing wrong with the fight. It’s part of being image-bearers in a fallen world. But each struggle should end the exact same way it did for Jesus: “Not my will but yours be done.”
NEXT: Act 1: God Creates; Scene 1: God Creates Everything (Gen. 1:1–31)
- If we are primary on the mind of Jesus, even for a split second, then he would become an idolater. God is primary even for himself. He is the greatest good. He is the one that deserves all glory. ↩︎
brian dembowczyk 