God’s Will, Not Mine

God’s Will, Not Mine.

 “And He took with Him Peter, James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled; and He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.’ And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground, and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, ‘Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not my will (“thelema”), but your will.’” (Mark 14:33-36; also refer to Matt. 26:36-39).

Greek Word for Will is “thelema,” which means the preferred choice, the intended will that has a deep purpose behind it; the desired preference for action.

Gethsemane. One of the most heart-breaking scenes in the Gospels reveals a full prostration… Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane flat on the ground in utter agony. We see here that Jesus is in desperate distress, and He literally threw Himself to the ground, fully prostrating Himself in prayer to His Father. Jesus is humbly submitting to the Father as He opens His heart to Him. He is fully on the ground, in total privacy, stretching out and remaining vulnerable to whomever might come to Him there. But that is not all he is doing on the ground like that. According to many biblical scholars, Jesus is also identifying Himself with the fall of mankind, kissing the dust of the earth. Jesus “let’s Himself fall into man’s fallenness.” (Fr. Ratzinger). With a tormented soul, Jesus collapses to the ground and assumes a servile position before the Father as well as a position of solidarity with His fellow human beings in the flesh.

“Then Jesus led His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. He told them, ‘Sit here while I pray awhile.’ He took Peter, James and John with Him. An intense feeling of great horror (ekthambeo) plunged His soul into deep sorrow and agony. And He said to them, ‘My heart is overwhelmed with anguish and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here and keep watch with me…” (Mark 14:32-34, TPT).

ekthambeo (ek-tham-bay-o) = to feel overwhelming anguish; to be thrown into terror; to be thoroughly terrified; to experience profound horror.

The starting point of Christ’s Passion was right here in the Garden of Gethsemane. The word gethsemane means ‘oil press,’ and in this passage the final pressing of Jesus begins in earnest until He is out of juice and nothing is left. His profoundly intense prayer time with the Father is often called the Agony. There are many signs of Jesus’ agony that are easy to observe just by reading various translations of the three Gethsemane passages: Matthew 26:36, Mark 14:32 and Luke 22:40. In these passages, which are painful to read whether or not you love Jesus, we see that He was very distressed; that He fervently prayed as He fell on His face; that He was deeply grieved to the point of death; that He was swallowed up in sorrow; that He engaged in an anguished struggle. It is even reported in Luke that sweat fell down to the ground like drops of blood.

Ekthambeo. One only has to read the definition of the unusual Greek word ekthambeo to realize that Jesus wasn’t merely having an earthly panic attack. What Jesus was experiencing was acute suffering that few people have to go through. As Bible scholar and translator Dr. Brian Simmons says, “The Greek words used in these verses are unusual. The terms are extraordinarily emotional and expressive, describing the deepest feelings a person could experience.” 

Dreading the Thought. It’s easy for to see what was causing Jesus such deep agony. He knew what was coming, He understood what He would soon have to experience… betrayal; arrest; severe beatings with fists and clubs; near-fatal whippings; heaps of scorn, mockery and shame; rejection by the religious authorities; considered less worthy than a murderer and terrorist; the torture of huge nails driven through hands and feet; nakedness in the sight of all when He is lifted up on the Cross; being taunted while He is dying; struggling for His last breath in tremendous pain; mourning a brief but profound disruption of the intimate union with His Father; the knowledge that His death would break the heart of His dear mother Mary. This was all going through the mind and emotions of Jesus in the Garden, but we will never be able to understand the depth of His suffering unless we are asked to duplicate His experience in martyrdom. The Father sent an angel to minister to Him in His agony. One translation suggested that Jesus himself requested an angel to come, to comfort and strengthen Him while flat on the ground in anguish.

“… And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground (“pipto”), and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, ‘Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.’” (Mark 14:33-36; also refer to Matt. 26:36-39).

“Pipto” = The root Greek word meaning to fall down to the ground, used over 90 times in the New Testament; is the starter word for dozens of terms involving falling downward from a higher place to a lower place; pipto is the biblical term for prostration, falling onto one’s face on the ground, to collapse to the ground; to fall flat down in worship, reverence, allegiance, or submission; to drop down to the earth as if dead. In the Christian tradition, to fully prostrate oneself often includes confession and gratitude, as well as to pray from a low place before God’s greatness and awesome mystery. To prostrate oneself before the Lord is to assume a humble, servile position before our Master, the almighty God.

“Pipto” was fairly commonplace in the biblical era, as well as in other parts of the world right now. The West does not like to be humbled, evidently. The lesser form of pipto is when one would kneel with both knees on the ground and the forehead touching the ground as well. It was a position slaves would take with their master out of duty and respect. Often out of disrespect a person witnessing this would kick the rear end of the person lying on the ground. This would confirm that person’s place in life. The full prostration would be lowering oneself to the ground and assuming a position in which the entire body was flat on the ground, from the head to the toes to all the limbs. Often the phrase “throw oneself to the ground” would indicate a full prostration, with the word pipto more times than not referring to the full prostration.

Flat on the Ground. When a defeated soldier is brought to a conquering king, the captured foe lays his body out, face down, fully on the ground. That physical act acknowledges the fact that he is in subjection to the king, that he submits to his power and authority. Prostration is a rather radical, visual way to signal one’s submission and respect to God. It would be interesting to try this posture in private prayer, no less in community worship.

Weaving together the three Gethsemane texts, the prayer of Jesus, that he repeated three times to the Father, may have looked like this: “Abba Father, Papa in Heaven, I know that all things are possible for you. Could you please take this cup of suffering away from me? If this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it myself, your will be done above all else. It is not my will, Father, but your will be done.”

Abba! During His unspeakable suffering in the Garden, Jesus cried out to “Abba, Father.” Abba is an Aramaic word that is a child’s affectionate term for a beloved father. It is a title that directly addresses the father in a family setting much like ‘dad’ or ‘papa.’ Abba is a word that assumes a profound personal relationship between child and father. Abba is a term that refers to God as Beloved Father, and can be a believer’s term of respect, honor, intimacy and trust for our Father in heaven. The Greek word for “Father” in the Lord’s Prayer is “pater,” which is the direct equivalent to the Aramaic term “Abba.” Jesus wants us to have the same affectionate relationship with God the Father as He does. (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4).

Practicing Humility. Jesus proved to be habitually deferring to the Father’ will in His life leading up to Gethsemane. He fully entrusted Himself to the Father, He made a point of declaring to His disciples that He wholeheartedly surrendered to the Father’s desires at all times. Christ’s submission to the Father’s will was a long-established factor in their relationship, and Jesus never wavered from that, even when His life was on the line. It’s profoundly clear that Jesus lived for God’s glory and purposes, and that “Christ did not live to please Himself.” (John 15:3).

1. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and bring His work to completion.” (John 4:34);
2. “I seek not my own desired will but the will and desires of Him who sent me.” (John 5:30);
3. “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.” (John 6:38).

God’s Will, Beyond our Understanding. “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His decisions! And how mysterious are His ways, His methods, and His paths! For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has understood His thoughts, or who has ever been His counselor? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and end in Him. To Him be glory forever! Amen. That’s the truth.” (Romans 11:33-36).

Describing God’s Will. Accepting the fact that God’s thoughts are as unreachable as the furthest star in the galaxy, and that His level of understanding is as far from us as the distance from one end of the universe to the other end, we can try to describe God’s will this way: His will is His heart’s desire for every creature to become what that creature was created to be, to reach God’s purpose and destiny for that person; God’s will is what He wants to happen; God’s will is His pure and perfect intention for everything under the sun; His will always remain what is best for all of humanity; His will includes all of mankind’s actions and attitudes that are in line with His character and purpose; His will is that which brings pleasure and joy to His heart; God’s will springs from His character and is an expression of who He is by nature. According to many biblical scholars, God has three wills: His Intentional Will, which is what He prefers according to His designs and plans for the world. The whole world is full of God’s mercy (Ps. 119:64), and God intends that his creatures reflect and live into that mercy with each other. But His intentions could be thwarted in the short-term, because of His… Permissive Will: His will honors each person’s free will, since we are all made in His image; for the short-term, His permissive will allows each of us to stray from His preference or His intention, refusing to eliminate the freedom of mankind to make their own choices in life. However, God has an Ultimate Will for the long-term, a perfect will that is irresistible, that God has had in mind since the creation of the world, and God is determined that His ultimate will shall prevail. Much of God’s ultimate will is a secret at this point, known only to Him. God in His wisdom enjoys a unified plan that we are not privy to, and life in this world is moving towards the ending He has determined. If God’s will and desire is that everyone will eventually be saved, as Rob Bell asks, “Does God finally get what He wants?” Of course He does! In any discussion of God’s will, of course, we shouldn’t forget that, “whatever the Lord pleases to do, He does.” (Ps. 135:6), and “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” (Ps. 115:3).

“It was the Lord’s will, His good pleasure and desire (“haspasti”), to bruise the Suffering Servant and crush him with pain, to put him to grief and make him sick; if he gives his life as a sin offering.” (Isaiah 53:10).

Hebrew Word for Will is “haspasti”, which means to will something because it brings great delight; to desire because it brings pleasure; to wish something to be done because it is the best for all concerned.

The Mystery of God’s Will for Jesus. It boggles the mind to think about God’s permissive will allowing His beloved Son to suffer the extraordinary pains and torturous death of the Passion for us. Certainly the Hebrew language fails to describe this adequately in English, to think that the Son’s torture brought the Father pleasure or delight. Certainly God was not “pleased” to cause His beloved Son pain and death. Yes, we know the abstract truth that Jesus volunteered for this task, that He submitted to God’s plan and chose a lifestyle of saying “Not my will but Thine,” that the Father saw fit “to pile upon Jesus all our sins” (Is. 53:6) for our redemption. But still… Does God love us so much that He would “take pleasure” in sacrificing His Son as a guilt offering for our eternal salvation? The Father was “pleased” to inflict pain on His Son so we could be freed from the slavery and curse of sin? What a mystery is the will of our God, who apparently winked at the short-term suffering of His pride and joy for the long-term spiritual freedom of mankind.