Luke 22:42: “Father…not my will, but yours be done.”
We come to the final part of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Surrender.
Jesus had laid it all out before His Father in abject humility. He had suffered intensely as He considered what His Father was asking Him to do – drink the cup of wrath for the punishment of the sins of all the world. He knew His death would not be an easy, quiet, peaceful one.
His death would incorporate the rejection of His own people, the abandonment of those closest to Him, torture, the degradation of spittle and mockery. He would be crucified by Roman soldiers who cared nothing about Him – to them He was just a job to get done.
Then for hours He would hang naked, bleeding, fighting for air on a rough wooden cross. And before He would relinquish His life there, He would sense the mysterious, fearful, ugly separation from His Father.
In the Garden, before any of that took place, He surrendered His will and His life to the Father’s will. “Not what I want,” He said to His Father, “but what You want.”
Perhaps that must be the final part in all our prayers. Not what I want, LORD, but what You want. Amen.
