Selections from The Cross He Bore, Chapter 2 Matthew 26:39
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."
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Was the Father indifferent to the Son’s passionate pleadings in Gethsemane? Did he ever for a moment cease to be well pleased with him? Far from it. The writer to the Hebrews assures us that the Saviour ‘was heard because of his reverence’ (Hebrews 5:7). The proof of his being heard is his resurrection from the dead. In that sense he was ‘saved from death’.* * *
In Gethsemane it was never a question whether the Saviour would obey or disobey. In Eden God asked, ‘Adam, where are you?’ In a sense the question was repeated in Gethsemane and this Adam did not try to hide; he had no need to; his whole response was clearly, ‘Here am I!’ Willingly and voluntarily the good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep.
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As we meditate on Christ’s prayerful submission in Gethsemane, we should realise that there, as Philip E. Hughes puts it, ‘we see him enduring our hell so that we might be set free to enter his heaven’. And so at unspeakable cost he drank ‘the cup’ to the very last drop. ‘Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?’ (John 18:11). What obedience! What love! What mystery!
~ Frederick S. Leahy
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What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
More reflections from Chapter 2
