Read: Matthew 26:36-46
My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (v. 39 NIV)
It’s common when we’re really struggling with something in life to think we’re the only ones who have ever experienced such ordeals. Or at least we think that Jesus never did and can’t relate. Gethsemane refutes all such thoughts! He who was completely God and perfectly sinless was also fully human. No sane person should ever want to suffer the horrors of a crucifixion. Jesus naturally pled with his Father for some other way to fulfill his mission. Yet in complete submission and obedience, he added that he wanted God’s will and not his own to be done (vv. 39, 42, 44).
Occasionally, believers in Jesus have prayed in misguided fashion for God to inflict pain on them, thinking this would somehow make them more mature. Much more commonly, we pray that we may avoid suffering altogether. This is natural enough, so long as we remember that God can use hardships in good ways in our lives, even if we don’t ask for them.
I heard a well-known Chinese evangelist several years ago talk about the difference between the different approaches to suffering between believers in Christ who live in the West versus the East. He said that Westerners tend to pray for God to take it away, while Easterners tend to pray that God would help them bear it honorably. May we have as little suffering as possible but learn how to be exemplary witnesses whenever we do experience it.
As you pray, ask God to help you follow Jesus’s example in suffering.
Craig L. Blomberg is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Denver Seminary. He has written or edited more than 30 books, including a recently revised and expanded commentary on Matthew. He teaches regularly in churches, including his home church of Centennial Covenant in Littleton, CO. He and his wife Fran have two daughters and three grandchildren.
