What Do You Want?

(by Mark Dodd)

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.” Matthew 26:39

In this passage in Matthew, Jesus knows that the end of his hourglass is drawing near. He will soon be carrying his own cross.

How does Jesus respond to the will of the Father when it means that he must suffer? How does Jesus do what is difficult? Does he suck it up? Does he pray that God will give him strength to do something begrudgingly? Or is it something else?

Here is something that may be shocking to some: Whether or not you want to do God’s will does matter! Many of you will read that statement and think something like this:

“What are you saying? You just told me that Jesus said, ‘not as I will, but as you will,’ and now you’re saying that I need to want to do what God wants me to do?” Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus bore the cross for the joy that was set out before him. The joy? I mean, think about that: how do you think he was joyful about dying on a cross, and bearing the weight of sin, and the wrath of a righteously angry Father? It is because Jesus—God in the flesh—spent time with God the Father, knowing him, loving the glory of the Father, and having his will conformed to the will of the Father. Even the Son and the Spirit submit to the will of the Father; don’t you think we ought to as well? Yet, we read verses like Matthew 26:39, and John 6:38, and we get the idea that it’s ok to hate God’s plan, provided that we do what he says anyways. Where do we even get that? That’s not what the text says! In fact, it’s saying just the opposite.

How can it be true that Jesus—who is always perfect—had to submit his will to the Father, while it is also true that we must want what God wants? The answer is this: When the time came, God the Father caused God the Son to want to do what he was obligated to do. When the time came, Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set out before him.”

He did not endure the cross despite his will, he endured it because of his will—and his will was to endure the cross because he, as a son, had his will conformed to the will of the Father. Jesus did not sin in Matthew 26; rather, he acted as any son of God ought to act by relying on the Father, not only for his actions, but for his will also.

However, there is a wrong way to take this. Some of you may think that you are now off the hook. You say, “Mark said that if I don’t want to serve God, I shouldn’t.” That is not what I’m saying. I am not saying that we should not obey God because we don’t want to.

Here’s what I am saying: The fact that you don’t want to obey God is itself a sin, and that is the first thing that needs to be changed. Don’t ask God to give you strength to carry out a task before you ask him to give you joy. Do you think that God delights in a heart that doesn’t love the thing he loves?

If I don’t want to do what God clearly wants me to do, it doesn’t mean that I’m off the hook, and it doesn’t mean that I should simply follow the law; it means that my will is seriously messed up, and that it needs to be conformed in a serious way.

Jesus didn’t pray in the garden because his will was messed up. He prayed the way he did because, in his perfect goodness, he was making sure that his will was perpetually being formed by the will of the Father. He wasn’t doing what he didn’t want to do, he was making sure that the Father’s will and his will would be the same thing when it came time for him to endure the worst pain that anyone has ever suffered. If this is true about God himself, how much truer is it about you and me?

And here is the thing about the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: it worked! Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Matthew 26:36-46 worked, because we know he endured the cross joyfully.

So, let me close with an encouragement. Though you are without a hope to please God by your own strength, and though your righteous deeds are as filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6), and though you are a sinner, whose very will is naturally in opposition to the Father, we have been given the gift of prayer. Use it! If you have been born again—not of the flesh, but of the Spirit (John 3:6)—then feed this life in prayer and with the Word of God.

Do everything you can to make sure that you want the things that God wants. And when you don’t want what he wants, repent, and rely on him, and the God who has called you will be faithful to conform you to joyfully do his will.