The Cross He Bore - Prayerful Submission

  • Tim Challies
  • 03/30/09
  • 4

This is day two of our thirteen-day trek through Frederick Leahy’s The Cross He Bore. Today Leahy looks to Jesus’ words of submission to the Father. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39).

Here is a favorite quote:

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How clearly the true humanity of Christ is seen in Gethsemane, more so than in much of our standard dogmatics! For evangelicals are so concerned to defend the deity of Christ, and rightly so, that often they hardly know how to handle his humanity! Here, in Gethsemane, we see the sinless, finite humanity of Christ in deep and terrible distress. Calvin said that Christ had horror at the prospect of death because “he had before his eyes the dreadful tribunal of God, and the judge himself armed with inconceivable vengeance; and because our sins, the load of which was laid upon him, pressed him down with their enormous weight. There is no reason to wonder, therefore, if the dreadful abyss of destruction tormented him grievously with fear and anguish.” Yes, fear and anguish; but, unlike the experience of all others, it was fear untainted by sin. It was Ambrose who said, “He grieved for me, who had no cause of grief for himself; and, laying aside the delights of the eternal Godhead, he experiences the affliction of my weakness.”

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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!”

Comments (4)

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Anonymous's picture
a comment from David Porter • 03/30 @ 10:50am
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Tim,

Gethsemane is very fresh for me, as I went 51 years of life never having a clear picture of the horrific scene.

Is not the mind boggled at the thought of our perfect Savior, becoming sin, and bearing the full brunt of mighty God’s wrath?

Can the mind contain the thought of a perfect relationship, and then that relationship, with your Father God, now turned enemy?

And unbelievably, to my comprehension, seeing and knowing these things, and still offering perfect obedience.

When considering myself facing these prospects, I thought I would immediately run, but the truth is, I would probably die on the spot from fear.

Billions of dollars have been made, by the movie industry, over the years portraying loss. Consider, for example, the movie “Letter in a Bottle”. At the end, we all feel a sense of deep loss because the lover’s are separated by death. We seem to be hard wired to understand that loss.

Here, in Gethsemane, is the ultimate love story, and the ultimate scene of loss. A perfect relationship. We can’t begin to comprehend what that is, as we peer through our lens of pride, and selfishness.

But here, here, in this garden, this perfect relationship is suddenly severed, and our Savior is left alone, apart from his loving father, and furthermore, that loving relationship is about to turn against him, and unleash unimaginable infinite fury, as Christ becomes our sin, in the eyes of the Father.

I can’t bear to take it in! My mind is stupefied. I can only rely on the Holy Spirit, at this point, to communicate to my Father.

The whole of creation, and depravities hold, is about to be conquered. In just a short time, God, through an unimaginable act, is going to open the door to a right relationship. Instead of turning his fury upon me, he turns it upon his Son, and provides for me…..a cup of Salvation!

Unspeakable…isn’t it? Who can even speak at the thought?

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Socorro Alaniz • 03/30 @ 11:58am
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David…After reading your post I offer a humbled and grateful AMEN.. Socorro, a reader of “Boomer in the Pew”…in Bonita, CA

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Ford • 03/30 @ 7:57pm

“These two cups, one so bitter, the other so sweet, stand side by side: the one cup necessitated the other. One cup was emptied that the other might be filled to overflowing. The first cup guaranteed the second. Both cups are precious and bear the hallmark of sovereign grace.”As I have read this chapter and reflected on the use of the word “cup”, I will never partake of the Lord’s Supper again without reflecting, in a new way, on the use of that word.

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Anonymous's picture
a comment from Lisa notes... • 03/30 @ 10:28pm
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David—your thoughts moved me as well.

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!