Your WIll, My Command

Matthew 26 details the circumstances and events leading to the Cross so concisely and succinctly that if we do not pause to carefully consider each verse we could easily lose the essence of the chronological proceedings, yet not one occurrence or peculiarity eventuated by accident or chance. It was all in the perfect plan and timing of Gods order. Jesus' mission on earth was coming to a head. The air was charged with conspiracy, plots and schemes to rid Jerusalem once and for all of a man most controversial and antagonistic to both clergy and government of the day. But it was Passover and mindful of custom and averting a riot, the chief priest, scribes and elders of the people had momentarily postponed their conniving's with Caiaphas the high priest to have Jesus killed. How ignorantly ironic of them not to have perceived the deeply profound significance that Passover would bring? How impious and irreverent of them to think that they could have a hand in delaying or stalling the most pivotal, revolutionary act of love this side of heaven?

The days' deeds and happenings had concluded - Jesus' feet anointed by Mary Magdalene, Jesus sold to the authorities by Judas for thirty pieces of silver - The breaking of bread and drinking of wine with His disciples, their last supper. All of these symbolic and metaphoric undertakings drew Jesus ever closer to the exchange of wills, His for His Fathers. Jesus needed to pray, He sought prayer as the only means to deal with one of the most catastrophic events He would have to endure, the weight of the sin of the world, squarely on His frame, from the Crown of His Head to the soles of His feet, all of Him for all of sin. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me" "He fell on His face praying, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:42. Interestingly Gethsemane was an oil press, a place where olives were crushed to produce oil. How symbolic of the crushing of Jesus' spirit of His entire being into submitting and surrendering to the Fathers Divine plan. The support, the collective power of agreement in prayer that He sought from His disciples failed Him. They slept while He lamented and languished to the point where great droplets of blood fell from His temples to the ground.

The first shedding of His blood from His brow, represents the covering over the seat of our thoughts, our minds, where our will, our psyche is born and bred into dictating and directing the path we will take, of the daily choices we make. These drops of blood broke the will of man for the will of God, enabling us to have the mind of Christ, to putting on the Mind of Christ when pressed and pressured by life's struggles and strains. What an awesome thought, such empowerment, such victory! Scripture exhorts that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, that as a man thinks so is he. Jesus provided most benevolently and eternally right there at the oil press regarding every area of our thoughts, our wills, and our psyches. There is therefore nothing that can hold the nerve center of our beings enslaved and incarcerated, which the blood of Jesus has already provided for. "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the Knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ!" 2 Corinthians 10:5. Amen!

How befitting also for these droplets to fall onto the ground of the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember when sin entered the Garden of Eden? When Adam and Eve chose to partake of the forbidden fruit, Jesus reversed this curse, restoring and redeeming what was stolen what was taken. Just as Adam and Eve had made a conscious decision to sin, to partake of evil, here was Jesus taking all of His reserves to the subjection of His Father in removing this sin and making a way out.

What transpired at Gethsemane must provoke us to step into the Will of our Father, for such a time as this nothing is worth pursuing other than the Divine ordinances and directions of our Heavenly Father. Maybe you're at an "oil press" in your life - where the tugs and leanings are leading to where God desires you be positioned. Whatever God has ordained, will eventuate. The confidence, the act of stepping out in faith must be borne from the realization that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, who have been called according to His purpose!