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The Lord’s good and gracious will is revealed above all in Jesus’ Passion, when a weak and trembling Jesus prayed to His Father and then was betrayed into the hands of sinful men to die. We find Jesus in dark Gethsemane sorrowful and troubled, even to the point of His sacred heart failing right then and there. The weight of the world’s sins pressed down mightily upon Him; He fell upon His face in weakness and trembling, begging, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” The cup Jesus spoke of was the cup of His Father’s wrath against all the sin of the world. God’s wrath is His unmitigated anger, a furious outpouring of condemnation, the fires and torments of hell.
Jesus did not want to drink that cup if there were some other possible way to atone for the sin of the world. Perfect, sinless, holy Jesus, whose will was perfect, asked for His Father whether He would come up with a different plan. But He didn’t stop there; He continued, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Again, He prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And a third time, He prayed the same prayer. And then the Father answered His Son’s prayer by giving His Son the strength to accept His good and gracious will. And the Son willingly went into captivity when Judas showed up to betray Him so that God’s will could be done in the cross, death, and resurrection.
What Jesus did in His death and resurrection fulfilled what He had told His disciples in John 6: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:38-40). The good and gracious will of God is that you believe in Jesus and have eternal life. The devil, the world, and our sinful nature all want us to reject God’s name, His kingdom, and His will. We pray “Thy will be done” because we are subject to constant attacks from our enemies and need God’s protection against them. By praying, “Thy will be done,” we confess that our own will is not strong enough to keep us from falling away from our Lord.
So we constantly need to pray, “Thy will be done,” so that our will, which would abandon Jesus, deny Him, and fail to confess Him, would be changed to a will of unshakeable confidence in the Lord’s mercy. When we pray “Thy will be done,” we are saying, “Lord, my will is not important. Your will alone is good. Use my life according to your will.” Those are humbling words to pray, since when we pray we usually have in mind already what we want the Lord to do for us, according to our will. But if the Father’s will was good enough for our Lord Jesus, then it is good enough for us. When we pray “Thy will be done,” we are asking God to accomplish His will for the whole world even if that means that we have to suffer great pain, extreme poverty, and bitter sadness.
But even when we have lost all that is dear to us in this life; even when our situation is scariest or most painful or most uncertain; even in the worst of times, our Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection tells us that the good and gracious will of God is being done in our life since we are already God’s beloved children, and God only does what is best for His children. As our Lord says in Romans 8, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
God’s purposes will prevail, for they are intended to save you from the sinful purposes of the devil, the world, and your own flesh. When in doubt, and even when not in doubt, keep your eyes on Jesus. The Passion of Christ tells you that no matter how many times you have failed to do God’s will, you are forgiven of those sins because Jesus did fulfill God’s good and gracious will and makes you God’s own in Baptism. Amen.
Rev. Roth pastors Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin.
