With God It Wasn't Possible

With God It Wasn’t Possible

Maundy Thursday

Collect: Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, did institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood; Mercifully grant that we may thankfully receive the same in remembrance of him, who in these holy mysteries giveth us a pledge of life eternal; the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Homily Context: Matthew 26:36-45 (KJ21NT, p.57)

36 Then Jesus came with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, “Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. 38 Then He said unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me.” 39 And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” 40 And He came unto the disciples and found them asleep, and said unto Peter, “What, could ye not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, unless I drink it, Thy will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them and went away again, and prayed a third time, saying the same words. 45 Then came He to His disciples and said unto them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Homily Text: And He went a little farther, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

Optimists focus on possibilities. Pessimists focus on impossibilities. Sometimes pessimists are surprised when something they thought impossible turns out possible. Sometimes optimists are disappointed when something they thought possible proves impossible. The truth is that there are  possibilities and impossibilities in our lives, and often it’s hard for us to tell the difference.

But we are not used to thinking of anything being impossible for God.

• God created all things visible and invisible out of nothing. When there was nothing, God spoke the universe into existence.
• When Sarah the wife of Abraham overheard the heavenly visitors tell Abraham that in a year Sarah would bear a son, she laughed. The Lord asked Abraham:  “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?’ Is any thing too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:13,14).
• When Israel left Egypt and faced annihilation with the Red Sea in their front and the Egyptian army was fast closing from their rear, God parted the sea and Israel safely passed through to the other side.
• The Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem, and the king of Judah had put the prophet Jeremiah because he prophesied the city would fall and counseled surrender. While Jeremiah was in the prison, the Lord told him to buy a field. Jeremiah did what the Lord told him to, but it made no sense sense to buy real estate when the city was about to fall. Buying real estate implies there is a future for Judah, but there is none. The Lord challenged Jeremiah, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:18).
• When the angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary she would bear a son, she asked, “How can this be, seeing I know not a man?” But Gabriel told her that not only would the Lord give her a baby miraculously but also that her childless cousin, Elizabeth, was already in her sixth month of pregnancy, and added, “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
• When the rich young ruler sorrowfully left because his wealth was more important to him than eternal life, Jesus said, “How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.” His disciples were astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus responded, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

Just about everything we learn about God in the Holy Scriptures says, “Don’t ever put limits on God. Nothing is impossible with him.”

But that leads us to the question, “Why didn’t God grant the prayer that Jesus prayed?”

• Thursday night, as Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Jewish Passover in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus transformed the Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper. They concluded by singing one of the Psalms, then went out of the city to the Mount of Olives, about a half mile outside Jerusalem’s wall. At the foot of the mountain was a Garden called Gethsemane which means, “Oil Press.” When they reached the Garden, Jesus told eight of his disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray.” He took Peter, James, and John and went a little further. Those three could see from Jesus’s face and demeanor that something was very wrong. Jesus was not only fully God but fully man, and he experienced all emotions we do in this fallen world. Jesus opened his heart to his friends: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me.” He told them what he could, and asked them to share as they could in his sorrow.
• Then Jesus went a little further. He fell on his face and poured out his heart to  Father, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” We know Jesus was not a coward. We can understand that cry from his heart to his Father, only if we understand the cup he was asking to be spared drinking. In the Bible sometimes the cup is the cup of salvation, and sometimes it is the cup of condemnation. The cup Jesus must drink is the cup of judgment for the sins of the world. We cannot taste how bitter the contents of the cup were. We would have to be in hell to know. Jesus was anticipating what he would experience the next day upon the cross. The hymnwriter, Cecil Frances Alexander, expressed it well:

We cannot know, we cannot tell,

What pains he had to bear,

But we believe it was for us

He hung and suffered there.

That is why Jesus poured out his heart to his Father, and said, “O my Father, if there is any way that I can be spared drinking this cup, please let it be so.” Yet there is something remarkable in his prayer. He does not stop with the request but goes on to say what is so hard for us to say when there is trouble and we are desperate, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”

• The issue is not with God’s power but God’s will. It was God’s will to save us, so it was God’s will that that his Son should suffer for us. If we may speak of an eternity past, it was then that in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, knowing the human race would fall into sin, agreed that they would not leave us to perish in our sins, but would rescue us from guilt, condemnation, and hell. In their divine wisdom and righteousness the plan of salvation they devised was that the Son would become man and die in our places for our sins. To save us the Father, must let the Son’s plea go unanswered. To say yes to our salvation, the Father must say no to the Son. In this the Son fully agreed. Just a little later he said, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” If we are not going to have to drink the cup of wrath, Jesus must drink it for us.

What shall I render to the Lord

for all his benefits to me?

I will take the cup of salvation,

and call upon the name of the Lord.

                              (Psalm 116:12,13)