Mark 14: The Unanswered Prayer of Jesus

"Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me..." (vs. 36)

Did all of Jesus' prayers get answered?  What if I were to tell you that even the Son of God did not get everything He wanted while on earth?

Here's what we know: Jesus prayed for a way out.  He did not want to undergo the physical pain and spiritual suffering that awaited Him on the cross.  In a way, I find that admission to be a relief.  Who would want that?  How could we ever hope to relate to Jesus if He were to be eager or excited about crucifixion?  To me, it makes all the sense in the world that Jesus would prefer to do anything else that Friday than be tortured and killed!

So Jesus earnestly prayed to His Father, requesting a desired change in His circumstances - but it wasn't to be.

Have you ever thought about that?  God seems to be a master at coming up with "another way."  When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God provided the ram caught in the thicket.  When Pharaoh's army had the Israelites cornered, He parted the Red Sea.  When Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, He sealed the lions' mouths.  In the Bible, God seems willing to bargain with Abraham over the fate of Sodom and to negotiate with Moses about the rejection of His people following the debacle with the golden calf.

But not this time.  Not for His Son.  Not when it came to the cross as the moment and method of salvation.

What does this mean?  One clear take-away for me is that this unanswered prayer of Jesus reveals that, in this instance, THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY.  If there had been, God would have taken it.  But the salvation of the world cannot rest upon a scheme of works-righteousness or legalism.  Mohammed or Moses or Money or Might is not enough.  When you want to save the world, only a cross will do.  And when you want to be saved, only Jesus will do.

Of course, to suggest that this is an unanswered prayer of Jesus is a bit disingenuous.  Because it is not the complete prayer.  Jesus added a very meaningful, very powerful clause that was answered.  In His humble act of sacrifice, Jesus put the will of the Father above His own.  He did not insist on His own way but, after acknowledging His own desires, still sought after God's.  He concluded His prayer in the Garden as we should conclude all of ours: "...Yet, not what I want, but what you want."  And that part of the prayer was answered.