The Force of Will
The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.
Maybe you can relate to this, but my predisposition is to use the force of my will to make things happen. When I really want something to happen, or when I really want to change the course of something underway, I frequently resort to the blunt force of my will. I resolve to simply find or muster up enough will to either make it happen or prevent it from happening—depending on the circumstance. But in short, I’m drawn to the mindset that suggests, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
How about you? Is that response attractive to you? Do you simply find another gear for the challenges of each day? Do you also draw on the force of your will to make things as you want them to be? If so, there is a certain value to that determination, but let’s consider together the way modeled for us by Jesus when the going got as tough as it could possibly get for Him.
In Luke 22, things are impossibly bad for Jesus. He has been betrayed by Judas, He’s dined His last with His disciples without being able to fully impart to them what is about to happen, and He is preparing for the arrest, torture, and crucifixion that is imminent. Jesus knows the “why” behind His Father’s instruction to yield to this path, and yet He is feeling the full weight of what is being asked of His now-human body. He is feeling it so heavily and so deeply that he retreats to pray and asks His Father to remove it from Him: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Lk. 22:42a).
Remember, Jesus is fully God even as He has surrendered to being fully man. If ever there were a moment where the force of one’s will could alter what is to come, this is it. Jesus, as a full-fledged member of the Trinity, could have simply enforced His will. He could have demanded another way. Clearly Jesus wanted another way, as He asked His Father for one.
But far from forcing His will on the situation, Jesus quickly and clearly followed His request for another way with a full acquiescence to the will of His Father. In the very next breath, Jesus yields His will fully to the Father: “[Y]et not my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42b).
Jesus had a will in the situation, and it was a strong one. He did not want to have to endure the torture that was to come. He asked for another way, but He made the request not only absent the force of his will, but in fact in a proactive choice to defer to the Father’s will. The Father’s response was unequivocal: There was no other way. Verses 43-44 describe an angel being sent to strengthen Jesus, but even with that support, Jesus is in anguish and sweating blood.
Even still, he did not force His will. He chose the path of the Father and He went to the cross.
You and I likely do not face the physical cross that confronted Jesus. But we do face the daily cross of following Jesus described in Matthew 16 and Luke 9. This daily cross contains an instruction to surrender our will to the Father.
You, like me, are probably often tempted to use the force of your will to change your circumstance. Instead, will you join me today in following the example of Jesus by willingly laying it down? Together, may our anthem be, “Not my will, but yours be done.”