Your Will Be Done

As Jesus leads His disciples out to Gethsemane, Matthew's gospel frames a stark contrast between the self-confidence of Peter and the utter dependence of Jesus in the garden.

Peter contradicts Jesus by boasting in his loyalty, though he will be soon be falling asleep, denying Christ, and swinging his sword in fear. But like so many young men, his contagious false bravado had spread and all the disciples are publicly boasting of their courage, though they will all soon be running away in fear.

In contrast, our Lord is on His face in the garden, grieved and distressed as the weight of sin begins to be laid upon Him and the wrath of God begins to be poured out. Jesus prays for the cup to be removed, but in the end utters "Your will be done" in each of His three sessions of prayer.

True strength is the embracing of human weakness and full submission to the will of the Father. Christ showed His disciples the difference between the ineffectiveness of prideful self-reliance masked in false bravado, and the power of God working through those who submit their will to that of the Father's.