Matthew 26: 36, 39:
“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane… He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of “relinquish” is the following: “to voluntarily cease to keep or claim; to give up.” If ever there was a time when we had to give up things, and voluntarily cease from a host of activities, the time was during the recent pandemic. COVID-19 required us to make changes, some minor and others major. We had to recognize our inability to control things. There may have been some who had to relinquish being able to check on loved ones, to care for those very sick, or to visit the infirm. We had to relinquish them to the care of the Great Physician. The evolving events and the resulting circumstances were truly out of our hands. Some experts in human behavior predicted our lives would never be the same after the pandemic finally released its hold on us.
It’s good to revisit a favorite book of mine, Catherine Marshall’s best seller, Beyond Ourselves, in which the author relates her story of healing that came after suffering from a lung disease that required two years of complete bed rest. Can you even imagine—two years! She recounts her experience of coming to a “Prayer of Relinquishment”:
“One afternoon I read the story of a missionary who had been an invalid for eight years. Constantly she had prayed that God would make her well so that she might do His work. Finally, worn out with her futile petition, she prayed, ‘All right. I give up. If you want me to be an invalid, that’s your business. Anyway, I want You even more than I want health. You decide.’ In two weeks the woman was out of bed, completely well.” Catherine continues: “This made no sense, yet the story would not leave me. On the morning of September 14—how can I ever forget the date?—I came to the same point of abject acceptance. ‘I’m tired of asking, was the burden of my prayer. I’m beaten. God, you decide what you want for me.’ Tears flowed…and the result? It was as if I had touched a button that opened windows in heaven; as if some dynamo of heavenly power began flowing. Within a few hours, I had experienced the presence of the Living Christ in a way that wiped away doubt and revolutionized my life. From that moment my recovery began.”
Jesus knew that same heavenly power as He prayed to His Father the night before His crucifixion. Were His pleas to God prayed out of weakness and fear? Were they out of the pain in imagining what lay ahead? Were His thoughts of His Father Who was about to lose His own Son? Was Jesus mindful of taking the penalty for billions of sinful souls? We do not know. But we do know that He prayed a “prayer of relinquishment”—“not as I will, but as You will.” Jesus did not pray for the cup to pass from Him, rather He prayed for the grace to drink it.
“Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross.” Phil. 2:6-8
Father in Heaven, our hearts are full as we are reminded once again of the unspeakable anguish Jesus experienced on the road to Calvary. He relinquished His will for Yours. He chose the cup. He chose the nails. He chose the cross. He chose us. We humbly thank you, Lord Jesus, and pray that, if you call us to relinquish something in our lives, that You would give us the strength, faith, and grace to do so. Amen.
