Awaken The Dawn

AWAKEN THE DAWN!

personal feelings until the divine will has been fulfilled.

The First Prayer: “Abba! Father!” The Gethsemane prayer progresses through three phases of increasing intensity. Each segment reveals Jesus in greater struggle as He seeks the will of the Father con- cerning “the cup” which He must drink. Jesus faces the challenge of His Crucifixion. His death on the cross looms before Him as a dreadful cup, and to par- take of it is to fully submit His will as the Son of Man to the full purpose of the heavenly Father. The cup is a metaphor for the battle of the human will to obey the will of God. Victory will not belong only to Jesus, but it will be a triumph for all men everywhere. I have already quoted Hebrews 12:2 which tells us that Jesus endured the strife “for the joy set before Him.” Yet, He wrestled with an inner turmoil to reconcile His joy as the Son of God with the sorrow that was inherent in being also the Son of Man. We can barely comprehend the power of His prayer or the burning flame of His determination which fed the prayer. As the Son of God, He knew His hour of death was at hand. It was time to die for the sins of the world. For this cause, He came into the world which now He would leave as the Son of Man with all of the human attributes and infirmities. Like Jacob who struggled with his angel, Jesus must now grapple with His inner con- flict: the battle of the human will. The struggle is depict- ed by the posture He takes while praying: He “fell on the ground. 1 He “fell on His face.” 2 Perhaps the closest human equation for this manner of praying is a woman’s 154