Not My Will, But Yours, be Done
by Candyce Carden
On a trip to Tuscany, my husband and I stayed on the grounds of a gorgeous olive orchard. The setting was so beautiful I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. After sampling delicious olive oil and learning about its health benefits, we became olive oil enthusiasts—always on the lookout for good quality, cold-pressed oil.
Jesus retreated to an olive orchard to pray before His death and crucifixion. The Garden of Gethsemane, lying at the foot of Mount of Olives, played an important role in the life of Jesus. The Gospels tell us He withdrew to the garden the night before His arrest, fell down, and cried out to His Father in agony.
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.
All four Gospels tell us Jesus prayed these words three times in the Garden of Gethsemane on that fateful night (Matt. 26:39; Matt. 26:42; Matt. 26:44).
The Symbolism of Three
The word Gethsemane means “oil press.[i] The ancient tradition of extracting oil from olives was to put the fruit through the oil press three times. Three times so every last drop of oil was squeezed from the olives.
During the time Jesus walked the earth, a more primitive process was used. Harvesters lowered heavy stones onto olives that had already been crushed in an oil press. Slowly, the weight of stone slabs pressed the oil from the olives, and it ran into a pit to be collected. This small fruit endured quite a crushing before consumers could experience the oil’s taste and nutrients.
Biblical scholars point to the symbolism present in these passages. Like the olives bore the weight of going through the oil press three times, Jesus, feeling the pressure of bearing the burden of the world’s sin, asked the Father to “let this cup pass from me” three times.
Jesus was crushed by the weight of humanity’s sins so you and I could experience the light of salvation in our lives.[ii]
And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44).
Jesus dreaded what was to come so deeply that He sweated blood. Yet, each time, Jesus closed His prayer by surrendering to God with these ultimate words of obedience:
…not my will, but yours, be done.
[i] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
[ii] Kathy Gilford and Rabbi Jason Sobel. The Rock, the Road and the Rabbi. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2019.
Friends, wishing you a meaningful Holy Week amid the grief and sadness leading to the joyful news of Easter, “He is Risen.”
Dish of Olives
I’m adding a dish of olives to our Easter meal this year to remind me of the agony Jesus experienced for us on the Cross.
Oh how your photos and words brought back wonderful memories ma’am. Four days after my retirement, my Italian-heritaged wife and I were “wheels up” for Italy. We also stayed agriturismo, which was fabulous. Our little rented Fiat was a blast to drive all around Italy during our stay. I too found a great connection with our Father as I watched the shepherds on the adjacent hills, wandered through the olive groves and grape arbors. Oh my goodness, I can hear the tractor and smell the crushed grape skins from the on-site winery as I’m typing. The smells, the tastes, the textures, and the peacefulness found. Wonderful! Thank you ma’am, and thank You Lord for awakening my writer’s spirit during our visit to Italia.
Thank you for this validation of my love for Italy. My husband also enjoyed tooling us around the hill towns of Tuscany but not so much the busier cities. Crazy Italian drivers!
God sure has created some beautiful and interesting places on earth for us to experience and enjoy.
I hate olives, but I love this message, Candyce. Jesus gives us the strength to submit our will to the Father in the same way He did. And the results will be eternal!
What? You hate olives!!? I hope you at least like olive oil.
Thank you for this beautiful reminder of the crushing he endured for our sake. Happy Resurrection Day.
I’m looking forward to it. Wishing the same for you and yours. Enjoy
Candyce, this is a beautifully written and inspiring message. Thank you for educating us about the pressing of the Olive as compared to Jesus work for us and in us.
Thank you so much. Wished you and your family a blessed Easter, Lisa.
Such an informative and inspiring message, Candyce–thank you! As Jesus cries out to His Father for help, our hearts break for Him, yet He still willingly went to the cross for us. What a great love–it’s beyond our feeble human understanding. Wishing you a blessed Easter.
Thank you, Katherine. Our hearts do break for Jesus and I sometimes tend to avert my eyes from that side of the Easter story and focus on the joy instead.
Thanks for this beautiful post, Candyce. Happy Resurrection Day!
Thank you Barbara. I enjoyed yours this week. Happy Easter Sunday.
That prayer, your will be done, is so incredibly hard to pray for us today also. Thank you Candyce. I pray to have the kind of faith to whisper those words in dark days. Happy Easter
It is hard for us to pray. But one thing is for sure, it’s a prayer we know will be answered. Thanks for your insight.
So meaningful, Candyce. Thank you.
Thank you, Marilyn. Happy Easter.