The Servant Son of God: Not What I Will, but What You Will

Mark 14 is the night the Servant submits.

The chief priests plot. A woman pours out a perfume worth a year's wages. Judas sells Him for thirty pieces. He institutes the Supper. He goes to Gethsemane and prays with sweat as if it were drops of blood. He is betrayed with a kiss. He is tried by the Sanhedrin. Peter denies Him three times.

All night, the Servant could turn back. All night, He does not. Because His will is bent to the Father's:

"Not what I will, but what you will."

The plot and the perfume

The Passover is two days away. The chief priests and scribes are seeking how to arrest Him by stealth and kill Him. They say: "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."

While they plot, Jesus is in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. A woman comes with an alabaster flask of ointment — pure nard, very costly. She breaks the flask and pours it over His head.

Some are indignant. "Why was the ointment wasted? It could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor."

Jesus defends her:

"Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me… She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

The Servant Son does not measure devotion by what is left over. He treasures what is poured out. The whole flask. The whole life. Broken and emptied at His feet.

Judas goes to the priests

Then Judas Iscariot goes to the chief priests to betray Him to them. They are glad and promise him money.

Mark gives no psychological back-story. He simply tells us what happened. The betrayer was one of the twelve. The betrayer ate the bread. The betrayer kissed Him.

The Passover meal

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples prepare the Passover. Jesus sends two of them ahead with a sign — a man carrying a jar of water will meet them. Follow him.

In the evening, He comes with the twelve. As they are reclining at the table, He says:

"Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me."

They begin to be sorrowful and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"

No disciple was so confident he did not need to ask. They all knew enough of their own hearts to fear.

The bread and the cup

As they are eating, He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them:

"Take; this is my body."

He takes a cup. He gives thanks. He gives it to them, and they all drink of it.

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many."

This is the moment the new covenant is established — not at the cross alone, but at the table where the cross is preached in bread and cup. The body broken. The blood poured. For many.

"I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

Even at His last supper, He is looking forward to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

"You will all fall away"

After the hymn, they go to the Mount of Olives. Jesus tells them:

"You will all fall away."

Peter protests: "Even if they all fall away, I will not."

Jesus says:

"Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times."

Peter insists more emphatically. They all said the same.

The Servant Son knows what is in His disciples. He is not surprised when they fail. He has already foreseen — and already planned — their restoration.

Gethsemane

They come to a place called Gethsemane. He takes Peter, James, and John with Him. He begins to be greatly distressed and troubled:

"My soul is very sorrowful, even to death."

He goes a little farther and falls on the ground. He prays:

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

This is the deepest prayer in the Bible.

He addresses God as Abba — the intimate cry of a Son to His Father.

He acknowledges that all things are possible — the Father could spare Him.

He asks: remove this cup.

And then: Yet not what I will, but what You will.

The Servant Son shrinks from the cup, but He does not refuse it. He prays His way to surrender.

He comes back and finds the disciples sleeping. He says to Peter — the one who promised loudest:

"Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Three times He prays. Three times He returns. Three times they sleep.

Betrayed with a kiss

Judas comes with a crowd from the chief priests — swords and clubs. The sign was: "The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him."

He goes up to Jesus and says, "Rabbi!" and kisses Him.

They lay hands on Him and seize Him.

One of those standing by draws a sword and strikes the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Jesus says:

"Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled."

Then they all leave Him and flee.

A young man — likely Mark himself — is following Him with nothing but a linen cloth around his body. They seize him; he leaves the cloth and runs away naked.

The Servant Son is alone.

Trial before the council

They lead Him to the high priest. The whole council is gathered. They seek testimony against Him to put Him to death, but find none. Many bear false witness, and their testimony does not agree.

The high priest asks Him directly:

"Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

Jesus answers:

"I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

This is the great confession. I am. The very name of God.

The high priest tears his garments: "Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy."

They all condemn Him as deserving death. They begin to spit on Him and strike Him.

Peter's denial

Below in the courtyard, Peter is warming himself by the fire. A servant girl sees him: "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus."

He denies: "I neither know nor understand what you mean."

A second time, the rooster crows. Another accuses. He denies again.

A third time. They press: "Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." He invokes a curse on himself and swears:

"I do not know this man of whom you speak."

Immediately the rooster crows a second time. Peter remembers what Jesus said. He breaks down and weeps.

The Servant Son was right about everything — including the failures of those who loved Him most. And yet His prayer for Peter was already prevailing: I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

Closing prayer

Father, teach us to pray Your Servant Son's prayer — not what I will, but what You will. Save us from sleeping in the garden of trial, and save us from denying Him by the fire. When we fail like Peter, let us weep like Peter — and rise to be restored. Thank You for the body broken and the blood poured out, for the new covenant in His name. In Jesus' name, amen.