In just a few weeks, on March 31, 2024, we will ponder, celebrate, and remember Jesus’s death and resurrection. But as we prepare for this time of celebration with our families, I can’t help but wonder how often we take time to remember the empty tomb daily. After all, is Easter just a one-day affair filled with frilly dresses and egg hunts, or is it a reminder to radically embrace the One who defeated death?

I’d love to tell you that every Easter of my life, I have been thrilled and exactly where I needed to be in my walk with the Lord. But that wouldn’t be the truth. And as I started thinking about this upcoming holiday, I had a similar mindset. Sure, I believe He died and rose again, which is reason enough to celebrate! But when my problems and worries overwhelm me, I hesitate to tap into that power so freely given to us by the Creator.

In my ongoing quest to refocus my gaze, I reread the Easter story, and to my surprise, something stood out to me when I got to Matthew 26:38-39. It says:

Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Emphasis added.)

He knew what was coming. The pain, torture, betrayal – it all was coming at Him quickly … so He prayed, “Let this cup pass from me.” But it’s those next words that pack a punch: “Not as I will, but as You will.”

Jesus asked for his earthly pain to pass, but He chose to follow His Father’s will instead. The question is, would we do the same?

Even if the healing never comes?
Even if the infertility treatment doesn’t work?
Even if we lose someone we love?
Even if the job doesn’t come through?
Even if you never find the spouse of your dreams?

What would you do if He did not let the cup pass from you?

During Jesus’s ministry on Earth, He knew what was coming. But He still chose to praise and honor His Father.

As fully God and fully man, He knew precisely why He was placed on Earth.
With every person He healed, He knew they would one day betray Him.
When He calmed the sea, He knew that someday He would be in such pain that He wouldn’t be able to catch his breath.
As He picked up nails in His earthly father’s carpentry shop, He knew He would be nailed to a tree one day.
He knew what would happen at Golgotha but still served and loved in the meantime.

He did it anyway.

Even though it took Him to death on the cross, Christ knew His Father’s will came above everything else. The question is, do we?

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

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