When God's Answer Is “No”

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

July 25, 2004

Text: Luke 22:39-44

There are times when life is wonderful. When we ask, we receive; when we seek, we find; when we knock, the door is opened. There are times when our prayers are answered the way we want them answered. There are times, God appears to be saying: “Yes.”

But then there are the times when God appears to be saying: “No.” We ask but we hear only silence in reply; we seek but we do not find; we knock but the door remains shut. There are times when a young child dies suddenly because of a heart defect no one knew about. There are times when all our efforts to build a business end in bankruptcy. There are times when the doctors tell us the most they can do is try to keep the pain under control. There are times when persons we love -- our children, our spouse, our parents – behave in ways that are self-destructive, and we are aware we have done all we can do and yet they continue to destroy themselves and break our hearts. There are times when we learn our spouse has Alzheimer's. There are times when God appears to say “No” to our most earnest and fervent prayers.

Of course, we are not alone in this experience. In Luke's story about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus experienced deep anguish and prayed so earnestly his sweat became like great drops of blood. He did not want to be crucified. “Let this cup pass from me,” he prayed. But the cup did not pass from him. We know what it is to pray this prayer. Facing pain and problems, heartache and tragedy, we too have prayed: “Let this cup pass from me.”

The big difference between Jesus' prayer in the Garden and mine is that Jesus went on to pray: “Nevertheless, not my will by thine be done.” Jesus was not merely saying what he had been taught he ought to say; he really meant it. All too often when I pray: “Thy will be done” I do not mean it the way Jesus did. Much of the time I am either saying what I think I ought to say or merely acknowledging I am not in control. My prayer is less an expression of faith than it is a statement of resignation. Then, other times when I pray “thy will be done,” I am merely trying to be nice and polite in the hope this will motivate God to take pity on me and give me what I want.

What I want is not always self-centered. Like you, sometimes my yearning is for God's will to be done, to really be done – to be in charge. We know what it is to want life to be full of goodness and kindness, truth and beauty. And while goodness, kindness, truth and beauty can be found in life, so can evil. Cruelty and injustice are realities we must face. Deception and ugliness are part of what we have to deal with. Bad things do happen to good people. Regardless of our most earnest praying, some doors to wholeness, peace, goodness and justice remain closed.

So it was in Jesus' day. Everything was not the way Jesus wanted it either. When Jesus looked at Jerusalem and saw how far the people were from being the community of faith and love God intended them to be, he wept. We can only imagine Jesus' heartache having one of his disciples betray him. The pain of disappointment must have been terrible when he came to realize that even after three years of a close relationship, Peter would deny him and the others would ran away. Part of Jesus' torture was the crowd yelling in anger and fear that they wanted him crucified.

We know something of what it is to look at life and see what is so sad and tragic our hearts ache with sorrow. In such moments we have prayed with earnest and sincere longing for a happier ending to these sad stories. I am confident the followers of Jesus were not all that different from us. In their own way, they too prayed: “Thy will be done” as a way of pleading with God to please make things be the way they ought to be. But regardless of their fervent praying, they had to deal with the reality of crucifixion -- not just the crucifixion of Jesus but also the crosses they must bear as they followed Christ. And so it is for us. We too have crosses to bear, problems to face, heartaches to endure. So, what are we to do?

In the garden of Gethsemane , Jesus was open and honest with God. He asked for what he wanted. We too should always be honest with God asking for what we really want -- just as Jesus did. Jesus asked that the cup of suffering pass from him. He did not want to be tortured to death, and he asked God to spare him. It is right for us to make the same plea.

What is especially instructive is Jesus went on to prayed in honesty and openness: “Nevertheless, thy will be done.” What was Jesus saying when he prayed: “Thy will be done”?

Jesus knew about God's will. He knew God's will for him was that he be the person he was created to be and that he remain faithful. In offering this prayer, Jesus was not blaming God for the cross as though crucifixion is what God wanted. Jesus knew that if he remained faithful to God and continued his ministry it would so upset the leaders in Jerusalem that their sin and their ignorance would drive them to demand he be crucified. It was sin and evil at work in their lives that was going to crucify Jesus – not God. Jesus saw himself in partnership with God; in fact Jesus saw himself at one with God. It was not God but rather the sin of the world that was going to crucify the incarnation of God. When Jesus prayed: “Thy will be done,” he knew God did not want him tortured to death any more than a general wants his soldiers killed. But there was a ministry to be done, a mission to be accomplished.

When we are caught in situations of injustice or unexplainable tragedy, what does it mean for us to pray: “Thy will be done?” What does it mean to pray this prayer when circumstances beyond our control drive us into bankruptcy? What does it mean to pray: “Thy will be done” when the doctors tell us there is nothing more they can do or we stand by the grave of a child or we find ourselves unable to prevent the self-destructive behavior of someone we love? What does it mean to pray: “Thy will be done” as we struggle with a spouse or parent who is caught in the grips of Alzheimer's?

I cannot bring myself to believe that we are saying God wills this unexplainable tragedy or this suffering caused by injustice or this pain and heartache caused by the way we or others have abused life. I do not believe the God of grace revealed in Jesus Christ is one who wills that his children suffer. And yet there is suffering. Some of it is the result of human sin, some the result of evil done through ignorance, some the byproduct of unexplainable tragedy. And when we are faced with such suffering, we not only pray with Jesus that the cup pass from us, but if we are our best and most faithful selves, we also pray as Jesus did: “Thy will be done.”

When he prayed; “Thy will be done,” he was earnestly praying God's will would be done through all he was going to endure. Jesus was praying that his suffering would not be wasted, that it would be used in the service of God's will. “Let this cup pass from me; but if that cannot happen, then let your will be done through all I must endure.” He was not declaring his crucifixion was what God wanted, but rather he was praying that God would use his crucifixion to accomplish God's will. “Thy will be done.” Jesus was declaring his faith and hope that God would use his ordeal for good.

And, of course, this is exactly what God did. By the grace and power of God, the crucifixion was transformed from being an expression of the worst humans can do into the ultimate revelation of God's love for the world.

Just so, when we are facing our times of trial, struggling with our situations of pain and heartache, bearing our crosses caused by injustice, or suffering through unexplainable tragedy and we pray as Jesus did: “Thy will be done,” our prayer is really an affirmation of faith. When we pray “Thy will be done” and really mean it the way Jesus did, we are declaring our confidence in God; we are trusting beyond what we can see or prove. We are trusting that what we are going through will not be a meaningless waste. We are trusting that somehow, someway what we are going through will be used by God for good and that through our bad times God's will of redeeming love will be done.

The prayer: “Thy will be done” is not a pitiful statement of resignation. It is a bold declaration of faith, an affirmation, a statement of profound hope, a declaration of our trust in God. We are declaring that regardless of what we are going through, we trust that somehow, someway God will use our bad times for good. “Thy will be done.”

God, when the bad times come, enable us to trust you so completely, we are able to live through our ordeal in the confident faith that somehow, someway you will use what we are going through for good. Enable us to pray: “Thy will be done,” as an affirmation a declaration of confident faith in you. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:
God, all too often we walk through the routine of daily living seeing only what we have seen before and we are unaware of the ways you are at work in our lives. Too often we come to worship so confident we know what will and will not happen that we go through the motions of worship with no sense of expectancy. We are here but our heads and hearts are elsewhere, and we are insensitive to what your Holy Spirit is offering us.

We also confess, it is not merely familiarity that causes us to be insensitive to your presence here today. Some of our insensitivity is our way of protecting ourselves from the claims we are afraid you will make on us. Many of us, O God, are caught in the tension between wanting what we believe are the benefits of the Gospel and fearing what we think are the demands of the Gospel.

God, help us. Open us to your Holy Spirit so that our living will be moved to a higher plain and our hearts will be transformed by your amazing grace.

This we ask in the name of the one who was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: “Our Father ….”