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.” 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.

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.

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.  

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