Mark 14:36

'Abba' appears three times in the New Testament, and 'Father' always follows it. Translators copied 'Abba' over instead of translating it; a translation would read 'Father Father.' In the Greek, the 'Abba' is Aramaic and the 'Father' is Greek... The only place where the Lord Himself says it is Mark 14:36. And the Spirit in the hearts of believers puts the very words He used into their lips. Some suggest that in the two words the Jew and the Gentile each say 'Father' in his own language.

It is Mark who tells us that He said, "Abba, Father." Mark writes of Him as the perfect Servant. His path of service had brought Him to this dark hour... To whom could He turn? Only to Him whom He served with that holy and perfect devotion and in whom was all His trust. He put the whole matter into His hands... It describes a relationship in which knowing a perfect love draws out perfect trust.

In His life of obedience Jesus suffered the hostility of sinners. He never turned away from them, and He never demanded that such a cup be taken away from Him. Why this one, then? Because this was not just the cup of the sin of men, or of Satan's malice, but the cup of the wrath of God. In what He had to suffer before from men, He had the joy of doing His Father's will. But in this cup, the cup of wrath, there was not one drop of sweetness... And why could the cup not pass? Here is the reason. God cannot bear with sin. And since Jesus Himself was made sin for us, God's wrath had to fall on sin.

It would not have been perfection if He had not felt it this way. It was impossible that He who was life could desire such a death from His Father — from God in wrath against Him. It would have been hardness, not love. He felt it perfectly, as before God His Father, and still He gives up His human will completely to the Father's... He had a real soul, not just a spark of life.

Face down on the ground, He prays in trusting faith to His Father, with whom all things are possible. Yet He adds that the Father's will, and not His own, should be done. So what was possible did not decide the matter. Of course He could have avoided the cross. But if He had, the solemn question of sin could never have been settled, and sinful creatures could never have been saved.

He was not one who had no will of His own, as people sometimes say. He had a will as a true man, but He subjected His will to the will of the Father. He never exercised His will in independence. He would not have been a perfect man if He had had no will.

But — wonderful thought — it is no longer our blessed Lord Jesus who uses this word of closeness. It is those whom His precious blood has redeemed. It is those who have received the adoption of sons.

This shows what the "Spirit of His Son" is. It also shows that the Lord at that moment was consciously enjoying His relationship with the Father, whatever agony He was passing through.