IN an article entitled "Thy Will Be Done," Mary Baker Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 208), "Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done. This unbroken motion of the law of divine Love gives, to the weary and heavy-laden, rest. But who is willing to do His will or to let it be done?"
It is altogether likely that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus temporarily yielded to the human desire that he, in some way, might escape the ordeal through which he must pass in order to fulfill his mission as the Way-shower. He prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But realizing that he must face the experience unflinchingly, he added, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
In thus subordinating the human will to the divine, Jesus was not submitting to a cruel sentence imposed by a power greater than himself. He was placing himself unreservedly under "the law of divine Love," which later delivered him from the mortal beliefs attendant upon the crucifixion. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 40), "Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way and the power of Truth." Willingness to undergo the crucifixion enabled Jesus to prove the powerlessness of death and the grave to destroy the immortal life of man.
