26. Abba Father

Mark 14:36 (ESV) And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced His most significant challenge. 

Jesus always understood it was His destiny to die for the sins of mankind. This was why He came into the world. This was His clear and undeniable mission.  He had even foretold this to His disciples many times before, that He would be arrested, tried and crucified. Only days before, He had precipitated His own arrest when He overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple.  This was a deliberate provocation of the religious leaders to bring to a head their animosity against Him. It had achieved its purpose and caused them to resolve to kill HIm. And, during the last supper, He had encouraged Judas to do what he had determined in his heart.  

This was the goal He had worked towards throughout His whole ministry.  But now, confronted with the moment, the intensity of what He was about to encounter overwhelmed Him. He knew that in a few hours, He would experience the excruciating agony of the cross, and He would take on the sins of the entire world. The anticipation of what was about to happen bore so heavily on Him that the blood vessels in His forehead broke down, and His sweat became as drops of blood. 

I don’t think we can fully imagine the torment and trauma Jesus experienced in the Garden that evening. Everything within Him must have recoiled against the gravity of what lay ahead. Although He understood this was His destiny, He prayed three times that if possible, the Father would take this cup from Him. 

It is in this darkest hour, however, facing His most significant challenge, that we see Jesus placing His greatest trust in the Father. In His prayer, He called God,  “Abba, Father”.  

This was not how his contemporaries ever addressed God. In fact, this address would have seemed overly familiar and contemptuous to them, as this expression was that of a young child to its father. Scholars tell us this was a nursery term and is the equivalent of our English word daddy. * 

Jesus was not being disrespectful toward His Father. Instead, He was expressing His deepest trust and intimacy with the One He loved and respected. He was saying, “Dad, this is so hard. Dad, are you sure there is not  another way?” At His moment of greatest need, Jesus did not address God in a religious and distant manner. He addressed Him as Dad. As someone He knew was committed to Him and who He could depend on with the toughest challenge of His life. 

The relationship between Jesus and His Father is one of intimacy and love.  And it was this intimate relationship with the Father that allowed Jesus to push through the trauma of the Garden. After praying, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.” We see Him affirming, “Yet not  what I will, but what you will.” Jesus resolved to carry out the will of the Father,  not because He was forced to, but because He trusted the love of His Father implicitly. 

This story of Jesus in the Garden shows us the depth of intimacy between Jesus and His Father. Their love and trust for each other are almost beyond our ability to imagine. To Jesus, the Father was not some distant God. He was  His dad, whom He turned to with total trust and vulnerability.  

Amazingly, shockingly, wonderfully, the Bible says that we have this same relationship with the Father, too. 

Romans 8:15 (ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  

Galatians 4:6 (ESV) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Not only can Jesus call His Father Dad, so can we. Just as He had a loving and intimate relationship with the Father, so we, too, have been invited into this relationship. We can also call Him, “Abba, Father.” 

The Father is not distant and aloof. He does not want you to address Him with cold formality. Instead, He invites you to know Him as Dad. 

Further reading: Rom 8:15-17; Gal 4:4-7

Spend a moment reflecting on the truth that the Father invites you to call Him  Dad.

* Balz, H. R., & Schneider, G. (1990–). Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Vol. 1, p.  1). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.

This is an extract from my free book Knowing God as Father, which is available for download at Knowing God as Father.