How was it severely tested, if without sin or tendency to sin? How does this compare to how we are tested, and what comfort can we take in Jesus as a model who struggled, this suggests, far more than we know in reconciling His two natures, and what comfort in surrendering our will to Him when He is our example of struggle, even in the will? How could His human will possibly keep up with His divine will? It is human to not always be where we want to be in our wills, and I think there is something really deep here.
These faults are not from human nature per se, but rather attributes of the Fall. Perfect human nature does not have a tendency to sin, but can still be tested and tested harshly. After all, Adam and Eve were perfect when tested by Satan, and they failed.
Christ, being God, could not fail, but He could most certainly be tested and tempted by Satan. Indeed, He was tempted much more harshly by Satan as Satan directed all the more effort in His direction due to His surpassing Holiness. As for His human will submitting to His Divine Will, this does not imply divergence at all, but rather submission and perfect clarity. The reason that Christ would say “not my (human) will” is because the human will, of its own, is absolutely incapable of Divine things. In order to be truly elevated, the human will must “step-aside”, or become transparent, and let the Divine Will shine through it. In doing so even normal humans like us can be lifted up to Divine works, and indeed we’re called to exactly that.
St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, speaks on this submission of the human will to the Divine in his work “The Ascent of Mount Carmel - Dark Night of the Soul”, and I think it’s worth quoting at length -
- And it is this that Saint John desired to explain when he said: Qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt. As though he had said: He gave power to be sons of God – that is, to be transformed in God – only to those who are born, not of blood – that is, not of natural constitution and temperament – neither of the will of the flesh – that is, of the free will of natural capacity and ability – still less of the will of man – wherein is included every way and manner of judging and comprehending with the understanding. He gave power to none of these to become sons of God, but only to those that are born of God – that is, to those who, being born again through grace, and dying first of all to everything that is of the old man, are raised above themselves to the supernatural, and receive from God this rebirth and adoption, which transcends all that can be imagined…
- In order that both these things may be the better understood, let us make a comparison. A ray of sunlight is striking a window. If the window is in any way stained or misty, the sun’s ray will be unable to illumine it and transform it into its own light, totally, as it would if it were clean of all these things, and pure; but it will illumine it to a lesser degree, in proportion as it is less free from those mists and stains; and will do so to a greater degree, in proportion as it is cleaner from them, and this will not be because of the sun’s ray, but because of itself; so much so that, if it be wholly pure and clean, the ray of sunlight will transform it and illumine it in such wise that it will itself seem to be a ray and will give the same light as the ray.
Although in reality the window has a nature distinct from that of the ray itself, however much it may resemble it, yet we may say that that window is a ray of the sun or is light by participation. And the soul is like this window, whereupon is ever beating (or, to express it better, wherein is ever dwelling) this Divine light of the Being of God according to nature, which we have described.
- In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul (having rid itself of every mist and stain of the creatures, which consists in having its will perfectly united with that of God, for to love is to labour to detach and strip itself for God’s sake of all that is not God) is at once illumined and transformed in God, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the soul this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and the soul are one in participant transformation; and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed God by participation…
Here he is speaking of our own wills and not Christ’s specifically, but the same premise applies. The human will, while really distinct in nature, must melt away into the Divine Will.
In the Garden of Gethsemene, Christ was not wrestling with His Divinity, He was manifesting it.
Peace and God bless!
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