Mark 14:35-36
Abba My Father
35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Priest Brennan Manning wrote, “I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that He will not condone...I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery.”...
Knowing that God can do all things, Jesus prays to the ground and prays, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for You...Take this cup from Me...Yet not what I will, but what You will.”...Jesus knew that His hour was nearing...
The night of Jesus' arrest He uses the word Abba for God...And that night in His anxiousness, He calls His Father, Abba...Jesus is calling God, His Father, and specifically uses the word Abba...And Abba means Father...I have read where Abba was a way a small child would call his father Daddy...A term of endearment...And Jesus is doing this to His Father, out of LOVE...This use of Abba was an intimate way to call someone your father...Jesus amazed the people around Him by His use of words, and especially calling God, Abba...Jesus is expressing His closeness to God...And Jesus uses this phrase in Aramaic, which is a closeness and personal word...Jesus had a Father-Son relationship with God and He shows Their special relationship here in Gethsemane, knowing that soon He would be arrested and convicted and be going to the cross...
Let us also see Abba as our Father...