April 2015

Posted on 6Apr CATEGORIES: Uncategorized

Is Our Picture Clear?

Matthew 26: 36-46; Luke 22:41-46

 
As we look closely at that last week of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, so many things stand out vital for us to see and know. Jesus spent a great deal of these last few days alone with His disciples – spending time with them, teaching them, preparing them for the ministry they will have after He returns to the Father.
 
But, there came a crucial moment when Jesus needed to be alone with God. He took Peter, James and John with him to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Jesus tells them in Matthew 26:38, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow – to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Here was the Savior, the Son of God – Jesus – so overwhelmed with what was about to happen to him that he needed to spend one more night in prayer with his Father, but he didn’t want to be alone. He knew what was about to happen. He knew that Judas was already bringing the mob to find Him, that he was going to betray Him, and that this would set into motion the horrible events leading to His death.
 
Can you imagine the loneliness that must have consumed Him? I cannot. So, He went to be alone with God one last time. Matthew’s account says that Jesus, “fell facedown and prayed, ‘My Father! If it is possible let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” Luke records that Jesus went only a stone’s throw away from them to pray, pleading the more familiar, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me – nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” I won’t even go into the complete inability of those with Him to do what He asked, to stay awake while He was praying. The Bible tells us that on two separate occasions, he left them only to return and find them sleeping. He had spent the last few days of His life trying to get it to sink into these disciples that He would soon be leaving them, that He would soon become the sacrifice.
 

Maybe they just didn’t get it. Jesus said,“You couldn’t even stay awake with Me for one hour?” He charged them to pray for themselves, and left to continue his lonely, wearing, conversation with His Father. As He prayed, however, something incredible happened. Luke continues, “Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Have you ever prayed so hard that you bled? Probably not. Me neither. But, then again, we have never been called upon by God to take the sin of all mankind on our shoulders, to pay humanity’s sin debt with our own life.

But, the Jesus I want us to see is, not necessarily the man who pled with God to find some other way. It was the Son of God who, understanding that what was about to happen was the only way, walked out of that prayer time with God recharged, refocused, re-strengthened and prepared to accomplish the will of God for our salvation. Look at what Matthew says here in verse 46, “Get up; let’s go! See – my betrayer is near.”

We no longer see a weary, worried, distressed and sorrowful Jesus. We see Jesus as powerful, in command, and ready to bear the cup that God had placed upon Him – the cup that bears within it the sin of all mankind and God’s righteous judgment. The cup that will separate Him from His Father in a personal, spiritual, intimate way. Can you imagine the deafening silence of God? Probably not – because Jesus accepted that price on our behalf, so we would never have to.

“Get up – let’s go!” He said.

Do we really understand the magnitude of that sacrifice? Is our picture clear of what exactly happened after Jesus left that garden? His was. If we, too, fully comprehend the depth and breadth of what was accomplished on our behalf on the cross, and through the empty tomb three days later, our sense of utter unworthiness should force us to come crashing to our knees. But, Jesus’s words call us to rise and take the gifts of joy, peace and eternal life which we have been given to a dark, lonely world – “Get up – let’s go!”

 

In His Love,
 
Bro. Heath

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