Good Morning Friends,
“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with him,
and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the
point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground
and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is
possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”
(Mark 14:32-36)
Not everything that God asks of those who
follow Him is easy. Sometimes the will
of God is difficult. As Jesus thought
about what lay ahead, the trials, the mocking, the beating, the crucifixion, He
was deeply distressed and troubled. His
soul was overwhelmed by what the Father was asking Him to do.
There was great physical pain involved in the
cross and the tortures that surrounded it.
Crucifixion was one of the most painful ways to be killed. It was designed to be so cruel that people
would radically alter their lifestyle in order to avoid it. But there was more than physical pain that
troubled Jesus. The spiritual agony of
the cross was worse for Jesus than the physical pain. Paul wrote, “He became sin.” He took the guilt of our sin upon Himself,
and that was agony for Him. The Father
turned His back on Jesus and Jesus cried out from the cross, “Why have You
forsaken Me?” That was an overwhelming
burden, unlike any burden Jesus had ever carried before.
The physical pain and the spiritual burden
were God’s will for Jesus. Those are the
things that God asked Jesus to do. He
could not accomplish what God wanted Him to accomplish without going through
those things. Jesus asked the Father to
find another way, but there was no other way.
Sometimes the will of God is difficult and
painful. It was for Jesus!
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment