Luke
22:42> “Father, if it is Your will, take this
cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (NKJV)
What a powerful prayer. If not careful,
one could read right over the verse and not feel the impact of what was going
on. If you do not visualize and understand that while Jesus, God’s Son, was on
this earth He was indeed in human form. He was flesh and blood just like us. He
had a heart that beat just like ours. Blood flowed through His veins just like
ours. He even knew pain just as we do. Yes, He was God. He knew what the
outcome of what was going to happen would be. However, we forget sometimes that
there would still be pain. He would not escape that.
Although Jesus lived a perfect, sinless
life, He never escaped things “thrown” at Him. He knew what being tired felt
like. He knew sadness and even wept. He knew friendships and He knew betrayal.
I don’t know about you but the word “perfect” can throw me for a loop. I would
think that somewhere in that definition ought to include “no temptations” or
“smooth-sailing”. However, it doesn’t. If there were any way possible at all
that I could come close to living a perfect, sinless life, it would have to be
without temptations and hand in hand with smooth sailing. Oh and then this old
flesh of mine would have to be removed. (Can I get an Amen?) While here on earth that is
just not going to happen.
Things were about to change for Jesus. It
was about to get hard; it was about to become a very difficult time for Him. He
and the disciples had just partaken of their last supper together. This had not
been just any meal. I wonder if the disciples felt that. Did they sense how
different this one was? It was the Passover, but this meal meant more than they
comprehended. One from Jesus’ inner circle was about to betray Him. He knew it
but no one else did. He even knew who it would be. The weight of that alone had
to be a strain. Yet the Lord knew the betrayal had to happen. It was part of
the plan. Moreover, this was not just any plan; it was the plan of redemption.
Once they had finished the Passover meal, “they
sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30). That was a
nice little nugget tucked away in Scripture. Jesus sang! I mean, we have
probably never really thought about it, but here it just lets us know He did. I wonder if He was an alto, perhaps He was a
tenor, maybe a baritone, or even a bass. Then again, we are talking about
Jesus. He probably had every vocal range there was. (I wonder if He will sing for us,
or if we will get to sing with Him in Heaven. Hmmmmm…)
Gethsemane is the name of an olive orchard
inside the Mount of Olives. Jesus liked this place. He went there frequently
with His disciples to pray. (Judas knew this. He had gone there with Jesus
before, also. However, this night he would not go with Him, he would go for
Him.) In my mind’s eye, I imagine a beautiful place, a place that would just
draw you to it. Rows of trees lined beautifully offering solitude and perhaps a
nice shade during the day. Maybe a particular tree drew Jesus to a certain spot
(if indeed He had one). Maybe a certain place appeared the most inviting to pray
alone and/or with friends. Maybe that’s where He felt closest to His Father. In
my mind's eye, I can see why this place was chose. There was something
comforting about it. No wonder this is where He came when one of His own was
about to betray Him. Even knowing it would happen certainly did not make it
less painful. He was human, after all.
Have you ever been in such emotional pain
that you really wanted to be alone and yet at the same time, not? You just
needed your closest friends to stand (kneel, sit, lay, squat, etc.) close by
praying? Getting downright messy in your prayer may not necessarily be what you
want your friends to see. You know the kind; they’re the ugly cries that
distort your face! Those kind of cries are heart wrenching. Not just for you
but also for those who see it. That kind of crying comes from down deep. A
place filled with pain. A place perhaps you never wanted to experience, let
alone expose. I’ve done a few of those. Some of those cries were in pure
repentance; and some were in deep emotional pain. Sometimes both combined.
It was about to get real for Jesus in Gethsemane.
Now He was going knowing that the weight of sin was about to be on His
shoulders. Sin was certainly something He’d never experienced before yet He knew
the magnitude of it because of the price required. No wonder He needed
Gethsemane, a familiar and comforting place. However, on this night its beauty
and comfort was at risk of changing...only if allowed to. The betrayal that was
about to take place could easily ruin what it meant to Him and even to His
disciples. (Just a thought but could it be that what was about to
take place, beauty and comfort was needed to put focus on in order to endure?)
“My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even to death” (Mark 13:34 NKJV).
The sorrow Jesus felt had to be hard to endure. I would imagine it was a
feeling like He had never felt before. Knowing it was for a purpose may not
have been very comforting right then. Well, it least for me it might not be. I
cannot imagine the weight of the world on my shoulders like He did. Not to
mention His shoulders were human shoulders. It did not mean He was weak, it
means He knows pain. I am grateful for that.
When deep sorrow comes my way, I know that
Jesus knows how I feel. I may not know the pain He endured but He certainly
knows mine. When I cry out, “Lord, take this sorrow, this pain from me!”
He knows how I feel. And you know what? It makes it a little bit easier to say,
“Lord,
it’s not what I want, but what You want”. Just as He
knew what was on the other side of His pain, He knows what is on the other side
of ours.
In awe of Him,
Vonda
