Reading Mark 13, 14 this morning…I can’t imagine what Jesus was going through. He cried out to the father to ask if dying for the world could be somehow removed from Him, wow. He lay on his face in a garden weeping and asking God to remove the cup from Him.
35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
He was a great teacher, a man of miracles, the savior of the world, yet he had feelings and hurts like we do, we can relate to Him in that way. In the looming face of death and torture, He submitted to the will of God, He wiped His tears, gathered the disciples and threw Himself headlong into ultimate cruixifiction and death, this was no fairy tale. Can you picture this man, strong and leathered? He was a carpenter, He had strong hands that were probably calloused and worn. Can you picture Him as he pulls himself off the ground and wipes away His tears? That image tears at my heart.
It’s so easy to try and discount the story as unbelievable, to reduce it to nothing more than an old story passed down from Grandma. The reality is this, we have so much evidence that this story was much more than that, it was the very act of God. A God that exists in an expansive universe that created us to be His people, knowing we’d reject Him. He sent a man, perfect in every way to give His life in sacrifice for us. Is it possible that this Jesus really was the son of God and lives today in the hearts of men and women everywhere? Is it possible that this Jesus wants to communicate with you? Today? Whatever palace or pit your fractured soul exists He wants in too.
I am willing to believe the story and embrace it in my daily life. If God’s standard is perfection, how will we ever measure up? The bible says that man is as thilfthy rags, and we are. Think about the thoughts you have when you know no one can hear or see them, we are flawed, greatly and immeasurably.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Isaiah 64:6
Here is my problem today; my savior loved us greatly, but in that moment He didn’t really want to die. He cried out and asked God if there was another way, but there was not. So my Jesus got up, brushed Himself off and walked into a destination of death, to give me life beyond the reality I know today. That is unspeakably, unfathomably, unforgettably loving…
So, today I pose this question, what are we going to do about it?
GREAT thoughts!