Gethsemane
Matthew 26:36-46
Have you every read a passage and missed some tiny part, or large part? There are so many times that I read a familiar passage and blaze right through it. This happens often to me simply because I have grown up hearing the stories of the Bible, which is a GREAT privilege and yet poses the issue of "I know this one." With so much knowledge we can miss wisdom. Have you been there?
Sometimes as we get together with other believers we get to hear bits and pieces of where they are in the word and learn something new that God reveals to them!
I am having a hard time getting to what has been placed on my heart today via this blog but here it goes...Gethsemane!
Yes you guessed it I missed or maybe even had some "wrong" thinking on Jesus in Gethsemane. Maybe it was wrong thinking or maybe God wanted to reveal it to me now and not when I was 15, 20 or 30, I am not sure but it doesn't matter when or why for today.
Here is the question?
What do you see in the anguish of verse 39 in Matthew 26? What caused Jesus to fall on his face and ask for this cup to be removed?...
Please, stop and answer this question on paper or your head before you read on.
Personally for me I always thought it was the pain of the cross. I hate pain! As I read that passage for years and years it was always my thought of the pain of the nails, the mocking of people and being hung for all to see. I know when I get to heaven I probably wont really ask Jesus this question but today if I could, I would want to ask Him, "What was going on in your head and heart as you were getting closer to the cross?"
As I was preparing a lesson it became very clear to me the anguish of Jesus while in Gethsemane. He knew that when the sin of the world (you and me) was placed on Him He would be separate from His Father. He knew that His Father was Holy and sin could not be near Him. He knew that what He would suffer would cause him to be separate from His Father. The words on this page don't hold a candle to what that was for Jesus. Yes it was painful and yes He would continue to be mocked and spit on and yes He would be hung for all to see but the thing He most grieved about was the separation from His Father!
A friend introduced me to the Beatitudes where it says, "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Yes, Jesus paid the price of sin I am freed from the slavery of sin! Yes because of Jesus I have the power to choose to live in the spirit and not in the flesh! Yes through His death and resurrection I stand in His grace! Yes that death on the cross caused my Savior to be separate from His Father! Yes that grace was costly! Yes my sin today is covered past, present and future because of the death and resurrection of Jesus!
Does my sin today cause me to look to the cross and mourn that while on this earth I struggle with sin? Does my sin cause me to look to Jesus and be comforted because of the grace of the cross?
That is why I rejoice and go out with joy today! Because of Gethsemane I got a tiny picture of Jesus and cost of my sin on Him!
O what a Savior!
Have you every read a passage and missed some tiny part, or large part? There are so many times that I read a familiar passage and blaze right through it. This happens often to me simply because I have grown up hearing the stories of the Bible, which is a GREAT privilege and yet poses the issue of "I know this one." With so much knowledge we can miss wisdom. Have you been there?
Sometimes as we get together with other believers we get to hear bits and pieces of where they are in the word and learn something new that God reveals to them!
I am having a hard time getting to what has been placed on my heart today via this blog but here it goes...Gethsemane!
Yes you guessed it I missed or maybe even had some "wrong" thinking on Jesus in Gethsemane. Maybe it was wrong thinking or maybe God wanted to reveal it to me now and not when I was 15, 20 or 30, I am not sure but it doesn't matter when or why for today.
Here is the question?
What do you see in the anguish of verse 39 in Matthew 26? What caused Jesus to fall on his face and ask for this cup to be removed?...
Please, stop and answer this question on paper or your head before you read on.
Personally for me I always thought it was the pain of the cross. I hate pain! As I read that passage for years and years it was always my thought of the pain of the nails, the mocking of people and being hung for all to see. I know when I get to heaven I probably wont really ask Jesus this question but today if I could, I would want to ask Him, "What was going on in your head and heart as you were getting closer to the cross?"
As I was preparing a lesson it became very clear to me the anguish of Jesus while in Gethsemane. He knew that when the sin of the world (you and me) was placed on Him He would be separate from His Father. He knew that His Father was Holy and sin could not be near Him. He knew that what He would suffer would cause him to be separate from His Father. The words on this page don't hold a candle to what that was for Jesus. Yes it was painful and yes He would continue to be mocked and spit on and yes He would be hung for all to see but the thing He most grieved about was the separation from His Father!
A friend introduced me to the Beatitudes where it says, "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Yes, Jesus paid the price of sin I am freed from the slavery of sin! Yes because of Jesus I have the power to choose to live in the spirit and not in the flesh! Yes through His death and resurrection I stand in His grace! Yes that death on the cross caused my Savior to be separate from His Father! Yes that grace was costly! Yes my sin today is covered past, present and future because of the death and resurrection of Jesus!
Does my sin today cause me to look to the cross and mourn that while on this earth I struggle with sin? Does my sin cause me to look to Jesus and be comforted because of the grace of the cross?
That is why I rejoice and go out with joy today! Because of Gethsemane I got a tiny picture of Jesus and cost of my sin on Him!
O what a Savior!
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