Sadly, I must admit that with the craziness of school this year, I haven’t had much time this week to spend much time in prayer and in God’s word. It’s Holy Week, or Passion Week and Easter is this Sunday. I am ashamed that I’ve gotten so caught up in school that I almost forgot Easter was sneaking up on us until they announced the sunrise service at church last week. I know that there is no excuse on my part. Since I was still working last year and not in school, I had a lot of time to reflect, pray and journal in the weeks leading up to Easter. I went back to read my old entry and wanted to re-post this entry from April 02, 2010 because it was such a good reminder of what Jesus did for us..
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“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” – Isaiah 53:3-5
Passion Week. The week that would lead up to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I re-watched Passion of the Christ last night to remind myself of the costly sacrifice and pain that He endured for my sake. Even though it is not an easy movie to watch and it always makes me cry, it is good to be reminded of the suffering that Christ endured for our sake. When I watch it, I am reminded of the depth of God’s love and how much it must have pained his heart to subject His beloved son to death on a cross so that my sins could be forgiven. Our salvation through faith in Christ was birthed through the Resurrection. In Romans 4:25, it is written that He was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. His resurrection could take place only because His mission to atone the lamb was successfully accomplished and truly ‘finished.’ He swallowed death up in victory. The hope and assurance for all of us as believers in Christ is the resurrection from the dead unto eternal life!
Jesus came to earth as a human being, and grew up the same way we did – born to a human mother, raised in the home of a carpenter. He experienced the same emotions and feelings we do. After the last supper, he went to Gethsemane to pray and prepare himself for what was to come. Jesus had spent so much of his time at Gethsemane prior to this night, laughing with his disciples, teaching them and praying with them, but on this night, in the garden Jesus would endure suffering that would be beyond our capacity to comprehend. Even the most experienced believer can not begin to come to grasp the mental suffering and anguish Christ must have gone through that night. Without understanding Gethsemane, I can not understand what happened on the cross at Calvary.
He was terrified and he was scared, and his soul was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”. What did it mean for Jesus to to take away my sin? What did it mean for Him to become the sin-bearer for man? We must enter into Gethsemane with Jesus to understand what it meant for Him. By observing Christ and by overhearing his prayer in Gethsemane, we discover what it meant to him. It meant resolving to endure the righteous wrath of God for our sins through the experience of human weakness. His sinless humanity was put on display for us at Gethsemane. While remaining God, he became fully human and embraced human frailty. He was vulnerable to human limitations and temptations, and yet unlike us, he was without sin.
For Jesus, taking our sins upon his soldiers meant total abandonment. He was completely alone and abandoned, without support from his disciples. He went to the cross alone. He wanted the support of his disciples, and we see this at Gethsemane when he asks Peter, James, and John, “Watch with me.” But they didn’t understand the anguish and the agony that Jesus was going through and they fell asleep. In Matthew 26:56, we read, “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” The people closest to Jesus, the people that loved him and had followed him for all these years, turned and ran during the darkest moment of Jesus’ life when he needed them most. He didn’t just feel or imagine being alone (as we often do), but he was utterly and completely alone. He would suffer alone for my sake.
For Jesus, becoming the sin-bearer meant great distress of his soul. In Gethsemane, we see a side of Jesus that we have not seen before. Prior to this night, he had been calming storms, walking on water, feeding thousands, boldly confronting authorities, forgiving sins, casting out demons, healing lepers and the blind, amazing to all of his followers, kind and compassionate – but on this night, we see an unfamiliar Savior. He enters Gethsemane on this night, and we see his humanity on display. We see a Savior that is in distress. Why is this change so seemingly sudden? He had just left the last supper with his disciples singing a hymn. It was here in the garden that the Holy One got a foretaste of what it meant to be the sin bearer. Yes, he already knew that he was going to die long before this night, but on that night, he was contemplating the cup. What was it about this cup that he kept asking God to take the cup from him? In the Old Testament, the cup refers to the judgment of God – Isaiah calls it the “Cup of His wrath” and Jeremiah calls in the “wine of wrath.” The contents of this cup were the bitter brew of the wrath of God for and against our sin. It contained the full fury and fierceness of God’s righteous wrath – for the perversity and wickedness, the pride, the self righteousness, false religion, idolatry, lies, immorality and abuse of this world – all of God’s righteous anger – this is the cup Christ drank from.
It was not that Jesus was scared of the prospect of his impending physical death. That was no surprise to him. But it was instead the horrific reality of his impending death as sin-bearer, as the object of the full fury of God, suffering a death that would satisfy that wrath. It was the prospect of becoming the sin-bearer that was so horrific that in the weakness of his humanity, he prayed to the Father for an alternative. He asks his Father to take the cup away from him not once, not twice, but THREE times, and each time he hears only silence. In his humanity, Jesus did not want to suffer and die in this way. Who would?! Had there been an alternative, God would have intervened and answered Jesus’ prayer. But there was no other alternative! John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whooever believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.” He gave his one and only Son, that even when His beloved son appealed to Him to take away the cup, God remained silent and did nothing. THAT is God’s love for us. It pained his heart to have to do that to his one and only Son, but that is how much he loved us – that he would put his own son to die for me and for you. There is no other alternative to the cross.
Becoming the sin-bearer meant obedient resolve for Jesus. It’s a qualification in each of his prayers, “Yet not as I will, but as you will, may your will be done.” (vs 39 and 42). As Jesus spends time in prayer with God, even in anguish, he becomes increasingly resolved as he realizes there is no other alternative. We see the culmination of this in vs. 45-46, “The hour is at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go!” Jesus emerges from the garden different than when he first entered. He emerges with a holy determination to fulfill the purpose of his birth and life and to become the substitute for us on the cross.
Imagine if your dad asked you to be punished for the mistakes that someone else made, while you were completely faultless. Thinking about that seems unfathomable to us, but God asked His own son to die for us, although he was completely blameless. I asked myself this week if I really understood that. He did this for me, and he did this for you. Who would want to voluntarily go through such a painful death like that, being mocked, scorned, and crucified? We can’t even begin to imagine the mental suffering, the anguish he must have felt that night in Gethsemane. It was painful and he understands the pain that we go through when we feel like we have been abandoned by God.
Through Gethsemane, the depth of his love for us during his darkest hour is revealed. He did all of this for us, so that we would not have to. This is my fault. He is completely innocent. I can’t enter into Gethsemane with Him and emerge unaffected by His love. My sin necessitates his suffering on my behalf. His resolve to obey God’s will revealed the depth of his love for me. On that night, his soul was crucified already here in the garden, even before his physical body was crucified on the cross. Here in the garden, he resolved to drink the cup on our behalf so that we might drink from a different cup – the cup of salvation! The cup that should have been given to me was instead, taken by Christ so that I could get the cup of salvation. If I really understand Gethsemane, it means that Jesus loves us more than we could ever imagine. He took my condemnation lovingly.
Because of what he experienced, he is well able to comfort us in the midst of the severest forms of suffering we will ever encounter in our life. To understand his suffering is to read Hebrews 4 with new eyes:
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” – Hebrews 4:14-16.
At the ninth hour right before He dies, Jesus cries out, ‘Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani? – ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’. So many times we forget that Jesus went through that too. He understands and he knows what we’re going through in our darkest moments when we feel like God has forgotten about us. He can comfort you in your darkest hour. There is no suffering or trial that we will experience in this life, that He can not, from his own experience, provide us with unmeasurable comfort.
But the story does not end there. With this last cry, Jesus took his last breath and died, but at the same moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This curtain had separated the holy of holies – the most sacred part of the temple – and only the high priest could enter this place once a year, and only with a sacrifice. This curtain separating the holy of holies was a symbol of sinful man’s separation from the presence of a holy God. When Jesus died, the earth shook, and the curtain was torn in two. The barrier separating us from God was taken down because through the death of Christ, we were given direct access to God – to seek Him, know Him, and love Him.
Do I understand this? Without his resurrection, my faith would be in vain. God’s love did not allow Him to overlook my sin, but it did compel him to provide for my forgiveness. Christ’s lamblike self-sacrifice is a grand indicator of His powerful and infinite love. “Greater love has no one than this,” He explained, “than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). This ultimate sacrifice was made to free me from the penalty and control of sin over me so that I can live in His spirit. When we receive Christ as our Savior, we become children of God and we are accepted forever unconditionally. Because of His precious blood that was shed, our sins are washed away and we are made whole again. We are healed because he paid the price, and it is by his grace that we are saved. While the message of the cross may be foolishness to others, to those who believe, it is the “power of God.” The cross was the miraculous display of God’s power over sin and death, and through it I am pardoned forever. His justice makes my salvation possible. His power makes my salvation secure for all eternity. I don’t have to earn my salvation. He already provided it for me on the cross.
How can I ever repay You? How can I ever thank You? I don’t want to just remember You during this week each year, but each and every day of my life, I want to seek after your heart and to know your character so that I may live accordingly. I’m sorry that I have been a sheep that has gone astray. Time and time again, I’ve forgotten You and I’ve wandered away to try to find my own way. I have rejected You over and over again, and yet You continue to love me. While I’ve been Christian for pretty much my entire life and I’ve heard the story of the crucifixion and resurrection multiple times, I don’t think I ever grasped or really understood the depth of God’s love and the message of the cross until now. It’s not enough that I’ve grown up in the church. It’s not enough to just have Bible knowledge and to know all the right things to say. It’s not enough to just come to you for a few inspirational truths. It’s not enough to be surrounded by Christians, but God I must ask myself if I have completely submitted my life to You. Have I abandoned this world and believed on You? Have I turned from my sins and made You my Lord and Savior? I want to continue to know you as my Lord and to bend my knee to you every day of my life. I know you must, and I want you to be the object of my faith, affection, and trust. Thank You for loving us so much, despite how many times we’ve turned away from You and your truth. May I be bold and may you give me the courage to proclaim Your gospel. Who am I to be scared? You gave me so much. Why should I care about what others think or if they mock me? You suffered for me, and I should be willing to “share in the fellowship of your sufferings” for the cause of following You and proclaiming the good news of Your death and resurrection, because through it, we are given eternal life. Thank You for revealing Your passion and Your infinite love for us in the costly suffering that you willingly bore on our behalf.
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