The Wonderful Suffering of Christ
An Easter Letter
An Easter Letter
It's March fifteenth, a Saturday, and as I sit reading Matthew's Gospel letter, I arrive at Matthew 26:30, as Jesus tells his disciples they will all fall away. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, so I am especially tuned into the Passion of Christ. As I get to 26:36 where Jesus begins to pray at Gathsemane, I begin to pay close attention to how Jesus acts in addition to what he says. Before he begins to pray, after taking Peter, James, and John on further into the garden, Matthew says Jesus "began to be sorrowful and troubled". Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings, who in the face of demons and even death itself maintained a calm and composed demeanor, was sorrowful and troubled. Matthew goes on. After telling his disciples that he is "sorrowful, even to death," and telling his disciples to wait where they were, Jesus goes further and falls on his face and prays "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will." Ignoring the prayer for a moment, what do Jesus' actions say about what he will soon be facing?
First, he becomes uncharacteristically heavy-hearted, and then he goes to pray, falling on his face. That, coupled with the prayer that he prays, gives us the impression that Jesus knew what was coming, and he knew it was going to be very hard. Matthew goes on. After he finds his disciples asleep and rebukes them, he goes to pray again. This time he prays "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." While this is a slightly different prayer from the first, I think we can safely infer that the desire behind the prayer is the same. We can see that Jesus is very troubled by what lies ahead of him. Matthew goes on. Jesus gets up and goes back to his disciples, finds them asleep again, but instead of rebuking them again, he goes back and prays again, the same prayer. To get a deeper perspective on what Christ was feeling here, I'll take you to Chapter 22 of Luke's Gospel letter. In Luke 22:44, Luke says, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Here we see in Luke's writing that Jesus wasn't just sorrowful or troubled, he was in agony. Dictionary.com defines agony as "extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering." Here we see Jesus' state of "troubled-ness" goes a bit deeper than what Matthew describes. It is clear to see, that Jesus, at this moment, would rather not do what he came to do. This seems to contradict Hebrews 12:2, which says "...for the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross..." But when you take the time to think through this contradiction, these two passages fit together to give us a greater picture of Jesus suffering. The agony of the crucifixion didn't begin when Jesus was scourged and beaten, but rather as he prayed in Gathsemane. Jesus, the Son of God, was both fully God and fully man, subject to all the pains, anxieties, and gut-wrenching emotions that we are. I would argue that part of the agony of the cross was the anxiety and fear that Jesus felt as he prayed in Gathsemane; as the hour of his pain, his payment in exchange for billions and billions of eternities of Hell, was growing close. It is here where he first shed blood, and it is here that he begins to feel the foot of God start to weigh heavy on him as God prepares to crush his own Son.
This Easter, think on this. And as you think on this, celebrate and revel in the love that God has for you and lift up prayers of joyful thankfulness as you, with all this in mind, think on Romans 5:7-8, which says "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ [God] died for us." While Easter is a time to mourn that the broken world we live in and the broken and sinful bodies that we inhabit necessitated such a payment for sin, it is also a time to celebrate God's sovereignty, as no joy can be greater than the joy of a sinner saved, reconciled to the God and Creator for which he was made. This Easter, embrace the words of King David and join him in Psalm 71:23 - "My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed!"
First, he becomes uncharacteristically heavy-hearted, and then he goes to pray, falling on his face. That, coupled with the prayer that he prays, gives us the impression that Jesus knew what was coming, and he knew it was going to be very hard. Matthew goes on. After he finds his disciples asleep and rebukes them, he goes to pray again. This time he prays "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." While this is a slightly different prayer from the first, I think we can safely infer that the desire behind the prayer is the same. We can see that Jesus is very troubled by what lies ahead of him. Matthew goes on. Jesus gets up and goes back to his disciples, finds them asleep again, but instead of rebuking them again, he goes back and prays again, the same prayer. To get a deeper perspective on what Christ was feeling here, I'll take you to Chapter 22 of Luke's Gospel letter. In Luke 22:44, Luke says, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Here we see in Luke's writing that Jesus wasn't just sorrowful or troubled, he was in agony. Dictionary.com defines agony as "extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering." Here we see Jesus' state of "troubled-ness" goes a bit deeper than what Matthew describes. It is clear to see, that Jesus, at this moment, would rather not do what he came to do. This seems to contradict Hebrews 12:2, which says "...for the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross..." But when you take the time to think through this contradiction, these two passages fit together to give us a greater picture of Jesus suffering. The agony of the crucifixion didn't begin when Jesus was scourged and beaten, but rather as he prayed in Gathsemane. Jesus, the Son of God, was both fully God and fully man, subject to all the pains, anxieties, and gut-wrenching emotions that we are. I would argue that part of the agony of the cross was the anxiety and fear that Jesus felt as he prayed in Gathsemane; as the hour of his pain, his payment in exchange for billions and billions of eternities of Hell, was growing close. It is here where he first shed blood, and it is here that he begins to feel the foot of God start to weigh heavy on him as God prepares to crush his own Son.
This Easter, think on this. And as you think on this, celebrate and revel in the love that God has for you and lift up prayers of joyful thankfulness as you, with all this in mind, think on Romans 5:7-8, which says "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ [God] died for us." While Easter is a time to mourn that the broken world we live in and the broken and sinful bodies that we inhabit necessitated such a payment for sin, it is also a time to celebrate God's sovereignty, as no joy can be greater than the joy of a sinner saved, reconciled to the God and Creator for which he was made. This Easter, embrace the words of King David and join him in Psalm 71:23 - "My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed!"
1 comment:
Excellent writing. It's always nice to be strongly reminded of just how much God loves and so just how much he will endure for us.
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