Overwhelmed
with sorrow for our sake
Scripture:
Then Jesus
went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane ,
and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and
pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with
him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said
to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Matthew 26:36-38
Observation:
In the famous garden of Gethsemane , we see the Lord’s last
moments of intense prayer before He goes on to be arrested and killed. Peter,
James and John, His inner circle, accompany him, but they fail in their attempt
to keep watch with Jesus. His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
death.
Humanly, if we imagined
ourselves in Jesus’ place, we would be terrified of the terrible physical pain
that was about to be inflicted upon us. However, it was not fear or anxiety
that the Lord felt but incredible sorrow. The pain on the cross itself seems
the most terrible to us at first, but that is only on the physical.
Spiritually, the Lord
would become the guilt offering, become sin itself as the sins of the world
past, present and future was laid upon Him who had no sin. We cannot begin to
imagine how terrible it must have been to feel and experience every wicked and
horrible sin mankind had ever committed and would commit all at once on the
cross.
The great horror of the
multitude of sins was so intense that God the Father was forced to turn away
from His only beloved Son. Indeed, compared to that, the physical pain was
trivial. That’s why Jesus felt such great sorrow, for He knew that as the sins
were placed on Him, He would become separated from His beloved Father. Their
union that had always been since the beginning of time would be severed in that
instant and we simply could not comprehend the intensity of grief and pain that
separation would cause Jesus, even in that short time.
We are creatures subject to time. Once we pass
a moment, it is history. We quickly forget and move on to the future. However,
to God, who is timeless, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years
like a day. That faithful day at Gethsemane and later at Golgotha
changed everything in the earthly and heavenly realms, and opened up the way
for man to come back to God. Everything of importance in all history from a
spiritual sense now all goes back to that faithful day. Praise be to the Lord!
Application:-
Consider the Son of God,
pure and holy in every way, being completely defiled by all the evil sins of mankind
as He hung on the cross – He had no sin bearing all the punishment and
consequence of all sins, He who had never been separated from the Father being
forced to break this precious eternal communication for our sake. We shudder at
the horrors of the physical suffering of the Lord’s body at the cross, but far
more precious was His sacrifice of bearing our sins spiritually. Far, fare more
precious was His sacrifice of having His Father turn away from Him, having lost
that connection of perfect love with His Father for those moments.
But the Lord did all this
our of love for us. Both God the Father and God the Son willingly severed their
precious eternal bond of love for that moment, so that we might be included.
How truly precious is the salvation that He has granted us! How wonderfully
precious is the access He has given us to come back to God, to be adopted into
God’s wonderful family. We deserved nothing at all, but the Lord sacrificed
Himself for us. It was His grace, His truly amazing grace. How ill-deserving we
are as a human race. Yet, His marvelous and incomprehensible sacrifice has
saved us!
Let us never lose that
deep gratitude for our Lord, who suffered such deep sorrow for our sake. Let
that deep gratitude inspire and lead us to serve Him more and more in even
greater measure, and especially in desiring others to share in our great
salvation!
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, how marvelous
indeed Your great sacrifice for us! You suffered not just physically, but
emotionally and mentally and especially spiritually. How could you who detested
all sin carry on yourself all the terrible sins of humanity? How heavy and
horrible that burden must have been. How terrible indeed to have our Father
turn His face from you. We quickly become concerned for a young baby crying
when separated from his mother. How great Your sorrow must have been in knowing
You would lose connection with Your
Father whom You always were with before time. O Lord, let me never take for
granted Your great sacrifice and suffering. Lead me, Lord to live a life worthy
of Your calling. Praise You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.
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