What was the longest night in your life? Delivering your first child? Waiting for your teenager to come home safely? Hoping for a call from the hospital that your wife, who was involved in a terrible accident, would be alright? Did a potentially life changing decision that needed to be made ever keep you from finding sleep? What emotions did you feel during those times?
Having been in hairy situations myself, I can say that feelings of helplessness, a sense of despair and lots more questions than answers swirled around in my head. Thought’s like: “No matter what I decide, it could be wrong” nagged my conscience.
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 26:36-46 we can read of Jesus having a night like this—only magnified an infinite number of times. It is the night before his crucifixion, where he experienced agonizing sorrow, intense pain, sadness and heaviness of heart to the point of having his life crushed out by it. As he speaks of his feelings and the trouble he is in, he “hits the ground”, showing he is at the end of his strength. His burden seems too heavy to bear. Why? He is not just thinking about one teenager but millions; not just one life on the brink of death but all of mankind’s; he literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders! This night the fate of mankind is going to be decided. The way how Jesus decides and acts in this night would alter his own life and the lives of millions in the past, present and future!
Luke, the physician tells us of Jesus’ anguish and mentions that an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. His fight is so intense, that his sweat is like drops of blood. Three times Jesus cries out to his father: “If there is any way, get me out of this”. This however was not the end of his prayer, it ends with the words: “but please not what I want but what you want be done.”
Have you ever wondered what would have happened in history if Jesus wouldn’t have added those words to his prayer? Could God have devised a salvation plan that would have been less costly to him? I don’t think so. Even the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator God could not make salvation happen any others way but by giving his own son, completely righteous, without sin as an offering for ours. There are some things that even God can’t do!
Still, why did Jesus go through with this? Did he just helplessly submit to fate or admit defeat before a power that beat him? Did he bitterly resign himself to the inevitable or submit quietly to his father and his love? Why did he endure agonizing pain and give his life? There can only be one answer: Love! He loved his father and you and me more than his own life!
I want to invite you today to put your trust in Jesus, completely, without reservation, because He who loves like this can be trusted!
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