A Walk Through Holy Week - Post #5

After readying himself through prayer and receiving the blessing of spiritual strength from the LORD, Jesus hears muffled sounds in the distance and looks to see the dim light of the torches. As expected, the arrest party has secretly come in the cover of darkness. Peter, James, and John awake just in time to see their Rabbi betrayed with Judas' kiss. Startled and afraid, Peter quickly grabs his sword and strikes Malchus, the high priest’s servant, and cuts off his right ear. But Jesus says to Peter, “Put your sword [away]; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” And thus begins the most unjust and unmerited arrest and trial in the history of the world.

The trial has been assembled hastily and witnesses haven’t been screened well. Testimonies don't line up. Council members look disconcerted. Jesus is silent as a lamb. Irritated and impatient, Caiaphas cuts to the quick: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63).

The hour has come. Charged in the name of his Father to answer, Jesus speaks the words that seal the doom for which he had come to endure (John 12:27): “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

Then in an act of both manipulative dramatics and law-breaking (Leviticus 21:10), Caiaphas tears his robes and with those gathered at the Sanhedrin declares, “what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.” (Luke 22:71). And with that statement, the Council had the verdict and sentence they had been waiting for. They declared Jesus guilty of blasphemy and sentenced him to death, but they would need the help of Rome because they didn't have the authority to carry out capital punishment.

What happened next was "a game of political chess" between Pilate, Herod, and the Council. All of them acting as authorities, yet none of them realizing that they were merely pawns in the plan God had established before the foundation of the world. Pilate tried to appease the Council's thirst for blood and justice by having Christ flogged and humiliated...but humiliation wasn't enough. They wanted him dead and nothing would keep them from achieving this end. Pilot even tried to offer Jesus's release as the year’s annual Passover pardoned prisoner, but the Council refused his effort by saying, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” (John 18:40). Their hearts were so hardened by their hatred for Jesus, that they were willing to free a murderous thief instead of Jesus.

[But] the triune God has the Council, Pilate, and Satan where he wants them. They would have no authority over the Son at all unless it had been given [to] them from above (John 19:11).

Unknowingly, they were all carrying out the plan God had already set in place. They were helping Jesus drink the cup he came down from heaven to drink. It was for this very purpose that Christ became flesh. The Son of God was born...to die. By the Council's unjust and shameful actions and Pilot's cowardly efforts to wash his hands of it all...God's will was being carried out. Once again, God was turning what men meant for evil into good, as they "unwittingly collaborated in executing the only innocent [man] who could possibly grant sinners life."

The rest of the story is one we're well familiar with. Christ's cross was strapped to his already lacerated back and he was forced to carry it to the top of Golgotha. Unable to physically handle the task, a man from the crowd was chosen to help him make the trek. Hung between two thieves, Christ endured more ridicule from the crowd as they mocked him while the centurions cast lots for his garments. In the ultimate act of humility and unconditional love, Christ looked down from the cross at those who mocked him. His heart continued to break for them as he pleaded with his father to have mercy. His words equally sad as they were true, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Suffering both from physical pain and thirst, Christ asked for a drink. Physically he was exhausted, but his deeper pain was spiritual. Carrying the sin of the world on his shoulders he was separated from his Father for the first time and last time of eternity. Christ mustered just enough strength to say..."It is finished." And indeed it was. Christ successfully drank the cup his father had set before him, and God received his son's death as payment for the sins of the world.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. | Rom. 3:23-35

A Walk Through Holy Week - Post #4

"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." | Luke 22:44

Matthew's and Mark's gospels say that Jesus went off three separate times to pray alone. Before he left, he asked his disciples to pray that they might not fall into temptation. Each time when Jesus returned he found Peter, James, and John asleep. Isn't that amazing? I believe we can gather two things from the disciples choice to sleep instead of pray. First, they must not have understood the reality of what was about to happen to Jesus. While he foretold of his death, their choice to sleep instead of pray reveals that they more than likely didn't understand what was about to happen to their LORD.  Secondly, the disciples inability to stay awake reveals that they were were living in the flesh. When Jesus returned to his disciples after praying alone he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40-41). It was the disciple's flesh that was weak and Jesus knew that only by the Spirit could they find the strength and endurance they would need to resist temptation. And as we will later see, their lack of preparation would lead them to fall to all sorts of temptations (i.e. fear, deceit, doubt etc).

We all grow weary, both physically and spiritually, but just as he did for Jesus...the Holy Spirit is able to provide us the strength to endure even when our bodies physically can't do it on their own. Christ, found himself at a point of extreme agony. So what did he do? He prayed. Luke's gospel tells us that his sweat became like "drops of blood" falling to the ground. If anyone needed rest, it Jesus. And yet he knew better. He knew what he needed most could not be found in the comforts of physical rest. The strength Christ needed to endure "the cup" set before him could only be found in God himself...so he prayed.

And what can we take from Jesus' prayers? According to Matthew, the first time he prayed he said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mark 26:39). His desire was for God to provide another way. Jesus knew what he was about to endure. It was for this purpose that "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Christ came to die, but it was not death which caused Christ such agony. It was something far worse than death. Something Christ had never endured for all of eternity. Separation from his Father. Christ knew he would be taking on the wrath of God, that the sins of the world would be placed upon him. He also knew that because of sin, he would be separated and the loneliness and anguish of that separation would be far more than Jesus' physical body could handle. But the cup couldn't pass from Christ. This was the only way sin and death could be defeated and God's justice satisfied. So, instead of removing the cup from Christ...God sent an angel to come alongside Jesus to strengthen him (Luke 22:43).

Realizing that "drinking the cup" was the only way to reconcile a relationship between God's and man, Christ's second prayer took a very different tone. The second time he prayed he said, “My Father, if this [cup] cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Mark 26:42). The prayer was no longer relief from the agony, but instead that God's will be done. Christ's situation didn't change, but his perspective did. No longer was he left with simply agony. The angel of the LORD had given him strength to endure, and to see and embrace the future grace and glory. This was God's will, and Christ desired to live and die for his Father's glory.

"Jesus did not go on praying for the cup to pass. He went on praying for success in drinking it." | John Piper

Evidently, by the time Jesus was done praying in Gethsemane, the Father had not only made clear that there is no other way than the cross, but also that this way would succeed. The Lamb would have the reward of his suffering. He will “see his offspring; he will prolong his days; the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he will see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10–11).

Surely this is why Hebrews 12:2 could say, “For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross.” Beneath the terrors of present agony was the taste of future joy. The angel had come, “strengthening him” — clarifying, confirming, connecting the coming joy. -- source: DesiringGod.com