LEAH FARISH|GUEST
I grew up looking at a lugubrious, Victorian-era painting of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. I knew that as He prayed there the night before His crucifixion, He sweated blood and asked that God “let this cup pass.” But somehow I was left with the idea that He was solely focused on His own upcoming suffering, perhaps doubting and fearing as He anticipated humiliation and torture. Lately, though, I have sensed that His anguish was for us, not so much for Himself.
His humanity surely dreaded torture and death. Sweating blood, He showed us the horror He felt as He contemplated His sacrifice. This makes His resolve that much more poignant.
Isaiah 50:6-7 prophesied it:
“I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Perfect love casts out fear; in His perfect love for us, fear did not deter Him. He was Truth; He wasn’t doubting. He must have acutely dreaded the next hours, but He wasn’t shrinking back; “for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). He knew He would be raised from the dead and vindicated (Isaiah 50:8, Psalm 22:29-31, Mark 8:31-2). But the church was just embarking on its path through a dark world, and that night in the garden He must have seen its weakness and vulnerability with heartbreaking clarity. He saw that the church would be on earth for centuries, in our puny flesh and faith “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”
His followers had proved themselves utterly unready to unite in witness, despite His warnings and exhortations….
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