“And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.'” Mark 14:36
April 6, 2023
It’s Thursday and Sunday’s coming. On Thursday evening Jesus left the upper room and walked the short distance to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was there that He walked through the valley of the shadow of death into an experience of overwhelming emotional intensity. He wrestled with powerful emotional currents as He anticipated the shame of the cross (Heb. 12:2). The cost of submitting to the will of the Father was going to be so great that Jesus was staggered by the thought. We learn something from this when we are laid low by our own incomprehensible pain and suffering. Jesus sought the Father’s presence in prayer in order to lay bare His soul (Heb. 5:7). The Savior struggled with the acceptance of suffering for sin. This was not because of the fear of physical suffering and death itself. Jesus was no coward flinching at the thought of personal risk and pain. His soul’s battle was due to the contents of the cup of suffering. He was about to drink from the cup of God’s judgment for our sins and experience alienation from the Father. None of us can fathom the pain of Jesus bearing the weight of our guilt. It was not His. Jesus hated sin with His entire being, “He who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21). The suffering Servant, the last Adam, drank the cup of God’s wrath so that He might fill our cup with the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Rejoice in that dear brother and sister in Christ.
H
“O Divine Redeemer, great was your goodness in undertaking my redemption, in consenting to be made sin for me, in conquering all my foes; Great was your strength in enduring the extremities of divine wrath, in taking away the load of my iniquities.”
The Valley of Vision, an adaptation of a Puritan prayer.