I always tend to put so much stock in my friends. Don't get me wrong--I love them to death. But I always find myself in that place where they've disappointed me and I feel so crushed and betrayed. I always wondered why God would allow us to feel this way..
Linda sent this to us in honor of today...
Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is seldom given the attention it deserves when we consider the Lord's suffering as the Redeemer of his people. Admittedly it does not stand out as prominently in the gospel record as the agony of the cross. Yet the Gethsemane experience is a crucial part of the passive obedience of our mediator in his redemptive work. Seen in biblical-theological light, it is an event which demonstrates the completeness and perfection of the savior's work. It helps us comprehend the depth of the riches of our standing in Christ and to praise God for the grace revealed in Jesus' perfect obedience to the Father throughout his suffering.
Several circumstantial factors contributed to the intensity of Jesus' agony. One of these factors was the utter loneliness of our Lord. He who bore our sins did so alone. It was a lonely path that the one "despised and rejected of men" had to walk. The "man of sorrows, familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces" knew the loneliness of the abandoned.
Our Lord had left the upper room in Jerusalem where he had instituted the Holy Supper of remembrance. Leading the disciples out of the city, they arrived at the garden on the west side of the Mount of Olives, about a half-mile west of the Temple Square, across the Kidron Valley. Though the garden was not very large (an acre or two at the most) and the disciples could not have been very far away, Jesus still wanted three of them closer. He desired the support, comfort and close presence of Peter, James and John. His sense of loneliness must have been intensified by their apparent indifference to Jesus' suffering. They slept while he prayed. Though he aroused them from sleep after his first session of prayer, it was obviously hopeless to call them back after the second. Then the mob, bent on Jesus' capture, arrived and one of the disciples made a futile effort at resistance with a sword. Jesus' mild reprimand of the aggressive disciple was followed by the desertion of all of them. Jesus was left alone--alone in the clutches of the enemy, abandoned. The song says it well, "He bore it all alone."
It's like Pastor Eugene's sermon about how Jesus was totally alone when it came to the most crucial part of His life. It's the same now.. people can never understand me completely. Even I can never understand my own self. Yet I expect people to feel what I feel, when I know that there's only One that can take the pain away. When I feel that a friend has failed me--that has to rank up there with one of the worst feelings.. but I always set myself up for it. If only I could learn to depend on Him alone for my worth...
After all, He felt that I was worthy of His own blood....
Linda sent this to us in honor of today...
Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is seldom given the attention it deserves when we consider the Lord's suffering as the Redeemer of his people. Admittedly it does not stand out as prominently in the gospel record as the agony of the cross. Yet the Gethsemane experience is a crucial part of the passive obedience of our mediator in his redemptive work. Seen in biblical-theological light, it is an event which demonstrates the completeness and perfection of the savior's work. It helps us comprehend the depth of the riches of our standing in Christ and to praise God for the grace revealed in Jesus' perfect obedience to the Father throughout his suffering.
Several circumstantial factors contributed to the intensity of Jesus' agony. One of these factors was the utter loneliness of our Lord. He who bore our sins did so alone. It was a lonely path that the one "despised and rejected of men" had to walk. The "man of sorrows, familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces" knew the loneliness of the abandoned.
Our Lord had left the upper room in Jerusalem where he had instituted the Holy Supper of remembrance. Leading the disciples out of the city, they arrived at the garden on the west side of the Mount of Olives, about a half-mile west of the Temple Square, across the Kidron Valley. Though the garden was not very large (an acre or two at the most) and the disciples could not have been very far away, Jesus still wanted three of them closer. He desired the support, comfort and close presence of Peter, James and John. His sense of loneliness must have been intensified by their apparent indifference to Jesus' suffering. They slept while he prayed. Though he aroused them from sleep after his first session of prayer, it was obviously hopeless to call them back after the second. Then the mob, bent on Jesus' capture, arrived and one of the disciples made a futile effort at resistance with a sword. Jesus' mild reprimand of the aggressive disciple was followed by the desertion of all of them. Jesus was left alone--alone in the clutches of the enemy, abandoned. The song says it well, "He bore it all alone."
It's like Pastor Eugene's sermon about how Jesus was totally alone when it came to the most crucial part of His life. It's the same now.. people can never understand me completely. Even I can never understand my own self. Yet I expect people to feel what I feel, when I know that there's only One that can take the pain away. When I feel that a friend has failed me--that has to rank up there with one of the worst feelings.. but I always set myself up for it. If only I could learn to depend on Him alone for my worth...
After all, He felt that I was worthy of His own blood....
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