Saturday, March 17, 2018
Luke 22:44 And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
SORROW TURNED TO JOY
When we behold Jesus in Gethsemane, we are filled with sorrow because we know that we are the cause of His agony. If it were not for our sin, there would have been no need for Jesus to be there.
If we ever think that our sins are not too many or not too serious, we need but consider the impact they had on Jesus even as He prepared to pay the price for them. His sorrow fills us with sorrow. Within us a sharper awareness of our guilt and culpability is increased.
It is amazing, but true, that the very same scene also cheers us. How? Because Jesus rose up from His prayer and went forward to do the will of His Father. Never would Jesus have considered doing otherwise. He was determined to do whatever was necessary to redeem sinners. For this to happen, it was required for the Just One to die for the unjust ones.
Though drinking the bitter, burning contents of the cup was no pleasant prospect for Jesus, He drank it anyway, down to its last deadly drop. For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:2).
Having eliminated that which barred us from His Home, Jesus has flung wide the gates of Paradise and announced: "Welcome home!"
His sorrow turned into joy . . . and so has ours!
-- From the "Lutheran Spokesman"
