Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Mark 14:34 "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them.
AFRAID OF DEATH?
Does the thought of death ever frighten you? When you see a funeral procession making its way down the road on its way to the cemetery, does it make you feel a bit uneasy? If so, you're not alone. It's not unusual even for Christians to be filled at times with an unsettledness within over the thought of death. It's so unnatural. When God created us He didn't intend for us to ever die.
Now imagine the dread you'd feel if you knew the exact time of your death and that it was going to happen in an especially awful way. If you knew you were going to be falsely accused, condemned, and executed for crimes you didn't do. You could then, at least in a small way, understand the feeling of uneasiness that swept over Jesus as He entered Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday night. His anguish of soul was, of course, a thousand times more intense for He knew He was going to be blamed, not just for one wrong act but for all the wrongs everyone has ever done. And it wouldn't be just another person accusing Him, but His own Father! His Father would cause His anger to burn white-hot against Jesus, showing no lenience. Small wonder that as He prayed to His Father in Gethsemane's darkness beads of sweat welled up on His forehead and became like blood-drops trickling to the ground. He was already feeling the colossal momentum of the world's guilt crashing down upon Him in a gigantic supernatural collision that would soon bring Him to the lowest depths of hellish suffering.
Should we feel sorry for Jesus? No, He wouldn't want that. For this was part of God's loving rescue plan by which He intended to uproot the awful weeds of sin and death from our garden of life so that we might enjoy the sweet fruits of forgiveness and life everlasting. Moreover, we know that only Jesus could accomplish this for us, for He alone possessed the ability to shoulder the immense responsibility of our guilt. Only by His bodily death on the cross could He force death to release our bodies from the grave forever. It's why we need feel no uneasiness over the thought of death.
O Jesus Christ, Thou Lamb of God, Once slain to take away our load.
Now let Thy cross, Thine agony, Avail to save and solace me,
Thy death, to open heaven, and there Bid me the joy of angels share.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 600:2)
