Walking With Jesus: An Easter DevotionalPrøve

As I read the Gethsemane narrative, I’m transported back to standing in that very garden in September 2018. Gethsemane was the pinnacle of my trip through the holy lands, the most compelling place in the biblical narrative.

Why? It’s the climax of Jesus’s responsibility. 

As he prays for his Father in Gethsemane, Jesus experiences deep anxiety, fear, even panic. Like no other place in the Scriptures do we get such a picture into his emotional life. 

Gethsemane literally means 'olive press'. It was a place where olives from the neighbourhood were crushed for their oil. And here we see Jesus at his most emotionally fragile moment as he shudders at the horrible 'pressing' that is before him.

This is his last chance to run, the point of no return. Tomorrow he will bear all of God’s anger and wrath against the sin of humanity. 

We justly get angry about rape, murder, selfishness, greed, and God does too, on an even grander scale. Repeatedly in the Old Testament, ‘the cup’ is a vivid picture of the wrath and judgment of God. Because of his great love for us, Jesus chooses to drink the cup of his Father’s fury so that we would not have to.

Jesus doesn’t know if he can bear this responsibility and pain. He is looking for another option. He pleads the Father for another way. He begs for the cup to pass. But he willingly gathers himself, and chooses to obey his Father's will. 

In the crucible moments of our life, when we are intensely tested, we need deep motivation to pull us through. Motivation that isn’t shallow or trivial. 

You may have experienced someone yelling at you to keep going or giving you a small reward like a chocolate for a difficult task. This kind of motivation isn’t sufficient for such a significant sacrifice. The motivation needs to be bigger than the difficulty of the task.

Hebrews 12:3 gives us a window into Jesus's motivation—“for the joy set before him he endured the cross”. Jesus willingly embraces his Father's will because of the future joy he will taste. His motivation is relationship. Jesus endured the anguish of the cross so he could have intimacy with you!

What courage! What love! No other religious leader or worldview demonstrates such costly love.

Marvel in gratitude at our great hero. Receive his love today.