Mark 14:32-42
Impossible and God don’t belong in the same sentence! This has been the message of the Teacher. With God all things are possible!
He understands the power of God as no other before Him! Living in faith has been both His message and His life.
Now with the cross only hours away, He prays with this kind of faith: Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you.
Jesus is right. God can do anything. Anything…except that which is inconsistent with His Nature and Will of course! For example, God is truth. That’s why lying is impossible for Him!
We know God will not lift the cross from the back of Jesus. We also know He would if He could. So what about God makes this impossible?
What is it about God that requires a cross for His Son? We don’t understand it fully, but only the death of the perfect Son of God can save us from our sins. Jesus must die if we are to live!
It is God’s love for us that requires Jesus to take our sin’s punishment.
No, God is not limited except by His own perfection. And to be limited by perfection is no limitation. It is perfection! The perfection of love!
The Teacher understands God is constrained by Who He is. By His own perfect Nature and Will! That’s why He concludes His prayer -Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
Impossible and God must be in the same sentence. For it is impossible that our God will ever do anything other than that which is perfect love for us.
What about Jesus? To rescue us from the suffering of this world, the Son of God has come to suffer for us. It will be terrible, but in the end it will be perfection and glory for Him too.
The Teacher is not looking forward to what awaits him. He knows the plan, because he helped make the plan! Before the creation of the world.
ReplyDeleteIt is no accident he is there in the garden. And yet, he is asking, if at all possible, tkae this cup from me. I probably would have been begging a lot harder! As well, complaining and whining while I was at it.
Here the Teacher shows us his concerns, as well as the priorities they take.
Jesus is concerned about what he will go through, but it isn't hs top priority. His instructions to the Disciples isn't to pray for him, but themselves. "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." (38) Their spiritual wellbeing is put above his own interest.
As well, he does ask for deliverance, but tells the Father, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." (36)
God's will was put first.
The needs of others came next.
Then his own desires.
What a great example the Teacher shows us in his most trying hour!