Leviticus 17 & 18, Mark 14: 17-42, Psalm 40: 1-8
Mark 14: 35-36 (ESV)
“And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and
prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said,
“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet
not what I will, but what you will.”
In verses 35 and 36 from Mark 15, we read about Jesus praying
in the garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested. One Biblical scholar wrote that
these verses show his Jesus as his most human and most divine. Jesus knew that
he was going to be beaten and crucified, and he prayed to his father if there
was another way to accomplish his father’s mission. Another biblical scholar
noted that when Jesus called his father “Abba”, this meant he was feeling
closer to him and not farther away. But instead of taking his mission away, God
strengthened Christ’s resolve to fulfill what he came to earth to do. In the
end, Jesus said he would do his father’s will, not his will. Jesus knew that he
was going to be sacrificed like a lamb to take away all of our sins, but in the
garden of Gethsemane he faced it as his human self and accepted it as his divine
self. Jesus was fully human, and fully divine. Only someone who was fully
divine could accept the sacrifice Jesus was making of his human life. When we
think about what Jesus did for us, it’s hard for us to contemplate his
sacrifice. But I think we need to do so we can fully understand the gift that Christ
gave us so we can enter heaven free of all our sins.
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