“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.’” – Mark 14:36
This week celebrates the week that changed the world! At the beginning of the week, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph, hailed as the new king of Israel. By the end of the week, Jesus would be crucified, dead, and buried. Then came that glorious Sunday morning when the resurrected Jesus left the grave behind, victorious over sin and death!
Thursday was a solemn night of fellowship, teaching, prayer, and betrayal. After the Passover meal, Jesus led His disciples out to the olive trees of Gethsemane. There He spent hours in agonized prayer. His soul was in deep turmoil that night. Not only would He soon be betrayed by a close friend and follower…. Not only would He be arrested, humiliated, tortured, and unjustly condemned to a brutally painful death…. Jesus was about to carry the weight of all your sins and those of the rest of the world.
Jesus had never sinned in His entire life, but He was about to carry the weight of all the world’s sins, past, present, and future. As fully a man, He would suffer in agony as our representative. He would experience what we should experience for our sins. As fully God, He would suffer the horror of becoming the embodiment of all that is rebellious and hateful toward His beloved Father. More than that, He was about to experience all of God’s holy, righteous, justified wrath for our sins. The eternal Son of God who’d never experienced anything other than God’s love since before time began was about to drink everything that was in God’s foaming cup of wrath for sin. This is the cup Jesus prayed would pass from Him.
Nonetheless, Jesus was faithful! He submitted to God’s eternal and good plan of salvation. He went forward from Gethsemane to the cross. He drank the cup. For you. For the world. He did this so that everyone who trusts in Him as Lord and Savior will be forgiven their sins and receive eternal life. Will you #FollowJesus?