“And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” Mark 14:41 ESV
Reflection: what is the most difficult thing you have ever had to do?
It started at 6:30 in the morning. On June 6, 1944, the largest military seaborne invasion in history took place on the shores of Normandy, France. 24,000 allied soldiers stormed the coast. It was expected by the enemy. They were prepared. So an estimated 10,000 allied soldiers lost their lives. The enemy suffered huge casualties as well, in the thousands. It is still remembered as D-Day. This decision to go forward that early hour, that day, despite the odds, changed the momentum of the Second World War. And, even though this is a momentous moment, we all face difficult decisions in life. Decisions that we might not fully comprehend but just know will have a profound and lasting impact. We can think of decisions like moving away to go to college and to get married. But, whether to become a Christian, and follow Christ, might be the biggest decision we face. It is a very different path of life.
A decision that changes everything.
We read from the verse today the decision Jesus had to make, a decision that had eternal consequences for mankind. But had an impact on Him we may never know or understand. Prior to this, we read of His battle in the garden of gethsemane, “Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” He went a little farther, and 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. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”” Mark 14:34-36 NKJV. We see through these few words how difficult this was going to be, pleading with His almighty Father to remove this cup from Him. To find another way, since “all things are possible”. But Father didn’t. All of history came to this moment.
Isaiah wrote “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” Isaiah 53:6-10 NKJV
It is so difficult for us to understand the magnitude of Jesus decision in that hour. To know fully what He was doing; yet He trusted His Father fully. And, as a result of His obedience to the Father’s will, you and I have a way to the Father, through this beautiful sacrifice Jesus made. Jesus tore down the veil that had separated man from God, that through Jesus atonement we can be saved. It would have been much easier for those 24,000 soldiers if the commanders would have said, “Let’s head back.” No difficult battle, but most likely a very different outcome of the war. We will perhaps never know.
But the decision Jesus made, in that very hour, to trust the will of the Father, cost Him everything, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11 ESV
And, this decision has eternal consequences for us, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,” Ephesians 2:13-19 ESV
