| And being in anguish, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of
blood falling to the ground.
Luke 22:44
About
the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a load voice
... "My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?"
Matthew 27:46 |
|
 Gethsemane
Christ’s grief was very real
in Gethsemane. In fact, it was so intense that the Bible
says "his sweat was like drops of blood falling to
the ground" (Luke 22:44).
We, too,
come to Gethsemane. The name gethsemane
itself means "oil
press"—where we feel as if
every ounce of life is being squeezed out
of us.
Unlike
the disciples, Jesus is not asleep at our
Gethsemane.
He knows
what this hour is like.
And
where it leads next . . . |
| Golgotha |
|
| After Gethsemane
comes Golgotha—The Place of the
Skull. And again, the cry, "Where
are you God?"
Where are you?
Even
Jesus at this moment feels forsaken and
abandoned.
Where
are you, God?
Why have
you forsaken me?
Where are you? |
|
| They stripped him and put a
scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a
crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put
a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of
him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the
Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took
the staff and struck him on the head again and
again. After they had mocked him, they took off
the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then
they led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:28-31 |
 Jesus faces Golgotha, the crucible of
suffering. A place so terrible, so alone, so dark, that one feels
forsaken, even by God.
Jesus knows Golgotha. He’ll
go with you up this mountain of grief.
This cross you
are asked to carry is too heavy for you. Ask him
to help you pick it up. Even he needed help to
carry his.
Golgotha leaves
its scars.
On hands. On
feet. On hearts.
On
everything. |
|
