Mark 14
38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
I think it’s difficult for us to comprehend what
Jesus Christ went through in the Garden of Gethsemane. Words such as,
sorrowful, very heavy, exceedingly sorrowful, agony, and pain as described in
the bible don’t even measure up to what he felt.
We can say how much
pain he was in, but none of us will ever know the true measure of what he felt
that day. Imagine your greatest pain, your weakest moment, your greatest
sorrow, shame, and multiply that by billions, (every person who’s ever lived)
and there you have it. We can’t fathom it.
44 And being in an
agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground.
“Christ’s
agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity
and cause.
It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that
caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from
every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of
experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental
endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed,
and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that
hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, ‘the prince
of this world’ could inflict.” (Talmage,
Jesus the Christ, p. 613.)
Christ talks about the bitter cup, as told by Matthew, Mark, and Luke
The pain is so great he asks for a way
out if it’s possible, but he will do as His father commands. Which was to
follow through and drink the bitter cup (the atonement) endure the pain and
suffering for the sins of the world.
“Jesus said, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass.’ But
it was not possible; for to have done so would have been a violation of the
law, and he had to take it. The atonement must be made, a God must be
sacrificed. No power can resist a law of God. It is omnipresent, omnipotent,
exists everywhere, in all things. …” (Taylor, The
Mediation and Atonement, pp. 168–69.)
As I look more into this, it gives me a better appreciation of what he
suffered. I still have no clue the amount of pain he went through but I am
grateful that he is such a great man. I know he loves me, and that he’s helped
me through some hard times.
The Dream
By Janie Hannan-Kearl
A smile is what he offered
a kind word is what he shared
Maybe he’s an angel sent here
to save me from being scared
Sometimes life is a dark road to go
alone
maybe God knew I was close to being
gone
the angel said; "its never too late
my dear, you haven’t yet sealed your
fate"
The kind man told me, “don’t give up
You are never all alone
smile even when its hard
prayer is the answer to bring you
home.”
Sometimes life is a dark road to
travel alone
maybe God knew I was close to gone
the angel said; "its never too late
my dear, you haven’t yet sealed your
fate"
He smiled, pulling me to a close
embrace;
“forgive yourself, for I forgave
thee,
I am no mere angel
I am Jesus Christ, here eternally.”
I woke with a smile, knowing this
was more than a dream
The weight of guilt I carried so
long was finally gone
Life is a dark road to go alone
God knew I was close to gone
He sent Him here to my dreams
to prove life isn’t lost as it seems
