Jesus too had emotions yet did not freeze up in fear of a bad time ahead
Even though he is the Son of God, Jesus in human form still had human emotions. He was not a robot! He suffered terribly during his crucifixion. In this post though, I'm not going to focus on the suffering that he had then (as important as it is).
We're going to take a look at how and when he anticipated this bad time ahead. In a previous post, I pointed out that Jesus did not just curl into a ball and give up on his ministry days, even though he surely had some inkling that he had to go through a very bad time at some point in the future.
He carried out his ministry, teaching and healing people, right up until the end. The part I want to focus on is the night immediately before his arrest. He was distressed at what was to come.
The Bible says:
And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
Mark 14: 32-34
There are two points that are encouraging and interesting to me:
1. Jesus had human emotions just like we do. He knew there was a bad time coming up, and he was distressed.
2. He didn't choose to focus on that until the time was at hand, i.e. at the point in the scripture above. In other words, he kept up with his ministry, not letting himself get "frozen" by a bad time coming up. When the bad time was very close at hand (as above when he was praying), that's when he focused on that situation. He did not agonize in misery over it for months beforehand.
These are very important points for us to take home too. Jesus is a role model we should emulate in our lives. Let's see what happened next in that scripture:
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.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 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. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Mark 14: 35-42
We can see clearly that he was very troubled during that night. So troubled that prayer was the most important thing he could do. Indeed, he found it puzzling that his disciples couldn't even be bothered staying awake. Knowing what was at hand, it's likely that besides actually wanting the prayer he was doing, Jesus may not have been able to sleep easily anyway with the amount of sorrow he had.
Had he focused on that problem earlier in his ministry, he probably would have been paralyzed with distress and unable to minister to others. Instead he waited until the time was at hand.
I'm not saying we should all just ignore every one of the difficulties in our lives, but if we know it's something that we don't have control over, it's going to reduce our effectiveness if we agonize over these problems early on.
So the take-home message here is not that we should be robots and never be sad. We're human! The message is that we should be like Jesus and wait until the time is closer at hand to focus on something difficult that is going to take all of our mental, physical and spiritual energy. Don't get sucked into focusing on it early, or you won't be effective at whatever else you were supposed to be doing at that time.
If you found this post helpful, you may also like these related posts on this blog:
We're going to take a look at how and when he anticipated this bad time ahead. In a previous post, I pointed out that Jesus did not just curl into a ball and give up on his ministry days, even though he surely had some inkling that he had to go through a very bad time at some point in the future.
He carried out his ministry, teaching and healing people, right up until the end. The part I want to focus on is the night immediately before his arrest. He was distressed at what was to come.
The Bible says:
And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
Mark 14: 32-34
There are two points that are encouraging and interesting to me:
1. Jesus had human emotions just like we do. He knew there was a bad time coming up, and he was distressed.
2. He didn't choose to focus on that until the time was at hand, i.e. at the point in the scripture above. In other words, he kept up with his ministry, not letting himself get "frozen" by a bad time coming up. When the bad time was very close at hand (as above when he was praying), that's when he focused on that situation. He did not agonize in misery over it for months beforehand.
These are very important points for us to take home too. Jesus is a role model we should emulate in our lives. Let's see what happened next in that scripture:
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.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 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. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Mark 14: 35-42
We can see clearly that he was very troubled during that night. So troubled that prayer was the most important thing he could do. Indeed, he found it puzzling that his disciples couldn't even be bothered staying awake. Knowing what was at hand, it's likely that besides actually wanting the prayer he was doing, Jesus may not have been able to sleep easily anyway with the amount of sorrow he had.
Had he focused on that problem earlier in his ministry, he probably would have been paralyzed with distress and unable to minister to others. Instead he waited until the time was at hand.
I'm not saying we should all just ignore every one of the difficulties in our lives, but if we know it's something that we don't have control over, it's going to reduce our effectiveness if we agonize over these problems early on.
So the take-home message here is not that we should be robots and never be sad. We're human! The message is that we should be like Jesus and wait until the time is closer at hand to focus on something difficult that is going to take all of our mental, physical and spiritual energy. Don't get sucked into focusing on it early, or you won't be effective at whatever else you were supposed to be doing at that time.
If you found this post helpful, you may also like these related posts on this blog:
- If Jesus needed to pray, we have an even greater need to do it
- Why we shouldn't be miserable because of an upcoming difficult time
- Thinking long-term: this means going beyond our deaths
Comments
Post a Comment