Monday, May 20, 2024

PT-4 "Sorrow" (Matt. 26:36-38)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/20/2024 8:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  PT-4 “Sorrow”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:36-38

 

            Message of the verses:  36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’”

 

            We continue to talk about sorrow in this rather long section found in MacArthur’s commentary.  I want to think about what happened in what is the shortest verse in the New Testament which was spoken of by Jesus at the grave of Lazarus seen in John 11:35 where we read “Jesus wept.”  The question is why was Jesus weeping?  Well it was not for Lazarus or for the grieving sisters, because He was about to restore His dear friend and their brother to life.  Jesus rather wept because of the power of sin and death over mankind, and possibly, even then, over the imminent prospect of His becoming sin.

 

            As we continue to look at our verses we can see that at this time a very deep and desolate kind of loneliness began to sweep over Him that caused Him to be severely distressed.   Not only the cross, but in addition to it were personal disappointments that perhaps pressed Jesus into deeper depression.  Let us look at some things that would be causing this great depression coming over the Lord.  First was the treachery of Judas, an earthly Lucifer who betrayed the loving and selfless Son of God, who graciously had taught and ministered to this traitor for three years.  Next there was the desertion of the eleven other disciples, made more tragic by the fact for them, He was Savior and Lord.  Jesus had been their teacher, also healer, encourager, forgiver, supporter, and also their friend.  Yet He would soon be forsaken by those He had never forsaken, and this had to be very hurtful to Him.  It is easy to read about this knowing that Jesus knew what was going to happen, and yet one must think of His humanity to which there was the ability to have great hurt of soul when things like this happened to Him, which probably was made worse because of Him being 100% God too along with 100% man.  Next there would be outright denial by Peter, the one in whom Jesus had invested the most.  In return, He would be the object of Peter’s shame and the cause for Peter’s cursing.  Jesus would also be rejected by Israel, which is next on the list, Israel who was God’s chosen and covenant people through whom He came in the flesh and to whom He came as Messiah, Redeemer, and also their King.

 

            MacArthur writes “In addition to the rejections were the blatant injustices He would face.  The very Creator of justice would Himself be subjected to the ultimate injustice of mankind.  He would be vilified and defrauded in the petty courts of sinful, spiteful, lying men—and that in the name of God.  The One whom angels praise and with whom God the Father is well pleased would be cursed and mocked by the vile and wicked multitudes, many of whom had a few days earlier sung His praises and attempted to make Him their king.

 

            “Jesus confronted a loneliness that no other man could experience.  The Son of God, who communed with the Father and the Holy Spirit and with all the holy angels of heaven, would find Himself forsaken by His Father as He became sin.  He would be so identified with iniquity that the hosts of heaven would have to turn their backs on Him.  And the same sin that repulsed them repulsed Him, the sinless, holy, pure, and undefiled Son of righteousness.

 

            “As the mortal Son of man, the undying Son of God had to take death upon Himself, and that, too, was grievous and depressing.  As part of His divine mission of redemption, Christ came to earth to ‘taste death for everyone’ (Heb. 2:9).  As Alfred Edersheim wrote, ‘He disarmed Death by burying its shaft in His own heart,’ and death thereby had no more arrows (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1971], 2:539).  But that last arrow of death caused the Lord inexpressible torment.”

 

            There is still a fair amount of commentary in this section, which Lord willing we will continue to look at in the next SD.

 

5/20/2024 9:13 AM

 

           

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