TUESDAY
December 25
Jesus in Gethsemane
"And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch" (Mark 14:34).
Whatever Jesus suffered through His 33 years here on earth, nothing compared to what He started to face in the last hours before the Cross. From the eternal ages (Eph. 1:1-4; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9; Titus 1:1, 2) the sacrifice of Jesus as the offering for the world's sin was planned, and now it was all coming to pass.
What do the following texts tell us about Christ's suffering in Gethsemane? Matt. 26:39, Mark 14:33-36, Luke 22:41-44.
"He went a little distance from them—not so far but that they could both see and hear Him—and fell prostrate upon the ground. He felt that by sin He was being separated from His Father. The gulf was so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered before it. This agony He must not exert His divine power to escape. As man He must suffer the consequences of man's sin. As man He must endure the wrath of God against transgression.
"Christ was now standing in a different attitude from that in which He had ever stood before. His suffering can best be described in the words of the prophet, 'Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.' Zech. 13:7. As the substitute and surety for sinful man, Christ was suffering under divine justice. He saw what justice meant. Hitherto He had been as an intercessor for others; now He longed to have an intercessor for Himself."—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 686.
Dwell upon what was happening to Jesus in Gethsemane. Already the sins of the world were starting to fall upon Him. Try to imagine what that must have been like. No human being has ever been called to go through anything like this before. What does this tell us about God's love for us? What hope can you draw from this for yourself?
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