Easter to my mind, is the most
significant Christian celebration. It is the essence of Christianity; for if
the reason for Easter did not happen, then we would probably still be dead in
sin today. I recognize that it was the plan of God borne out of love for us but
I want to celebrate Christ who put aside His own desire and followed through on
His commitment to God by dying on the cross, despite the pain, and was raised
from the dead. This is definitely my best season of the year so I thank God for
giving us the reason to celebrate Easter and celebrate the Christ of Easter.
John 18: 11 “But
Jesus said to Peter, ‘put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from
the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”
Having gone through a few stages
of life and seeing the kind of commitment life demands, I realize that it is
one thing to commit to doing something and another thing to see it through
especially when the pain begins and you know you have the option of walking
away instead of going through with it. Indeed from the story of Jesus, it is
apparent that destiny journeys are often lonely journeys which make them
tougher. Jesus circumstance was particularly bad because we are not told that
He was aware of any benefits that will accrue to Him as a result of His dying before
He accepted to die; He simply accepted to die for mankind and not for a name
above all other names and He already had an exalted potion because He was God.
Luke 14: 27 “And if
you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus story also affirms to me
that no one can travel this destiny fulfilling route with you to the very end
nor can anyone do it for you. If you are a crowd loving person, you just may
never make it. The people you are relying on were not there when you made the commitment;
they don’t understand it and may never understand or be committed to it. You
just can’t blame people because they would rather not help with carrying the
cross you have chosen to carry, no matter how close they are to you. Indeed
they may be carrying their own cross. The most one can expect from people
really close to them is that they do not try to frustrate your own effort to
keep your commitment. There is only so far anyone can go with you.
John 19: 17
“Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of Skull (in
Hebrew, Golgotha)”
So as Jesus started His journey
to the cross, He went to the Mount of Olives with His disciples to pray. The
bible says it was something they did often; but on this particular occasion,
Jesus knew He had a burden that His disciples did not have and so He left them behind
to pray by Himself. He was about to begin a journey to fulfill a commitment He made
and He had to go it alone. We must like Jesus, sometimes, recognize that it is
not another’s price to pay and not even your spouse. You have to recognize that
you are different and that your responsibilities are different so that you will
have to go a little further to pray. We must know when to withdraw from the
others if we must fulfill our destiny.
No comments:
Post a Comment