Pain to Purpose Devotional - DAY 38
Week 6: Jesus & The Early Church
SCRIPTURE:
1 John 2:17 (NIV)
“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
Hebrews 10:36 (NIV)
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what is promised.”
DEVO:
I remember how difficult it was to accept the cup I had been given early in the days of grief when I lost my wife Amanda. We had moved our entire lives to a new place to plant a church with a dream to reach people for Christ and to impact the city in which we were living and yet I found myself in the middle of the greatest nightmare I could have never imagined. It was hard to reconcile the fact that in a way my pain came after following God’s call on our lives. I of course would have never chosen this path for myself or my family, yet it was the one God had us on. I know it is so easy in the midst of pain to want to quit, to tell God that you’re no longer willing to continue on in the assignment He has for you. I know I felt that way at times when my will for our lives did not match up with the plan God was unfolding and I’m sure Jesus was tempted to feel that as well.
More than once during Jesus’ ministry he made the statement that He only does what His Father asks Him to do. More than once we see His resolve to carry out the mission and purpose for which He was sent. However, there is one occasion we get a glimpse into his own internal struggle with His Father’s will. This moment occurs when Jesus retreats to a garden called Gethsemane in the final hours of his life. It was there, at the foot of Mount Olives, that Christ would go with three of His disciples hoping to get alone with God and see if there was any other way to save humanity from their sin other than what He knew He must endure.
Scripture tells us that Jesus became deeply distressed and troubled at this moment. Some scholarly translations suggest that perhaps Jesus saw something that caused a great deal of emotional turmoil. So much so that according to Luke, a doctor, Jesus began to sweat blood. It is a condition called hematidrosis that is brought on by such extreme stress that blood vessels under the skin begin to rupture and instead of sweat, blood leaks out of the skin. As a result of this condition, Jesus’ skin would become extremely tender and even more sensitive to pain.
What could have caused such an intense reaction? Some believe that it was at this time that the Father had begun to turn away from Christ and Jesus knew what was to come as the weight of the world’s sin would rest upon Him.
The physical pain Christ would have to endure is beyond what we could imagine. He would have first been beaten with 39 lashes on his back. According to Roman research (and I’m sure from experience) a 40 lashes were believed to kill you. 39 would bring you to the brink of death, and leave your body barely hanging on. While the blood was still fresh, a robe would be placed on Jesus so that when it dried and the robe was later removed, it would rip open the now coagulated wounds. The crown of thorns placed on Him would have coincided at a point when, as another side-effect of the hematidrosis, His head would have been throbbing with a debilitating migraine.
The nails driven into His wrists to fasten him to the cross would sever a cluster of nerves sending searing pain through his entire body. On top of all of this, his sleep deprivation, dehydration and hunger, would make every ache intensified. Victims of crucifixion wouldn’t die because of blood loss or pain, they would die of asphyxiation. Jesus would suffer the same. Every so often he would use every ounce of strength he had to push himself up off the nails in his feet in order to catch His breath. Jagged grooves were cut into the cross where Jesus’ back would rest so that everytime he pushed up, the grooves would scrape off his back whatever skin he had left. Once He was no longer able to sustain maneuver, His lungs would begin to fill with fluid and eventually His heart would fail. I wonder how many times during his young adult years Jesus witnessed someone being executed by these means. Perhaps in the garden Jesus saw all of this as a foreboding glimpse of what was to come.
Let’s go back to the garden for a moment. It was here in his greatest tension, that Jesus began to pray:
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” Matthew 26:39 NIV
From the beginning Jesus knew His purpose and mission and yet He asked the Lord if there was another way to accomplish the end result. He understood the crushing pain He was about to endure, the pain of bearing the punishment that we deserved while being separated from the love and care of His Father.
So often we too are asking God for another way to accomplish His purposes. So often we are distressed at the thought of how God may allow pain in our lives in order to fulfill His ultimate goal for us. And while the Lord is always willing to hear our pleas for whatever cup we are facing to pass, He also reserves the right to allow our story to unfold in such a way He sees as best.
The truth is most of us probably wouldn’t have chosen our pain. We would have loved to learn the lessons our ache has taught us through another method. We would have wanted to have our relationship deepen with God through another set of circumstances. And for some, we are still shaking our fist at heaven, angry at the way our lives have gone.
While Jesus pleaded for another way, for a way in which He wouldn’t have to bear the pain He endured and feel the ache of abandonment, He still chose to submit Himself under God’s will. He still chose to allow God’s plan to unfold, even when He knew what it would mean for Him.
Scripture tells us, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV). While Jesus asked for another way to fulfill the will of God, it was the delight on the other side of it that allowed Him to joyfully endure so much pain on our behalf. It was knowing the outcome of all that He would endure that propelled Him forward when anyone else would have chosen to run and hide.
And why did He do it? Why did He choose pain and surrender His own will to that of God’s?
So that you and I could experience healing. He did it so that even though our lives may be riddled with our own hurt, that pain would be short-lived when compared to the eternity with God that awaits us in Heaven. It was through Christ’s own trauma that we would experience resurrection and healing, both in our current circumstances and for eternity.
I know there are times when it seems like our will and the will of the Father don’t align. But if there is anything we can learn from Christ in those moments, it is the power of surrendering our will, our desires, our estimation of what is best and allow God to do with our pain what He will. It is not easy to open your hands when you just want to grab hold of your way, but it is there, in the surrender, that we can see God’s incredible plan for our lives unfold.
It is because of Christ’s acquiescence to God’s will that we get to experience a relationship with The Father. It is because Christ opened His hands to whatever God had for Him that we get to enjoy salvation. It is because of Jesus’ pain and death that we can be healed. Even when our will doesn’t seem to align with God. Or better yet, especially when it doesn’t. Let the tension between your will and God’s, remind you that even here, Christ understands and because of His work on the cross, you will never walk alone in whatever you are facing.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND JOURNALING:
What cup have you been given? In what ways have you wanted God to take that cup from you?
How does thinking about the pain Jesus endured on your behalf so that the pain of this world would be but a memory help you right now?
Do you feel like God’s will and yours don’t align right now? In what ways is God asking you to surrender your will to His?
PRAYER:
Father, right now it feels as though the will I had for my life and the will you have do not align. There are things I wish I didn’t have to endure, pains I wish you could take away and teach me the lessons you have through other methods. Help me to open my hands in surrender in those places where my desires don’t match the path you have for me. Let me learn from Jesus how to handle those moments where my circumstances don’t align with what I would wish for my life. Remind me of your presence every step of the way, Amen.
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