So, how are we doing? Here’s what our family’s week of reading, studying, discussing, and praying has looked like so far… well, the Sum-up anyway. We realized, as you may have, that in order to truly consider Christ’s week we needed to read what led up to John 18. We read how Christ prayed crying and sweating blood. We heard His request to the Father, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Here is something that is often misrepresented. Christ was not asking to be spared the torture and suffering that He came to take on our behalf. The tears and the blood as He talked with the Father were about this moment, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In order to set right the wrong that Adam had cursed humanity with, Christ had to reverse the process. Which means, before He could restore our relationship with the Father, Christ must first endure separation Himself. This was a prospect beyond our ability to comprehend. Even knowing there was no other way, He expressed that sorrow. Later, just before “it is finished,” we heard the cry of grief at that separation! This understanding is confirmed when Christ confronted Peter for cutting off the man’s ear, saying, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”
We talked about what it must have been like knowing that Judas, someone with whom He had eaten, walked, and slept, was going to betray Him. Even though Christ knew this before it happened, do you think it did not break the heart of a loving Savior? Knowing Judas’ acts would begin the process for which He came would not have made it any easier when Judas left to gather the forces that would arrest Him. When Judas returned to act out this betrayal in such an intimate way, it caused Christ to respond with, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
OK, now John 18:13-18. Read, study, discuss, and pray. Remember, this is More Than Just A Thought… This is Action. (“In” Not “Of” – 4/2//21)
#Easter #EasterSunday #GoodFriday #Christfollowers #Christianliving #Crucifixion #John18 #PursuitofCharacter #ImproveLife #JustaThought
© Scott A Caughel 3/30/2021