Selfless Faith

In Matthew 26:37, Then Jesus said the disciples, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”

Pain and tragedy are the most difficult aspects of this life we have to deal with. It tests what we are really made of. They either prove how much faith we have or that we never had faith at all. I believe death was the toughest obstacle Jesus ever had to face. We being human, as much as we try not to think about death, we know we are all destined to die at an appointed date. However, in the case of Jesus, He being the infinite God who lives eternally did not have to taste death and should not have had to either. If there was any pride in Jesus, it would come out now. I’m certain the devil was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to catch Jesus with His guard down to destroy Him. Even my own pride, just like with the disciples’ pride, I couldn’t understand how Jesus, the Holy One of God, would have to die such a wicked and horrible death. When Jesus told the disciples of His death, Peter’s response was (and I’m paraphrasing), “No way, Lord! I think you’re crazy!” However, if we reference back to Isaiah 64:4, God having infinite power and wisdom was planning something that “no eye had seen and no ears had heard” and Paul adds in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “for those who love God.” Praise the Lord for our sake now that death is just a stepping stone into eternity!

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In Matthew 26:37, Jesus took with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) with Him further into the garden and began to be grieved and distressed.

We tend to lose sight of the fact that Jesus Christ was also a human being made of flesh and blood just as we are. He had the same heart that pumps blood, the bodily organs, emotions, thoughts, and feelings that we have. He was not a robot or a computer programmed to turn on and off or say things at a certain time. The cross was not easy to endure. It was not an easy option to choose and even harder choice to go through with it. Have you ever been accused of doing something that you did not do? I hate taking the blame for something that I did not do. It is hard enough to take responsibility of what I actually did. What separates Jesus from mere man is while in His humanity He was distressed over the fact He would be judged as a sinner although He NEVER sinned, in His deity, she showed why and how He is the true and the living God , the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end by never deterring from the path of the cross. He stayed on the cross, crucified, embarrassed, ashamed and forsaken in His flesh, being made a curse so we could be blessed forever. People seem to say “Jesus Christ” as a curse word. Ever wonder why? To me, it seems that His work on the cross is so powerful that it has become a curse to them who refuse to believe and trust in His Holy name. We can talk a good a good game but Jesus has already played the game and He is victorious and He has extended his victory to us as well.

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In Matthew 26:36, Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

A lot of people want to do something for God. They jump at every opportunity to be involved in any activity available. Jesus told His disciples to sit in a particular spot while He went up to pray. That would not work well for many of us today. We just need something to do. Sometimes God really wants us to sit, reflect, meditate, and pray while He is working on our behalf. Jesus was going to pray for strength as He was heading to the cross for our sake. I believe Jesus asked them to just sit there and wait on Him as there was nothing else they could do. Everything else was left up to Jesus and His miraculous and gracious work on the cross. Our salvation was in the hands of Jesus based on whether He would stay on course and go willingly to the cross or whether He would give up and run. Many people think they can work on being good people to make it to heaven without Jesus Christ. If it was left to us, we would be in a world of trouble (as if this one is not bad enough). As we have seen, there is nothing God wants us to do for our salvation. It is His completed work. We just have to sit, believe, and know that it has already been accomplished.

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In Matthew 26:35, Peter says to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too.

Saying these kind of statements sound really good when we are hanging out with friends having a good time eating food and drinking whatever the preferred choice of beverage is. We are safe from the trials and tribulations of this world at those moments. Imagine how many people who consider themselves to be very patriotic can easily say they will never betray their country at any cost. However, when captured, whether being tortured or being offered the right amount of money, with an unguarded heart, anything can happen. Matthew tells us a part that we often over look. We like to ridicule Peter for denying Jesus after saying he never would deny Christ, but all the disciples were in agreement with Peter’s statement and they all fled when Jesus was captured. We like to look at our brothers and sisters in Christ and judge them based on their shortcomings. We all have fallen short of the glory of God. We like to expose the obvious mistakes of others but there is something much better we can do. Instead of living our lives to judge and point out all the faults of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should work on opening our own eyes to see that Jesus didn’t only die for our shortcomings, but also the shortcomings of our brothers and sisters. As hard as it is to believe, we are no better than anyone else. It is time that we uncross our judging arms and open them to embrace and encourage one another with the loving heart of Jesus Christ.

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In Matthew 26:34, Jesus responds to Peter, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

We may believe that our relationship with God is very strong (maybe stronger than everybody else’s) but God truly knows what is in our hearts. We often deceive ourselves by thinking we are stronger than we really are. We can pridefully say in our flesh that we will never deny Jesus IF we were ever placed in a certain situation. Many people ridicule Peter for denying Jesus three times. I would hate to estimate how many times we might have denied Christ if we walked with Him in the three year span that Peter did. At least in Peter’s case there was the threat of imminent danger. Here in the United States, what danger do we really have that leads us to deny Jesus? Usually, it comes from the fear of ridicule from our peers who are very “intellectual” and we know that they will laugh at our faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus already knows what we are capable of. After all, He died to save us from what we are capable of. As Jesus had it numbered how many times Peter would deny Him, He also has it numbered how many times we will deny Him too. However, the wonderful part is He loves us anyways. What do we to do at this point? We must continue to pray that we have been strengthened, we are being strengthened, and we will be strengthened in the day of adversity.

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