The Disciple and The Crucifixion Of Christ. Part Three.

We are going to look at the agonies of the crucifixion . In the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:36-40, we find that Jesus was alone in His moment of greatest need. There was no one with him when he needed prayer most. There was no one with Him when He needed the support of His friends.

When He asked the three disciples that He considered the inner circle to watch and pray with Him, they slept, and He was compelled to say.

“Cant you even watch with Me for one hour”.

He said it but they kept on sleeping.

In Luke 22:24, the Bible told us that while He was praying in the garden, He was sweating, and it was not an ordinary sweat. The sweat was like drop of bloods.

It was a terrible moment. In the same Matt. 26:48-49, Judas Iscariot added an insult to the injury when he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ with a kiss. He showed the worst that a human being can be to a friend in the time of his greatest need. A kiss is reserved for someone you love. When your friend now hands you over to the enemy with a kiss, it is a terrible thing.

You need to put yourself in that situation to get a little bit of the agony of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane . In Mark 14:46 and 50, the Bible records for us that when the soldiers came to take the LORD away, everyone of His friends deserted him. He looked and there was no one to stand by Him, not a single one. They all deserted Him.

And then come the terrible story in Mark 14:66-72, that terrible story where Peter , a very close friend , said to the hearing of Jesus Christ, “I dont know Him”. He did not say it once, he did not say it twice, he said it three times. “I dont know this man”.You can put yourself in the situation. This is a friend that you have been eating with , sleeping with for three years, the one that you regard as your right hand man. Then he goes as far as to say, “I have never even met him”. You will know how painful that Jesus Christ had already gone through, you would know that the physical agony must have been very little compared to these ones.

In Mark 15:15, the Bible explains to us how they scourged Him, and in those days , scourging was a terrible thing because they did not use ordinary whips. The whip had hooks at the ends. Each time it is used to beat a person, the whip goes into the skin and it pulls out the flesh. Many weak people die while they are being caned.

In Matt. 27:27-31, the Bible tells us about the crown of thorns . TRhe crown of thorns was forced on Him when it would not go in easily.

But that was not even all, they mocked him saying, “Hey, look at the King. Look at the one who called Himself King, All these were done before they even led Him to be crucified.

In Matt. 27:33-43, the Bible gave us a detailed story about His crucifixion. It tells us in details how they crucified Him. It tells us about the painful process . Then when He got on the cross, He had been bearing all these pains. He had not seen anything. He did not open His mouth when they were scourging Him, He did not cry for Help.

When they were forcing the crown of thorns on His head, He did not cry out for help. When they were slapping Him and spitting on Him, He did not complain, but when He got to the Cross, the agony of thirst was too much to bear. He had to cry out in John 19:28-30 saying,

“I thirst”.

It was as if he was saying , “Alright, I know you are going to kill me. Cant you give me some water to drink? And what did they do? They gave him vinegar instead of water. They wanted to add to His pain . In all these, he was still enduring. But then in Mark 15:33-34 came the climax of the agony, when He carried your sin and my sin on the Cross before the Bible said,

“The eyes of the Lord is too holy to behold sin”.

The Father turned away from the Son. The desertion of His friends He could bear, the kiss of the betrayer was okay, because all these people were human beings anyway. But when God himself turned His back to him, you can imagine the cry of agony. He had to say,

“My God, My God, why has thou forsaken Me.”

But he bore it all and as Luke 23:24 tells us, He kept on praying till the end saying,

“Father , forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Why am I telling you all these as Year 10 disciples? I know you know the story ., You can probably tell even better than I could, but telling it is not the same as putting yourself in the same situation. Try and live through the experience yourself. If you are a husband, let us assume that it is your wife that betrayed you along these lines. Try and think that it is your children who deserted you when trouble came calling. Maybe you will understand a little if you are a wife and you put yourself in a position that all these things are happening to you through your husband and that would lead to just one appeal.

The rest of the world might want to crucify Him the second time, but you as His disciples must ressolve from this hour that you would not crucify Him again. In Hebrews 6:4-6, the Bible says that those who have tasted this Lord, who have found him so good, if they backslide , it would be difficult, it would be impossible to restore them, because they are crucifying the Lord to themselves a second time, putting Him to an open shame. That is, if it is ever said that someone who had been a disciple up to Year 10 should backslide, what do you think the world would say about our Lord?

Remember according to John 15:13 that he went through all that He did the first time only because of you. He said,

“Greater love has no man than these that a man laid down his life for his friends.”

And you are the friends that He is talking about.

I want you to talk to the LORD for a moment and pray that you would never put Him to an open shame again.

Talk to the LORD.

Action Point

PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We would appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

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