4-18-2014

Good Morning All,

       Matthew 26:39; “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

    Today is Good Friday.  It is one of the five important holidays of the Church.  Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost are those most holy days.  A close runner up would be the holy day of Maundy Thursday.  This is the day when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and it is the day that Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane and prayed.  In our verse we have a portion of the prayer that he prayed and this portion he prayed three times.  This is the portion that caused him to sweat like drops of blood.  This was the hard part of the prayer.  The hard part was “the cup”

     “The cup” referred to here is the same cup that is referred to in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and in Revelations.  This cup is the cup of God’s wrath.  It represents the entire amount of God’s holy and righteous anger at sin.  It represents the full and complete outpouring of God’s judgment for all the sins ever committed and it was all directed at one man- Jesus.  Now Jesus knew exactly what this constituted and the human nature of him didn’t want to die.  So he prayed and prayed and prayed.  “Please Father, remove this cup if possible, but not my will but your will be done.”

    Jesus knew God’s wrath and he experienced that wrath as he hung on the cross.  As Jesus hung on that cross for all those hours, the full unmitigated wrath of God poured out upon him.  So what does the full wrath of God look like?  We may think in terms of volcanoes or earthquakes or great storms.  Maybe we think in terms of plagues of frogs or worms or something like this.  Actually the full wrath of God can be described in one word and that word is hell.  The entire wrath of God is seen in the abandonment of man by God into hell.  This is why Jesus exclaimed, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  At that time, the full wrath of God was upon him and he was abandoned by God.  The amazing thing is that he did this because of his love for you.

    This is a love that we cannot imagine.  Yet, it was love that motivated him to do this.  He died for you, and not just died but suffered greatly for you, all out of love.  So if he did this for you, out of love, you can be sure that he will also do all good things for you out of love.  Paul asks the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”  The truth is that God will give you all good things the most important is life eternal with him.  This we can trust and this we can rejoice in.

Father of all good things, through your amazing mercy you sent Jesus to be forsaken so that we are not.  Guide us by your grace to hold onto the wonderful promise of eternal life and the wondrous blessing of new life.  In the name of Jesus our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret