It Never Crossed His Mind Again

IT NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND AGAIN

TEXT: HEBREWS 12:1-3

INTRODUCTION:

We are told to “consider” Jesus, Who “endured the cross” and despised “the shame.” He endured the shame because of, “the joy that was set before Him.” He is the beginner and finisher of our faith. He walked the way of faith first for us, and brought it to completion, looking forward to the joy that awaited Him in fulfilling the Father’s will. Although Jesus was and is fully God, He was and is fully man. He can feel what we feel because, as the Word says, He was “…in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). We are going to look at how His faith was tested, but He did not sin – not even one time.

At the beginning of His ministry, the devil tempted Him to use His powers selfishly to turn stones into bread. He tempted Him to draw attention to Himself by leaping off the Temple. In the third test, the devil asked Him to worship him rather than God. But Jesus answered him with the bare Word of God, saying, “It is written,” and quoted scripture. In the wilderness, He was tempted regarding His Godhood. In the Garden, He was tempted in His manhood. The faith of Jesus, the man, was tested in the Garden.

There in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus faced what I believe was His greatest temptation. He was struggling with the fact that for a time He would have to GIVE UP, or at least restrain part of His power. He Who had all power in heaven and earth – Who was one with the Father, would not face a struggle from outside this time by the tempting of the devil, but a struggle from within Himself – His humanity would have to struggle with His divinity, and He would have to do it by faith!

He had been born and lived as a human, but He had never experienced physical torture and death. And on the cross, He experienced His greatest trial, when for a time the Father turned His back on Him, and He lost connection with His heavenly Father. I had always focused on the fact that Jesus didn’t want to drink the cup of sin – that He would have all the sins ever committed or that ever would be committed poured on Him. Yes. That is a true and awful reality. But I’d never looked at the fact, that as a man, He didn’t want to go through all the pain and suffering, and the cross. He knew what He was facing because He inspired the authors who prophesied His sufferings.

All four Gospels tell us Jesus asked the Father to take the cup of sin and physical suffering from Him. Mark 14:34-36 says: “Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass from Him. “Abba, Father,” He said, “Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Matt. 26:37-39, says, “He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”

“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.” Luke 22 says Jesus was “in agony.” The Greek word means, “severe mental struggles and emotions.” Yet even AFTER an angel came from heaven to strengthen Him, “His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.”

This is a rare medical phenomenon called hematidrosis, or bloody sweat. Jesus was under severe emotional distress as He struggled in prayer, trying in this manhood to find another way to get out of what He faced. Under that great burden, He prayed so hard that the capillaries under the skin broke releasing blood. As the sweat poured off Him, it mixed with the blood, falling in great drops to the ground. In His humanity, He did not want to go through what He knew was coming.

There is a prophecy in Isaiah 50:6-8 that I think portrays the mindset of Jesus after His Garden prayer. Looking ahead in time, Isaiah writes, “I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.” When He got up from His third prayer His face was set like a flint. His manhood had struggled with sin, but He overcame it by faith, and prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” He turned toward Jerusalem and the suffering that awaited Him. (Luke 9:51).