Remember His Suffering

Remember His Suffering

Rev. Joseph Lai

Every year when we come to this time near the Easter the Resurrection Day, we are often faced with complicated feelings. On one hand we are ready for the excitement to celebrate Resurrection to once again recharge ourselves with this marvelous truth that the same resurrection power that was exerted toward Jesus to raise him from the dead is the same power that has been put to work in all of His followers.

We have been raised to carry Life of the God kind and the power of the God kind. And yet, while we are ready to celebrate all that, at the same time we also remember His Death and His suffering. The lamb of the Passover that was slain. The sacrifice he suffered for us. Many Christians today no longer observe the Good Friday, but yes, there is much to remember. Especially when you realize that the main purpose of Jesus establishing the communion was for us to remember Him.

As the Scripture was written: And He took bread and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me." (Luk 22:19-20)

So let us remember Him, as much as Jesus has said “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Remember how he gave himself away, how he allowed his body to be tortured to be pierced. So let us take some time to remember Him, remember the cup of suffering he took for us.

Ps 103 says “forget not all of His benefits”, and the word of God went on to list all the benefits of God’s redemption. And those benefits were purchased for you at a huge price. Today many Christians all too often forget some of the benefits. Well, we often would remember the benefit of the forgiveness of sin, but most of the time we forget about the rest of the benefits. Sometimes I wonder if we would remember what heavy price was paid in order for us to have all that benefits, if we would see the sacrifice Jesus made in order that God can heal you, in order that God can satisfy your mouth with good things, in order that you may be delivered from the pit, perhaps we will begin to treasure each and every one of all those benefits.

Today I want you to remember how he had suffered for you. Go back to the night that he was arrested and taken by the soldiers. Look at how the story began. Mat 26:36 Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. Luke 22:39 “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed...” The bible emphasized that it was almost like a routine of his habit on that final week that he would choose to go out to the Mount of Olives at night time each and every night. That is how Judas knew exactly where Jesus was that he could guide the soldiers to arrest him.

Luke 21:37 made a point to let you know that’s what Jesus did everyday, in the daytime he would teach at the temple and at night he would come out to the Mount of Olives.

Why choose Mount of Olives? Why Gethsemane? It is not far from the town but it is not a short walk either. You would think that with all the busy work to do during the day, he must be tired at night, but he still chose to walk at least 30 – 40 minutes to come out to this place. Why? Why Gethsemane?

For what we know, Gethsemane is a place that produces Olive Oil; there was an Olive Oil factory. It is a place where Olives were being crushed and pressed to produce Olive Oil. Do you see the significance here?

At a time when Olive Oil was commonly used for a variety of basic life necessities. You would have Olive Oil as a base for herbal medicine to make medicated oil that it provides healing for you. People used Olive Oil to make soap, as a general cleansing detergent. Then Olive Oil was also used for cooking and baking. It was a daily item for food products.

Then you would also need Olive Oil to fuel your oil lamp that you may have light. That was still a time in which people who could not afford to light a lamp at night are considered the poor. They lived in darkness the whole night. Olive Oil was needed for healing, for food, for soap, for fueling the lamp to give light.

How do you get Olive Oil? You have to take the fresh Olive and crush it. If Olive was not crushed, no oil can be poured out. So if you would walk with Jesus to the Mount of Olives, if you would be one of the disciples following him to the Garden of Gethsemane, that was a place where Olives were being pressed and crushed, and you would see the Olives lying around all over the place, after being crushed and trampled.