“Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me! Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”
– Mark 14:36
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”
– 1 Corinthians 15:20
[The following is offered as an Easter Thought and Meditation. It comes from the revelation of Scripture through the written Word of God. It is interpreted by a man, however, and is not Scripture. My prayer always, is that you will use my understandings to study Scripture for yourself.]
The cup that Jesus pleaded to have removed included sacrificing His own life on earth. He would be falsely arrested, shifted around the city from tyrant to tyrant, tried in a court of corrupted public opinion, beaten severely, humiliated in public, mocked and insulted, and nailed to a cross. I think we all know that.
Worse still, and through it all, this man named Jesus knew He would bear the hideous guilt, shame and consequence of murder, rape, adultery, theft, and every evil known to all of us combined. He would be separated from the love of God, His Father, and forced into the grave and Hell itself.
God in flesh, separated from God, the Father, and God, the Holy Spirit. What does that even mean to us? We may not understand, but we can know. We can know that God is One, must be One, and can only be One. (See God Stuff 101 on www.Godsgov.space) Separation means the only choice that the man Jesus had was perfect obedience to His Father’s perfect will. Obedience to suffering, obedience to bearing shame and guilt, obedience to death and Hell itself. It means that Jesus was willing and able to enter hell, break the bonds of hell, and exit hell, with only His human will and knowledge of His Father, without His link to His own throne. He had no power from His throne except as the power of God built into His humanity. The new Adam, willing to serve and able to overcome temptation.
Jesus had to renew mankind by becoming the new Mankind. He had to start the human race from scratch, to become the first fruit of the New Creation. Even more, He did all of this with our sin in hand, in mind, and in heart. In human terms, he “reset the countdown clock” and literally wiped away the burden of sin before the throne of His Father, while still in that original state of knowing God, but not seeing or hearing or feeling God. Separated from God.
And this He did, for you and for me. For this very reason alone, we as Christians celebrate Easter. May yours be truly blessed.