How did He accomplish it? With so much anguish, agony, pain, yet He found a place to forgive, to love, to sacrifice, to yield Himself to a cross that erroneously had a sarcastic label posted above him. "King of the Jews!"
Imagine the reality of Christ, on a cross, interceding for you and me.
My daughter showed me a post of someone having a discussion around Jesus' willingness to die on the cross. The discussion was focused on Jesus having a conversation with His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prayed to the Father that He would allow the cup of crucifixion to pass. In other words, Jesus was praying to the Father requesting that He not have to die on the cross and experience being crucified.
Jesus' response to the Father was, "Nevertheless thy will be done." It suggested that Jesus was only doing it because the Father willed it, but that He wasn't fully on board with the idea of dying.
Now, I want you to imagine what type of prayer you would have with the Father while having an internal battle. You are in love with the bride (Kingdom of God, Body of Christ, those who need salvation), but you are also aware of the next level of sacrifice that would require you to be beaten, bruised, betrayed, forsaken, and crucified on a cross where you carried the weight of the world's sins on your shoulders. What would your prayer look like?
Jesus' purpose, would require the highest level of demand of Him. I would refrain from theorizing that Jesus was only following orders and truly take into account the intensity of God’s will for Him. It was a heavy task. The level of stress that Jesus was under to offer up Himself as a living sacrifice was expensive.
With that being said, I probably would’ve asked the Father if there was another way.
Jesus did what no one else could do or would do! He sacrificed His life for mankind. For the joy that was set before Christ He endured the cross. Argue if you will about His intentions, but He didn't budge. He counted you and I as joy and He endured something horrendous to give us something we didn't deserve! That's what I call enduring love.
Pastor Tim
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