by Pastor Mark Shupe
As we come to the day of the week that would be the last evening before Christ’s death on the cross, we look at the second way that Jesus modeled the same kind of love the disciples were to extend to one another. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus exemplifies the internal motive that underlies true love, a heart that is fully submitted to His heavenly Father.
The submissive heart of Jesus is clearly seen in the incredible prayer He prays to the Father. In His foreknowledge of the kind of death He was going to suffer (crucifixion), Jesus expresses these amazing words: And He (Jesus) was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:36)
Knowing that very evening all His disciples would flee and abandon Him, that He would be beaten, scourged and mocked by others, and that He would die by the cruelest death known to mankind, Jesus simply asks if there might be another way that would not require all that suffering. Underlying this honest request is a complete heart of submission to the Father’s will and plan.
Christ asks nothing more from us than what He modeled in the Garden – a loving heart that is fully submitted and surrendered to the heart of our Heavenly Father. That heart posture will truly lead to doing loving acts on behalf of others.
Please join us this evening, 7 pm at Cornerstone Church as we remember and reflect on the loving acts of Christ through music, words and a time of communion.
