There is something so striking to me in this verse and it is something that I had not really thought about before: the humanity of Jesus. I have often viewed Jesus as the all powerful, all knowing and essentially impermeable fortress that strode boldly into the face of death knowing He would come out victorious. All those things are true of Him of course, but we rob him of a big part of what makes Jesus a personal savior and that was his humanity. He was fully God and fully man, which means He could do things that only God could do and yet he knew what it meant to be human. He knew the sting of suffering, the burden sadness and the natural desire to not want to suffer. He experienced the entire gamut of emotions, same as we do when we go through situations in our life.
Verse 38 Jesus says ‘I am overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Have you ever felt like that? A sorrow so deep that it envelopes and covers you with weighted darkness? So did Jesus. In that level of despair did you try and reach out for support, only to find that people were busy with themselves to be able to help you? Jesus has been there too.
He knew that he would be victorious, but staring at the path he would need to walk to get to that victory, the suffering and separation from His Father, that was enough for Him to double check. And it wasn’t lack of faith, Jesus knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who His Father was but his humanity called out for reassurance from His Father. So can we. God is not angered by our need for reassurance. That’s one of the reasons Jesus came and died, in order to give us the freedom and the ability to approach in such moments without fear or condemnation. He suffered a horrible death in order for us to have life and have it to the full (John 10:10). Let this Easter be the catalyst that will push us towards that fuller life.
by Kalesha Peters
