Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Series Part 2-- A Dark Night in the Garden

… Jesus walked ahead alone, into the dark. He needed to talk to his heavenly Father.
He knew it was time for him to die. They had planned it long ago, he and his Father. Jesus was going to take the punishment for all the wrong things anybody had ever done, or ever would do.
“Papa! Father!” Jesus cried. And he fell to the ground.
“Is there any other way to get your children back? To heal their hearts? To get rid of the poison?”
But Jesus knew—there was no other way. Al the poison of sin was going to have to go into his own heart.

God was going to pour into Jesus’ heart all of the sadness and brokenness iun peoples’ hearts. He was going to pour into Jesus’ body all the sickness in peoples’ bodies. God was going to have to blame his son for everything that had gone wrong. It would crush Jesus.

But there was something else, something even more horrible. When People ran away from God, they lost God...not being close to God was like a punishment. Jesus was going to take that punishment.
Jesus knew what that meant. He was going to lose his Father—and that, Jesus knew, would break his heart in two.
Violent sobs shook Jesus’ whole body.
Then Jesus was quiet. Like a lamb. "I trust you, Papa,” he said. “Whatever you say, I will do.”

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