August 6, 2023

Human Frailty

 

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’”  John 12:27-28 (NASB)

            “Terrified,” is a word some understand completely. It invokes a permanent memory. My memory was from a drunk driver who broadsided our vehicle one night. Both my wife, and our children were in our Jeep headed home. When we were struck, our Jeep rolled over several times. When It came to rest, I looked back to check on the children, after looking over to my wife. “Terrified,” is the only emotion which comes to mind even today. Both children were no longer in the vehicle. They were thrown clear, but “Where were they?” Jesus too, was “troubled.” One definition of this word is “terrified.” I did not expect it. Jesus knew it was coming though.

            “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” The conversation Jesus has is not with those who were with Him. It was with the Father. Yet all could hear. They were granted a glimpse of what was transpiring in Jesus’ soul. His agony was the shadow of death which began to envelope Him. Lenski says it well, “The curse and damnation of that guilt was to strike him and to crush out his life. All the dreadfulness of this impending death was fully revealed to him he saw all that was awaiting him. Moreover, he was going into his death voluntarily. No power compelled him, save his own will, which was one with that of his Father. He was free even now to withdraw from that death. But since the hour has come, the act of sacrifice is about to begin, the frightfulness, the utter horror, the inconceivable dreadfulness of death came over the soul of Jesus. All that was human in him recoiled from the rending ordeal, just as our body, to use a weak comparison, shrinks from some painful contact and quivers when it begins yet submits and endures, no matter what the pain, held to the agony by the power of the will. The sinless, holy Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son, was to stoop beneath the damning guilt of the world and by his own death as a man to expiate that guilt. Thus was his soul shaken in this hour.”[1] The journey Jesus prepared for had come. Reality set in. “Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  Instantly, a voice came from heaven; the voice of God. The Father answered the Son. Jesus had faith in His Father’s plan, unlike Paul who heard the voice of God on the road to Damascus. Jesus’ earthly body would struggle until the day He died, but His will was unchanged. Fear would not win, and He would do the Father’s will.

            I cannot imagine a fear like this. Most fear hits us because we are caught by surprise. We do not expect it, just like our car accident. Two seconds before, I was oblivious. Then it happened. For Jesus, He knew what was coming. He knew the plan. He knew the pain, and He would face it alone when the Father placed the sin of the world upon Him. I do not think we understand today what Jesus went through for each of us in His death. He foreknew the pain and fear that was coming. I never saw it coming, so I was allowed some shock, to deafen the blow. His foreknowledge of His death was now a reality before Him. Today, let us be eternally grateful for His substitutionary death, and for His resurrection which allows us to not fear death!

[1] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The interpretation of St. John’s gospel (p. 869). Augsburg Publishing House.