Life and teachings of Jesus
24/07/2020
Day 11 Matthew 26 v 1 - 75
This passage speaks about a couple of events and it would be difficult to address all of them.
One could almost sense the tense atmosphere in the garden of Gethsemane and how quickly things escalated to the point where Jesus was arrested.
His soul grieved deeply, even “to the point of death” (vers 38), while He asked the Father if this cup [of suffering] could pass Him by, for He was fully aware of what would happen next. He prayed fervently, asking this three times of the Father and while He was sweating blood (Luke 22 v 44), the disciples were sleeping, not a worry in the world, or so it seemed. Perhaps we would have done the same…
Everything played out like a movie scene. Jesus knew it would happen this way and the scenes with their various role players, unfolded just as it was foretold and for this reason He did not retaliate, so the scriptures might be fulfilled.
Jesus had to die. This was the plan for salvation all along and even when they couldn’t find anything to accuse Him of, they knew that if He answered affirmative to the question of whether He is the Christ, “the Son of God”, He would be guilty of blasphemy, for which the penalty is death.
Peter, who walked with Jesus swore that he would remain faithful, and when asked three times if He was not the one who followed Jesus, he denied it all three times before the rooster crowed, just as Jesus predicted. How many times have you and I probably denied Jesus and didn’t lose a night’s sleep over it.
Jesus said if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before the Father. Peter went out and wept bitterly, knowing what He had done. I believe God’s grace is abundant and that Peter had been forgiven because of His broken heart and love for the Lord Jesus and that Jesus referred to a lifestyle whereby you deny His existence.
Any sins can be forgiven, accept for those clearly stated in the Scriptures, such as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. There is nothing we have done or will do (besides the above), that Jesus did not die for. He didn’t just die for hard core sins, deserving death, from a worldly perspective, that is, because we feel we are not as bad as some people…
He died for mankind, period. For all have fallen short of the glory of God and we all deserve to die on that cross. Thanks be to God for the lengths He went to, to save us from certain death.
