JESUS PREDICTS HIS DEATH
John
12: 27-28 Now
my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No,
it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your
name!
Never forget the humanity of Christ. Yes he was the
Son of God, divine in his nature. But he was also a bearer of the human
condition. His human nature allowed him to experience life as we do. He felt
physical pain. He experienced the sadness and sorrow over someone who died. His
cleansing of the Temple reflected the frustration and anger for his Father’s
house to be defiled. He knew the confusion that circumstances can bring us as
we see in this passage and his praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now where
do we find his reflection of the human condition which is not true or beyond
what all people experience and share in this fallen world.
The sole difference in Christ’s humanity and ours is
that he was without sin. When we experience life, circumstances, threats,
frustration, fear and anxiety; we will not always respond righteously. That is,
we may respond to others and to God from our sinful nature. We will doubt God.
We will claim him to be unjust toward us and others. We will directly disobey
his commands and his plans for our lives. But Jesus never did. He became
troubled, anguished and overwhelmed with sorrow yet submitted to God’s plan for
him and the Cross. Only doing the Father’s will is what Jesus chose to do. He
made the right decision and took the righteous road. He did not sin, he did not
obey the Father.
His obedience in a time of deep anguish and
monumental significance he did not falter. In obediently going to the Cross and
dying, he has secured for us the freedom from sin’s punishment on us. By his
sacrifice of himself we are freed from suffering a similar fate. Having obeyed
the Father we will share in the benefits that his victory has won from Satan.
He blesses us with freedom from the enslavement to sin. He blesses us with his
presence in the Holy Spirit. He blesses us with the hope that we will one day
spend eternity in his presence. Never forget that we have overcome our own
human nature because of the divine nature, Holy Spirit, that indwells us today.