This one is lengthy, but if you enjoy a good theological plunge, that's what I'm feeling today…
"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (1) I'm afraid to open it since it becomes more powerful every time. I feel like I've never read it before. I think I know Jesus; but then…do I really? I've felt His love and experienced His restoration; but then…who is this Man who throws over temple tables and names leaders vipers and washes out all mankind but a few with a furious flood? And I tremble at the words in Genesis: "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."(2) And I recognize the beauty in His tender but avenging heart. His heart is broken by what happened to what He called good. His emotions are like ours and His heart can be broken, yet He endures.
"Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord…" And the story goes on. There's a covenant made and a rainbow given. A God who endures for us, who looks for someone faithful to make a covenant with. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob… He would bless the nations through them.
Jesus comes to His house and shows His power as the Son of God by healing the sick and raising the dead. Yes! This is Him! The One who would save the nations from their sins! The one the prophets said was coming and who would fulfill the covenant to Abraham! The Garden. It was perfect. It was God's gift to man, and He walked there with them. To return there. Humans despised His gift with an ungrateful heart, taking from the one forbidden tree. They had a whole garden to choose from, and only one that they weren't allowed to eat from. So they lusted after it. We all did. We said that the good God had given just wasn't enough. Jesus entered this, rolling up His sleeves and coming down to wash the feet thick with feces from places we should not have walked.
"Lord!" said a man in the streets, "have mercy on my son for he is a lunatic and is very ill…I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him." And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. (3) I wonder if Jesus stepped back then, wiping the sweat from His forehead in Mid-eastern heat, and thought, "This demon…these demons…they're the fruit of that tree." And with that, His heart would be encouraged to endure the cross. For you and me.
The world accuses this Man of being unloving, angry. He has emotions like us. But love is vindicated by actions, and Jesus endured to show this. And more so, to physically and emotionally take back our knowledge of good and evil, even giving us authority and putting the sword in our hands to remove the darkness from the earth. His Kingdom! He loved to talk about that. It had arrived, and He was the King who would set the precedent for all mankind: He would lay down His life. Drop by drop, pierce by pierce, lash by lash. Exposed. Yes, and He even took our shame of molestation. He was bare in the eyes of all who looked at Him. God was. "Jesus…for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame…" (4)
So Jesus in His wisdom finds a garden to pray in. From a garden His children were taken, so from a garden He would purchase them back. On His back. With scars. Satan took out the children from Eden by the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, and now he comes to Gethsemane to take out the very Tree of Life. Jesus calls no angels to guard Him. He goes. Drops off sweat from His brow so fervent they turn to blood. (5)
"While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:6-10)
And as Jesus ascended to Heaven, He sent His disciples out and said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (6) He promised to send the Helper to be with us. "Co", which means "together", begins our name for the Great Commission, as Jesus sent us out but is still together with us. He reconciled us to Himself. Now we have come to His Garden and into His Kingdom, and it's because He endured such emotional pain for us.
