#710 Final Faithfulness According to the Will of the Father
These thoughts fill me with awe and admiration for our dear Savior. They are suggestions put into a dramatic form for the purpose of entering more personally into the final sufferings of our Precious Savior. Here is a background summary of some of his experiences from Gethsemane to the cross.
‘The evening of overwhelming emotion, the night of sleepless anxiety and suffering, the three trials and three sentences of death he received before the Jewish officials, the endless scene before Pilate, then Herod, the mockings and the beatings, then the final verdict of the people and the final scourging had totally sapped Jesus of his physical strength. (Ferrar 634) Jesus was utterly exhausted as he staggered beneath the weight of sin’s cruelty which had been placed on his shoulders. The greatest weight had been placed on his heart. The people who hemmed him in and stared and hurled insults were his people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He recognized many faces. Some he had healed, some had followed him, some had hailed him a king just a short time ago when he had entered Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt. Many more had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to observe the Holy Passover. He sensed the oppressive darkness in their lives, a separation from God that made some crazy in their hunger and some easily lead in their blindness. He sensed the fear and the engulfing confusion of those who had seen his miracles and believed him to be the Messiah. He read their nobility and he read their depravity. ‘For this cause I came into the world, to open the eyes of the blind,’ he uttered in prayer to his Father.
Jesus was stripped of his clothing and nailed to the cross. ‘The cross was slowly raised to its height and then dropped into a deep hole in the ground. The jarring thud of the cross sent fresh torture as every movement irritated the fresh rents in the hands and feet. He was in full reach of any of the gaping onlookers who may choose to strike him or inflict on him some other gesture of insult.’ (Ferrar 640)
For six hours Jesus experienced ‘excruciating pain, dizziness, cramping, fever, mortification of untended wounds, and a raging thirst, all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness.’ (Farrar 641) He fought to make room in his lungs for each breath as he lifted the entire weight of his body by painfully pushing himself up on the small board that supported his nail-spiked feet, only to sag back down with his weight entirely on his arms and shoulders when he exhaled.
And finally when it was time, he let go of his earthly life. I think that Jesus could have let go of life sooner than he did. With all the suffering and blood loss he had experienced it seems that he continued living by exercising the will to live. He chose to endure the cross for six hours, for he knew that he was the fulfillment of the Passover sacrifice and the lamb slain at 3pm on the 14th of Nisan. In the face of this great emotional and physical pain he waited until all things prophesied were accomplished, and at the prophetically determined time according to the will of the Father he chose to ‘yield up his spirit’ and stopped fighting for his earthly life to continue. Matthew 27:50
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice” “It is finished!” he shouted and “yielded up his spirit.” John 19:30, Matthew 27:50
Like the waive offering, the weight of the offering is held and waived until it was taken by the hand of Moses. Leviticus 8:25-28; See Part 2
Oh may we always rely on the timing of the Father, as did our Precious Savior, surrendering our best to the timing and His determination of the length of each experience in the Cup that He pours. Psalm 31:14-15
These thoughts fill me with awe and admiration for our dear Savior. They are suggestions put into a dramatic form for the purpose of entering more personally into the final sufferings of our Precious Savior. Here is a background summary of some of his experiences from Gethsemane to the cross.
‘The evening of overwhelming emotion, the night of sleepless anxiety and suffering, the three trials and three sentences of death he received before the Jewish officials, the endless scene before Pilate, then Herod, the mockings and the beatings, then the final verdict of the people and the final scourging had totally sapped Jesus of his physical strength. (Ferrar 634) Jesus was utterly exhausted as he staggered beneath the weight of sin’s cruelty which had been placed on his shoulders. The greatest weight had been placed on his heart. The people who hemmed him in and stared and hurled insults were his people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He recognized many faces. Some he had healed, some had followed him, some had hailed him a king just a short time ago when he had entered Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt. Many more had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to observe the Holy Passover. He sensed the oppressive darkness in their lives, a separation from God that made some crazy in their hunger and some easily lead in their blindness. He sensed the fear and the engulfing confusion of those who had seen his miracles and believed him to be the Messiah. He read their nobility and he read their depravity. ‘For this cause I came into the world, to open the eyes of the blind,’ he uttered in prayer to his Father.
Jesus was stripped of his clothing and nailed to the cross. ‘The cross was slowly raised to its height and then dropped into a deep hole in the ground. The jarring thud of the cross sent fresh torture as every movement irritated the fresh rents in the hands and feet. He was in full reach of any of the gaping onlookers who may choose to strike him or inflict on him some other gesture of insult.’ (Ferrar 640)
For six hours Jesus experienced ‘excruciating pain, dizziness, cramping, fever, mortification of untended wounds, and a raging thirst, all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness.’ (Farrar 641) He fought to make room in his lungs for each breath as he lifted the entire weight of his body by painfully pushing himself up on the small board that supported his nail-spiked feet, only to sag back down with his weight entirely on his arms and shoulders when he exhaled.
And finally when it was time, he let go of his earthly life. I think that Jesus could have let go of life sooner than he did. With all the suffering and blood loss he had experienced it seems that he continued living by exercising the will to live. He chose to endure the cross for six hours, for he knew that he was the fulfillment of the Passover sacrifice and the lamb slain at 3pm on the 14th of Nisan. In the face of this great emotional and physical pain he waited until all things prophesied were accomplished, and at the prophetically determined time according to the will of the Father he chose to ‘yield up his spirit’ and stopped fighting for his earthly life to continue. Matthew 27:50
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice” “It is finished!” he shouted and “yielded up his spirit.” John 19:30, Matthew 27:50
Like the waive offering, the weight of the offering is held and waived until it was taken by the hand of Moses. Leviticus 8:25-28; See Part 2
Oh may we always rely on the timing of the Father, as did our Precious Savior, surrendering our best to the timing and His determination of the length of each experience in the Cup that He pours. Psalm 31:14-15
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