The text that I would like to read this morning as we prepare to take the Lord’s Supper is in Matthew 26:36-44 At this point, Judas Iscariot had already betrayed the Lord Jesus to the chief priests and elders, and he was inroute to Gethsemane. Gethsemane was the place where the Lord Jesus would be arrested; there at the place of prayer. Judas knew the place, and he knew Jesus often resorted there to pray. Soon, he would arrive with a band of armed men, Roman Soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest the Lord. But before Jesus’ arrest, God’s Word reveals to us a great internal struggle and conflict in the Lord Jesus’ spirit. In our text, we read of “THE CONFLICTED PRAYER” of the Lord Jesus; this prayer, in which, He struggled mightily! This had never happened in His life, but NOW, the realization of His death on the cross was very near. It wasn’t the physical trauma of death that terrified Him, nor the shame of it, but it was what would happen between He and His Father in His death! The sorrow and stress of what was before Him was so great that it affected Him physically! Luke 22:39- 47, Hebrews 5:7-9 Matthew recorded: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” Luke recorded: “Father, if thou be willing, remove his cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done” I love the words of the old hymn: “Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly, here it’s guilt may estimate” What the Lord Jesus FEARED was YOURS and MY SINS being put upon Him, put on His account, imputed to Him for our sake! 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew not sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” What made Him exceedingly sorrowful was the prospect of the wrath of His Father toward Him IN THE PLACE of His love, which had from eternity always been there! NEVER had there ever been a breach in the love and communion that existed between the Father and the Son! THIS is what OVERWHELMED HIM, it was not the physical torture and pain, but it was His relationship with His Father and the cup of His indignation and wrath which would be poured out upon His Holy Soul for my sins!~ James Downing Sr.
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