I had sickness of the soul. You know the kind. It’s that gut-wrenching, sicker-than-a-dog feeling you get when you’ve done something wrong and you know it—when you can’t believe that you did that and how will you ever look yourself in the mirror again.
I think of the purity of a baby; a brand new human being who has done nothing wrong, who has never had a mean thought or a bad attitude. This newborn has never lied, never stolen, never betrayed a friend. That perfect sinlessness is the perfection of Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus lived 33 years on this earth and never once sinned in thought or deed. Most of us learned one word very well by the early age of two—mine! And that one word has followed us through our entire life leaving all sorts of destruction in its wake.
Go back with me two thousand years and let’s imagine ourselves in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus, knowing exactly what He was facing in the coming hours is praying to Father God. He prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine,” (Matt. 26:42). I have always thought Jesus was referring to the inhumanly cruel torture of the Roman cross and the agony He was about to suffer. Yes, I know scripture says that He was taking upon Himself the sins of the world, but I never truly thought about what that would feel like to His perfectly sinless soul. Can you envision that sickness of the soul multiplied by all of humanity from the beginning of the human race to never-ending eternity? Now can you picture that mass of sinful vomit laid on the perfection of the soul of Jesus? This, this is what He was crying out to the Father, saying, “Please take this cup from me,” about. And then He says that little three-letter word, “Yet.” In that word He surrendered any right He had as the Son of God to take up His life, to call ten thousand angels to rescue Him from the soldiers coming that night. He chose you. He chose me. In that prayer He chose to experience hell (separation from the Father) so we would never have to face it.
Please pause with me a moment to take in the enormity of that act. Today is the day we remember across the globe the eternal sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son. Sunday we will celebrate His resurrection, but today, in this moment, won’t you join me in remembering?
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