Joel 2:28 – 3:12
Our OT passage speaks of victory and judgment. What does this have to do with the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus arrives at Gethsemane in a state of utter agony. He senses the time of His death is near. Jesus appeals for perhaps another way forward. God is silent and the procession to the cross must continue. The victory over sin must be won once and for all. Still the judgment has to be rendered. All have sinned against our Lord and the wages of sin is death. For all sin: past, present and future, Jesus must die. Two things have most stirred me on my Christian journey. First is the suffering and agony that Jesus must have felt being cut off from God when He was not deserving of this fate. And second, the love that God had for us in giving up His perfect Son for our transgressions that we might be seen as righteous before the Lord. Englebert wrote in a biography that St Francis had ‘two desires before he died: the first was to experience the pain of Christ’s agony, and the second was to feel the same love for Christ that He had when He sacrificed Himself on the cross.’ During this Lent, let us pray that our desires be changed.
John Ash
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