Passion Reading: Gethsemane
Apostles’ Creed / Second Article: Jesus Christ – Who Is My Lord!
Dear Friends in Christ, Jesus is Lord. There’s no getting around that fact. This is the clear teaching of the New Testament. You remember Thomas’ reaction to the risen Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” St. Paul writes to the Philippians: “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.”
And when we confess that Jesus is Lord – Lord means SAVIOR! Yes, that’s right, Lord means SAVIOR!
Newsflash everyone! “Lord” does not mean tyrant! “Lord” does not mean master. Jesus has not brought you a new and improved Law to follow. He’s not a new and improved late night cable TV motivational Moses who teaches you what you have to do in order to reach your potential, become self-fulfilled, and self-reliant!
“Lord” means that Jesus is Redeemer / Savior! Savior of sinners. You. Me. The world.
Jesus is Lord means that He lives not for Himself. He gives Himself completely to you. He withholds nothing of Himself as He goes to the Cross in order to atone for the sin of the world, your sin, and mine.
And note the enormity of His being our Lord! He’s in a garden. Gethsemane. To begin to undo the carnage and catastrophe that Adam and Eve brought to all through their selfish sin in the Garden of Eden. The promise that the Savior would crush Satan’s head was made in Eden. And so now Jesus, in Gethsemane’s Garden, undergoes to restore what was lost, do battle with Satan, and endure the damnation that all sinners deserve.
This is a gargantuan task He undergoes. The task to accomplish and win the salvation of the world. To turn away God’s eternal ire against your sin. Against the world’s sin. And to turn it to Him. By taking in His Body all sin. Yours. Mine. Like a huge roaring flood! And it will crush Him! Kill Him! Damn Him! He will drink the “cup” or “chalice” of God’s wrath against every sinner and against every sin. And there He will cry out: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
No wonder He shivers to the bone. No wonder He’s in anguish and agony. No wonder He sweats great drops of blood. After all, He will carry all sin and be punished for it all. Jesus on the cross will be counted as the greatest of all sinners because the iniquity of us all is put on Him. That means suffering the wrath of God, death, and the damnation of hell.
Would the Father save the world and you in some other way? Perhaps not Him. Perhaps not the cross. And so the Lord Jesus prays: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup from me. But I don’t want my will to be done. Let yours be done.”
Peter, James, and John, all who proclaimed they’d never be offended by Jesus -- who pledged their loyalty to Him until death, do not see the absolute seriousness of what Jesus will endure. For them. And for every sinner. And so they sleep. They snore. They can’t even offer a word of encouragement. They can’t even offer a small prayer for Jesus.
And so Jesus must go it alone. “Abba, Father, is there another way? Do I really have to do this? Your will be done, not mine.” Jesus received no answer. And yet He did. The silence indicated that it could be no other way. If you, the world, and me are to be saved, then all this must overtake Him!
Do you now see how serious this is? What it cost Jesus to save you? Your sin will do this to Him! You put Him on the cross! You are responsible! Look at the Lord Jesus as He is stapled and suspended! Behold, what God does to the sinner and all sin there!
And yet Jesus does this all for you. For your salvation. You are rescued from the eternal damnation of hell because of Him! Because of Jesus all your sin is answered for in that Body that hangs on the tree.
And it all begins in this garden named Gethsemane. Jesus will do it. He must. For He is the Lord. In other words, He is the Savior.
He suffers Himself to treachery. The unleashing of hell’s dark hour of fury. Judas betrays Him with a kiss. He suffers Himself to be manhandled. The soldiers grab Him. They bind Him. He will not fight. Neither with Peter’s swinging sword or twelve legions of angels. And soon He will suffer the disgraceful kangaroo court of the high priest, the governor, the cruel death sentence by crucifixion, and then finally His bloody, excruciating death.
In all this Jesus is Lord. That is to say: Savior! Lord the most for you. He gives Himself entirely for you. For your salvation. What a Lord! What a Savior!
In the name of Jesus.
