In his darkest hour


'Recognise his love for you. In his darkest hour.
Recognise.
His love for you.
In his darkest hour.

You see, in his darkest hour, his love for you is on full display.
And wonderfully revealed to us.
Because to enter Gethsemane is to be reminded of my sin.
To enter this garden is to be reminded of my sin.
Here in this garden I am reminded of the serious and appalling nature of my sin, because this is what my sin requires.
My sin required the Saviour to be greatly distressed, to be greatly troubled.
To be overwhelmed with sorrow even to the point of death.
So deeply distressed was the Saviour because of my sin and the prospect of being the substitute for my sin, that he could no longer remain standing upright and that staggered by this prospect, he appealed for an alternative to the cross.

That's what my sin required.
That's what my sin necessitated
So any time you visit this garden you should stand here and behold...
Behold what your sin, what our sin behold what our pride, behold what our selfishness required of the Saviour. Behold the effects of our sin on the Saviour in this moment.

You cannot.
You cannot accompany Jesus into Gethsemane and emerge unaffected by your sin
But most importantly you cannot accompany Jesus into Gethsemane and emerge unaffected by his love for sinners - like you and me.
You can't do it.
Here we should be freshly amazed by His grace.
This is what it means for us.
Listen, fasten your eyes on these most precious and powerful words
'And he said "Abba Father, all things are possible for you, remove this cup from me.
Yet, not what I will, but what you will."'

"Yet.
Not what I will. But what you will."
Is there an alternative?

Silence.

"Yet... Not what I will, but what you will."
Listen. You are looking at the greatest display of obedience in all of history.
The Saviour's soul was crucified here in the garden of Gethsame before his body would be crucified on the hill called Calvary.

HE DRANK THE CUP.
He drank it.'                                                                          

                                                                              C J Mahaney, The Cup (2007)





"Why?
Because he loves you. Because he loves you. 
That's why.
You've got this weird compartmentalization thing that happens where you don't think that God sees all that you are, or that if he could, or somehow knew...who you were going to be, He wouldn't have gone to the cross...

Listen, God knew that you were going to be messy.
Christ knew that you were going to be messy.
God knows that you're going to screw up often.
He knows that you're going to be drawn to things that are wicked. He knows.
That's what the cross is all about.
That's the whole point of the cross
That you're going to fail, and you're going to stumble
And you're going to feel dirty and you're going to feel awkward
The whole point of the cross of Christ is that:
There be this mighty picture of his love for you - in pursuit of you - despite you
So the cross is necessary because of YOU.
But it's also the picture of just how far God was willing to go because he loves you...


'It's the resurrection of Christ that justifies. That's why it's so important. That's why it's so big. It proves that all the wrath of God was poured out. It's gone. For the elect, it's gone. There is no more wrath. There's none. So Jesus sees you and he's like:
        "My son. My daughter. Perfect. Spotless. Blameless."

                                                                        Matt Chandler, 'Three streams' (2007)








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