I have been wondering when Jesus told the women who were weeping for Him as He struggled with the cross (on the way to Golgotha), what did Jesus really mean when He said "daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me; weep for yourselves and for your children." (Luke 23:28). As we look at those words we should not forget what Jesus had once said earlier when He was foretelling His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples and the crowd that was with Him then that "if anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." Mark 8:34.
I've lately been thinking about Gethsemane where Jesus tried so hard to convince His disciples to stay awake with Him in prayer as a big trial (crucifixion) was near (Mark 14: 32-41)...My Bible tells me that Jesus was "distressed and troubled" and asked three of His disciples to go pray with Him, but the three instead of praying fell asleep...Did Jesus ask them to come with Him to pray for themselves? That they could stand strong as Jesus was being crucified? or was Jesus asking them to pray so their prayers could keep Jesus strong? ( we are talking about the Son of God here...) I don't really know what exactly were the disciples being called to pray for, it's something worthy digging a little more...But my point is, in spite of the fact that Jesus insisted to the disciples to stay awake with Him in prayer, they did not, it all ended up to Jesus remaining ALONE in prayer...
So as Jesus asks us to carry our cross and as Jesus on His way to the cross asks us to cry for ourselves and our own children, did this include going into "personal gethsemanes" too? If it does, then that makes so much sense to me right now even when I don't like that feeling;
It seems like as Christians each one of us has to go through a particular 'Gethsemane' of their own. There seems to be many biblical references backing up this thought; I won't put too many verses in this but I will jus
t pull out few stories; Joseph son of Jacob once found himself in a 'Gethsemane' of his own; his brothers " took him and threw him into the cistern (well). The cistern was empty; there was no water in it" Genesis 37; 24. This marked the beginning of Joseph's journey into his 'Gethsemane'
... Job was also found in a situation where not only his friend, but also his wife pressured him (Job 2: 9-10) to insult this God who seemed to have abandoned Job in what I want to call 'Job's Gethsemane'... How I wish I could talk about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they happened to have been in their 'Gethsemane' all the three of them at once, but I won't because I want us to focus on a 'one-man Gethsemane' because this' always the hardest comparing to a Gethsemane where you have more than one person, so I will skip the three and go to Daniel; We see Daniel who was thrown in lions' den, ALONE with lions (Daniel 6:16). In New Testament; apart from Jesus, John the Baptist was found in prison ALONE, ready to have his head cut as a gift for Herod's daughter (Mark 6: 17)...We can go on and on talking about prophets, servants, preachers w
ho went through their gethsemanes, but the point here is not simply to scare every christian of the possible 'Gethsemane' that awaits most if not all of us? No, the point I am making here is that as much as each one of us will or might or is going through their 'individual Gethsemane' we should appreciate what we benefit from gethsemane.
In most cases if not all, everyone who stood the test of gethsemane they came out very strong than they were before; Joseph, after his gethsemane, became Prime Minister in a strange land...Job did not only get his original blessings back, but double what he already had...Daniel's survival from his gethsemane made the Babylonian king to believe in Yahweh...John the Baptist swallowed death to face His King, pretty much the ultimate goal of his life...And of all, the BIG Boss, the One who went in the real Gethsemane, my Bible says he was obedient in Gethsemane and
"becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God EXALTED him to the HIGHEST PLACE
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 8b-11)
We are surely going to go through our Gethsemane; a place which is very uncomfortable where it will feel like we're there alone and we get that feeling where it sounds like God isn't picking your call or His 'cellphone' is out of service, or He's busy talking-blessing others that his line keeps giving you a busy-tone...I don't think that's the case, I think Gethsemane becomes too big that once we concentrate on the misery of Gethsemane too much, in the end result, we end up forgetting to fix our eyes on the Big God who's by our side all the time...Even Jesus at one point in Gethsemane nearly gave up where He asked for the cup to pass ( this is sometimes too hard for me to comprehend so I won't talk too much of what I know less of...), John the Baptist once questioned how he was going through trials which led to his death yet Jesus was around...There will be times to question, time to feel like giving up, time to feel like quitting, even great men reached those places, but keep holding onto the faith that God is with you...Friends, family, workmates, classmates may not be available to help and more worse even the Church may seem not to be there with you... We have seen a good example of the sleeping disciples when Jesus somehow needed them the most, just like Job's wife appeared to have given up on Job and God, so will the church at one point appear to let you survive your Gethsemane on your own. This isn't to encourage the body of Christ(church) to not help each other stand, but the thing is there comes a time where it's all you, God and unfortunately Satan in Gethsemane...It's up to you to hold on to this great loving God in that time or listen to the great liar who murmurs into our ears way too much when we're in Gethsemane.
So I pray that as you go through your 'Gethsemane' you should remember that the One in you is greater than the one in the world....One of the last statements our Lord made before ascending to heaven was " ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me...surely I AM with you ALWAYS, to the very end of the age" Matthew 28: 18-28"
For those of you going through some kind of gethsemane, remember G0D the Almighty is with you ALWAYS
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