Jesus and the Martyrs

Like most people, I struggle with my thoughts and my faith as I continue to try and pursue holiness. Yet, I continually fail when I let my selfish desires and worldly thoughts get the best of me. In doing so, I am constantly reminded that as strong as I am in who I am, I am nothing without the help I get from God and the sacrifice he made for me.

All that said, I still wrestle with my faith and death and what comes next. My simple mind cannot fathom, on occasion, what eternity is. With Easter just recently in my mind, the conversation has come up a lot about Jesus's death.

During that 11th hour, Jesus asks his Father to remove the weight from his shoulders and in that small moment, you see the humanity in Jesus. What exactly was the (Cup) weight he was referring to? I often wonder how the Son of God would struggle in the 11th hour with his impending death. After all, if he is the Son of God, shouldn't he know better?

I read this article last week and continue to come back to it for the answers I seek. It's a pretty telling description of the 'Cup' that Jesus refers to and in doing so, explains why he was different from famous martyrs in comparing their deaths to his.

"There are a couple things to say in response to this question. First, it’s reassuring that the Gospel writers tell us about Jesus’ agonized struggle before his death, because it demonstrates that they are honest writers. Who would ever make this stuff up?! There’s no reason to, and every reason not to. It’s a bit uncomfortable to have your God and Savior agonizing, praying not to go to the cross, sweating, and afraid. The fact that Luke reports Jesus’ emotional struggle in the passage above helps confirm that it really happened, that Luke is telling us the story straight.

Second, Jesus’ agony makes sense when we realize that the death he died is radically different from the death of Socrates, the seven Jewish brothers, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It’s not all that different on the physical level. While Jesus’ death by beating and crucifixion was a terrible physical ordeal, the physical agony of the seven Jewish brothers (for example) was perhaps equally great. What sets Jesus’ death apart from the death of any other person in the history of the world is the spiritual component of his suffering. We have an indication of that terrible spiritual reality in Luke 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” To what “cup” is Jesus referring?"

It's a pretty long article, so I'm not going to steal a hit away from the author, so take a look at the rest of the article on the link provided above.

It reminds me that I don't deserve anything. There are times when I'd like a new car or new house or new clothes, because I think I've earned it and deserve it. Reading this helps keep me grounded in knowing that my life and debt has been paid for and I am nothing without Christ's redeeming love.