Quote of the Day

"Jesus groaned in the garden too. Isn't it ironic? The Great Reconciler himself asking to forego the very act that would bring reconciliation? He wanting redemption by some other purchase? How do we handle that? He too was fully human. 

 The mystery deepens and deepens. 

I consider Jesus in Gethsemane. Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass. It is the most human prayer of Jesus, I think. It is the bend-low before God, the stinging sweat prayer where Jesus says, 'If you could spare me a favor, I'd rather not endure this.' I consider his prayer of self-preservation; if his request had been granted, what of this groaning creation? Would we still have been united with God, rescued from the slavery and corruption of the world? Or would we have groaned and groaned and groaned into and throughout eternity? 

 In his humanity, though, Jesus learned to bend his will to God's so that he could be the ultimate agent of reconciliation. He surrendered to the mystery of God's will, that he would be crucified, murdered, and that his murder would somehow bring a better way. 

 To ask for relief from God - this is human. To pray through the pain, to live in it instead of numbing yourself to it, to subjugate your will to the will of God, even in the face of potential suffering - this is what it means to be like Jesus. This is what it means to yield to the mystery."

                              - Seth Haines in Coming Clean