Wow, I hurt tonight. The pain has been building throughout the day and led me to give up the work that my head wanted to do but my body did NOT and go home to recover.
As I drove home I was struck by the significance of pain for today. Thursday of passion week was the day that Jesus and the disciples met in the upper room and shared their Passover meal together. They went out singing their Passover hymn and walked to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed. Under normal circumstances this would have been a fantastic celebration, but for Jesus the pain had to have been building all day.
The pain He felt might have included things like the life He had been living for 30 some years was now coming to an end. The ministry that had driven Him to teach, heal, and challenge His world was coming to an end. The dear friends that He’d been traveling, serving, and living with would no longer be His daily companions and they would have the loss of their Rabbi and friend to feel. This kind of grief would be painful for anyone to have to suffer, but Jesus was facing far more than these these losses.
Matthew 26 records Jesus “soul was crushed with grief” in verse 38. A second time, in verse 39 Jesus speaks of the immense pain He was feeling, “if it is possible let this cup of suffering be taken from me”. The pain He was feeling was very real!
For the first time that I can remember I was overwhelmed with sorrow for Jesus’ pain. I was thankful for my physical pain that helped fix my thoughts on all that Jesus had done for me. I wept with all of the emotion of the guilt of my contribution to my Savior’s pain and the joy of salvation and complete forgiveness.
I hope and pray that in the moments we are feeling physical or emotional pain, we remember Jesus. That we are thankful. That we are submissive to God’s will and obedient through the pain. That we are moved with compassion to serve others and allow what we’ve experienced be a help to someone else.
Precious Jesus, I thank You for enduring the pain that you did on our behalf. May my life continue to transform because of it.