“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly...”
-Luke 22:44
Good Friday feels appropriately heavy this year. We are in a time of suffering, as a country and as a globe. One of the things that I keep revisiting in my mind as we are all hurting in one way or another because of this virus is that God has suffered too. This verse is about Jesus in the Garden the night He is betrayed. He knows what is to come, knows that his own blood will be shed for the saving of many, and yet begs God to find another way. He’s sweating blood. He’s in anguish. And it’s here in this place we see Jesus pray earnestly. It’s here in this place Jesus says, “and yet, not my will, but Yours be done.”
And with that humble and honest obedience, Jesus makes a way through every crisis, through every anguish, through every chaotic season the human race would ever face. He descends into death, into a grave, into hell itself. There is no place He has not been. There is no pain He cannot overcome. There is no darkness His light won’t undo. So it brings me great comfort in this season of suffering for so many, that we can earnestly pray to a God who is not far from the suffering. We can earnestly pray to a God who has made a way through the grave to ensure that our suffering will never have the final word. Today I bring my heavy heart to the foot of the cross, knowing that Jesus is a Man of Sorrows, well acquainted with grief, and knowing that Good Friday isn’t the end of the story.
