| From the DayBreaks archive: When thinking of the events of Holy Week, my heart runs to Gethsemane for many reasons. To me, it was in that garden that eternity and human destiny was settled as it was there that Jesus gave the final “go-ahead” to the plan of the Father, and once the decision was made, there would be no turning back. One of the things that amazes me is the restraint of Jesus. Peter, of course, acted out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear…but there was only one sword among Jesus and his disciples. They were grossly outnumbered and certainly out-weaponed. As a human, if I had been Jesus, I would have been very tempted to resist – to fight back. But we are told that Jesus was calm and led silently as a lamb to the slaughter. Some might think that he knew resistance would be foolish – that in the face of such numbers who came to arrest him, he was helpless. Let me challenge that assumption. We are told in Scripture that Jesus could have summoned twelve legions of angels to come to his defense. A Roman legion consisted of 6000 soldiers. That means that Jesus could have summoned 72,000 angels (or more!) to come to his rescue! Now the numbers would have been decidedly in Jesus’ favor! But wait – there’s more to this. 2 Kings 19:35 – And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Math is not my strong suit, but let me walk you through this. Jesus could have called 72,000 angels. The question here isn’t “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin”, but “How many humans can one angel slay in one night?” We know that “the” (singular) angel of the Lord killed 185,000 humans in one night. The math works out like this: the 12 legions at Jesus’ call could have destroyed 13,320,000,000 people in one night. That’s right, 13.3 billion of us. That many people have not lived on earth since the beginning of human history. J Jesus was not helpless in the Garden. Far from it! Jesus, during Holy Week, was not at the mercy of the religious leaders or Rome. We were at His mercy. Had He chosen to bypass the agonies of the cross and return to glory, all He had to do was speak one command: “Come!” What does this mean to me? It speaks to me of His love that DROVE Him through the pain of the crucifixion and the cross. It drives me to my knees in humility and gratitude and fills me with wonder at the restraint of Christ. PRAYER: Your reticence to use your power for your own benefit amazes me, Lord! That you chose to go through all that you did rather than save your own life leaves me breathless – and eternally grateful! In Jesus’ name, Amen. Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple. |
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