Two Gardens … One Bitter Cup

 

The Garden of Eden made Holy and perfect by God was spoiled by the disobedience of Adam & Eve. The creatures were not willing to submit their will to the will of God their Creator.

 

So began the Fall of Mankind and Original Sin. Mankind, intended to display grace, mercy and love, would now love himself first. He would have…

 

• A need to satisfy fleshly desires (lust)
• A natural resourcefulness (self-sufficiency)
• A careless embracing of worldly wisdom (capitulation)
• A fear of failure or rejection (inferiority)
• A bent toward self-preservation (fear)
• A stubborn insistence for control and recognition (pride)
• A refusal to separate from family or friends (dependency)
• A bottomless appetite for comfort and ease (materialism)

 

This is only the beginning of a long list. The point is, that left to ourselves; we always rationalize reasons to please ourselves rather than God.

 

God would now relentlessly remind Man throughout time that actions always bring consequences. That physical life is but a vapor. That God holds eternity in His hands. That this life is not about us…but about HIM!

 

In God alone reside Love, Mercy and Grace…and True Pity and Compassion for us because He knows we are but dust.

 

Later in time, in another garden called Gethsemane; Gods pity and compassion for us was embodied in His Son. In Eden, Adam & Eve lived for themselves and lost life with God for all of their descendants. From that day forward the sins of mankind would begin filling a cup. A cup that, Jesus, would drink in full, taking the worlds sins upon Himself on the Cross satisfying the wrath of His Father towards us; opening by faith a way for us to regain paradise lost and have life with God.

 

 

Ken Gire wrote in… “Intense Moments with the Savior”:

 

“And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray. (Mark 14:35).

 

The verb in the Greek phrase translated “fell to the ground” is in the imperfect tense, suggesting a continual action. In other words, Jesus literally kept falling to the ground in prayer, crying out to His Father, then rising to His feet, only to fall again to the ground in prayer.

 

Portraits of a serene Jesus kneeling beside a rock, crowned in moonlight, mislead us. Mark described a Jesus wrestling with His destiny, pacing, falling to the ground, desperately petitioning the Father for relief, and entreating Him as a young son would his daddy: “Abba / Daddy!  Father!” vs. 36

 

“Jesus pushes himself up from the ground and lifts his eyes towards heaven. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” His hands are no longer clutching the grass in despair. They are no longer clasping each other in prayer. They are raised toward heaven.

 

Reaching not for bread or for fish or for any other good gift. Not even for answers. But reaching for the cup from his Father’s hand. And though it is a terrible cup, brimming with the wrath of God for the ferment of sin from centuries past and centuries yet to come….and though it is a cup he fears….he takes it. Because more than he fears the cup, he loves the hand from which it comes.”

 

Remember this REMARKABLE FACT, not even Jesus, the Lord of the Universe, could skirt the necessity of prayer to ready Himself for the grueling responsibility of HIS CROSS. The Cross that Jesus chose voluntarily because He loved you and I before the foundations of the world were made.

 

God always waits to hear from His children. His hand is always extended towards you, for you to reach up and hold as He walks with you through the storms of life.

 

There is no me, only Him. I have no will except to do His will only. I trust not in myself but in His Love and care for me…I receive all things from His hand and am glad and rejoice in His Mercy.

 

I am precious in His sight as are all His children who respond to the call of His Son Jesus to  “come, follow me”.

 

www.crosseseverywhere.com