One of the times I feel most at peace is when I'm on a mountain by myself. It does not happen nearly often enough for my liking but there is something about being on an outcropping as the sun rises, streams of light spilling into the valley before me, breakers of light washing over the mountain's sides. During these times praise and worship for God pour from my heart like a mountain spring dances in joy as it runs the course laid before it.
Jesus was in the habit of spending time with His Father daily. Often He would go to the Mount of Olives. I wonder if He saw the same beauty and felt that same peace that I have so often felt as He looked at what lay before Him.
Jesus came for a mission; he had a goal and a purpose. Though His capacity to enjoy the wonders of this world, as its Architect, may have been greater than ours, He was not here for vacation and His one source of strength came from His time with the Father. Even on the busiest of days with important tasks to accomplish, Jesus always took time to dip His heart in the healing waters of time with the Father. There were no excuses and it was not onerous to Him but a time of joy and peace.
One of the last recoded prayers of Jesus came shortly before His death. Having fulfilled the tasks He had to do, He took His disciples to the Mount of Olives, usually a place of refuge and spiritual renewal for Jesus, but this night would be different. Instead of the peace and joy He normally received, drops of agony dripped from His head as He wrestled with the suffering that awaited Him for our sake. Not just the physical pain, that in itself was enough to wither a hero of old, but the separation from His Father He was to endure, something which had not happened to Him before. Jesus was going to be put to death in the body but He was also going to take upon Himself the sin of the world; the sin from those who came before, those who are now, and from those who would come after, fell on His shoulders.
Did He find peace during this time of prayer? He knew what was ahead and He asked that the cup be removed from Him, but...but He subordinated His will to the Father's in spite of what loomed ahead—suffering beyond anything known previously or since.
"It is finished." There are thousands upon thousands and myriads upon myriads of famous quotes that have inspired nations and moved men to accomplish great deeds but there are no words that have changed the course of history like these: "It is finished." These words usher in true freedom; freedom from the bondage of sin; freedom from the clutching, grasping, sucking maw of Hell that held each one of us in its lustful grip. "It is finished." The purpose of Christ is complete but this is not the end of the story, only the beginning.
Jesus may not have found peace on His last visit to the Mount of Olives and He wasn't there for the view, but He did find what He needed: Strength in a time of weakness and courage in a time of dread. He found the ability to undertake the purpose He specifically came for.
It is finished but the story continues...
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