John 12:27 – “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. NKJV
I have been purposefully focusing on Jesus! Although, every blog should reflect Him directly or indirectly, He is my current focus!
Jesus knew that it was time to sacrifice His life on the cross. He knew that was His ultimate purpose for coming, that He might redeem us to Himself. In Revelation, Jesus is referred to as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (13:8) He was very much aware of what would happen because from heaven’s point of view it had already happened.
Although He knew He would be scourged, spit upon, and ridiculed from the very beginning, He never got off course. I have co-taught on the book of John on more than one occasion ,and it never ceases to amaze me to see how purposefully He lived even as His time drew near. Jesus, very much the Son of God and the Son of Man found that He wasn’t “really” looking forward to the cross.
When Jesus healed the blind man in chapter 9, He knew that He had signed His “death warrant” so to speak. It is from that moment that things heat up more aggressively in Jerusalem towards our Lord. Then He had the “nerve” to raise Lazarus from the dead! Hallelujah Jesus!
But this didn’t cause the people to be excited. Some of them actually left the “resurrection” party and went and “told on Jesus” to the Pharisees. Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied that it was expedient that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. He didn’t realize it was a prophetic word that he spoke, but it was one nevertheless. And from that moment they plotted to put Him to death.
I want to look at the word “troubled” for a minute. The Greek word for troubled is “tarasso,” and it is rendered, “to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity”. When we think of Jesus, we think of Him as always exhibiting peace because He was peace. But here He admits that He is troubled, that He is having an inward commotion of His will. He even asks, should He request to be delivered from what is ahead? And then He replies that this is why He came. God’s will, will prevail over His troubled state of mind.
Sometimes we are faced with difficult realities. Things that will change the course of our lives, the course of a nation, the course of a family, and we have to make the tough decisions because they are the right decisions to make. That’s what Jesus did here. He could have thought about the cross, seen what would happen, and said, “not for this bunch!” They were so fickle that one day they lauded and applauded Him and the next they yelled, “crucify Him.” And throughout the centuries since that time, we have done the same things.
Some people can’t “stay” saved because it’s too hard to say no to that individual they have been sleeping with or living with who they are not married to. Some people find it too hard to “stay” saved because they enjoy some other type of sin that they are involved in. Some people find it hard to “stay” saved or get saved because, because, because! And yet the cost that Jesus paid, the thing that troubled Him, wasn’t enough to keep Him from the cross. Thank you Jesus!
I am so grateful for my salvation. I am so grateful for Jesus. I thank God that He did the hard thing to save you and me. I am so thankful that He didn’t call those legions of angels to rescue Him. I have no animosity in my heart towards the actual people who betrayed Him, yelled “crucify Him” or hung Him on the cross, because I know that He did it just for me. No one took His life, He gave it. It wasn’t easy for Him, but it was necessary for our salvation.
Some times in this walk with the Father, we have to do some hard things. We have to say “no”to some people in our lives because they don’t love our Jesus. We have to say “no” to some things on our job because they won’t glorify Jesus. We have to say no to some things in our church, yes, even there, because every good thing is not a God thing! But we should never find ourselves saying “no” to Him; because even when it was hard for Him, He said “yes” that we might have eternal life. Wonderful Jesus!
Wonderful Jesus! 