The Struggle of Jesus in Gethsemane

 

Imagine an armed robber about to kill and rob you, and you choose to heal his wound before he does so. Peter fulfilled his promise to protect his master. Being a fisherman and not a swordsman, he missed the head but got the ear of one of the attackers.  Jesus shamed Peter and healed the attacking enemy’s ear.

Once again, Jesus was emphasizing that there is nothing to be saved from.

Those who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matthew 26:52. Those who go by human defense mechanism will perish by human defense mechanism. We have built sophisticated weapons to protect us from fellow humans and the same weapons are killing us now. Jesus was right in his saying about the sword. So put away the sword. We can live in a world where there are no guns and no cutlasses to kill except using everything to plough. Well as the Bible says, turn your swords to ploughshares. Turn your swords into instruments that support life.

Step into this conscious awareness: “The hand of God is in my situation; I am one with God; the will of God be done through me to His glory.” We heard Jesus pray saying,  “Father if this be your will please take this cup away from me but nonetheless not my will but yours be done – Gethsemane. Luke 2: 42. The truth is sometimes it hurts. There are times when from the human point of view, God does not make sense; and you ask “If God is there why am I going through this pain?” Why me, is the language of the selfish. If not you, who should it be?

However, we have no doubt of the presence of God because we can see creative, love, intelligence in the atom and the orderliness in the universe. The earth is spinning  at 1000 mph to give us night and day without which there is no life and speeding at 67,000 mph around the sun to give us the seasons, without which there is no life. We conclude that an Intelligent Power is running the universe that includes us and you can learn to co-operate with it. My intelligence and that of others declares that I am an intelligent being in an intelligent universe.

There is a wise shepherding power within life. When you wound yourself, coagulant elements gather quickly to bond with the oxygen in the air outside of your body to seal the wound so that you do not bleed to death. This wisdom that is coded even into the cells of our bodies and present in all of life is what we choose to call God.

Trust the wise shepherding power of God in your dark nights.