Thought of the Day March 14, 2024 Lent: the agony in the Garden
As Jesus goes with the Apostles after the Last Supper to the Garden of Olives to pray, his awareness of the upcoming passion intensifies. He felt the need to pray to the Father for the strength he needed to endure the crucifixion. He was tempted at the beginning of his ministry as the Messiah. Now, I suspect he was tempted again, not to follow through with his decision. The first temptations dealt with his relationship to the Father. The temptation in the Garden was to convince Jesus his suffering and death will mean nothing to millions of people. The mental struggle of Jesus with the thought of the pain and suffering in crucifixion was so intense that, we are told, he sweated drops of blood. As he remained faithful to the Father in the first temptations. so he remained committed to the will of the Father in what laid ahead for him for our sake. "Not my will, but yours be done." We will never suffer like Jesus did, but we can in our sufferings surrender to the will of the Father.
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