THERE IS NO QUIT IN JESUS

I try to picture it.

“Sweating blood.”

Nope. My mind registers the words, but it can’t quite comprehend being put upon to such a degree.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is a brutally honest portrayal of what was within Him during the time leading up to Him being arrested and finally led to the cross. The Bible says in Matthew 26:38 that “His soul was deeply troubled, even to the point of death.”  His burdens were monumental. Jesus was fully God and understood the importance and impact of the horrible events that were to befall Him. It was why He ultimately came to earth. Yet, Jesus was also fully human. He knew the anguish of fear and discomfort as He considered the pain, suffering, and His death that was coming.

“He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Matthew 26:39

He agonized – and that is so REAL for us to consider.

This is not some feel-good folk fable where the hero triumphs over all in front of him, without even a hint of worry or challenge. The Word lets us see the real truth of this difficult moment. In His unique status as God and Man – Jesus could fully see the depth of the task that He was to undertake. And having the total weight of all of mankind’s sin fall upon Him was only one part of the equation. For at that moment, as He became the focal point of all of that sin, His Father would knowingly turn away from Him. It all loomed menacingly over Him, trying to engulf Him. However, in the same breath of showing all of this hardship, the passage shares an incredible encouragement that we can claim for ourselves.

Even though the path was difficult and the task overwhelming, Jesus did not quit. And in this moment of ultimate pressure – He turned to His Father and sought His will.

I recently read a very thoughtful discussion of this moment on Bible.org. They brought up an interesting point that noted that Jesus was not so much saying that He was in doubt of the journey, but more that He wanted to confirm the path one last time. They then offered this powerful thought:

“Prayer did not deliver our Lord from suffering, but it did deliver Him through it.”

In that observation, I realized that the concept of “no quit” is not so much meant to show individual tenacity and willpower. It is actually intended to show a strong and constant abiding in the power, truth, and life. We do not quit our faith, nor our belief in Him who created us, because Jesus modelled what it is to stay the course in the midst of hardship. Jesus always followed the will of the Father. He could do nothing else beyond it, and He knew that there was nothing more to be found away from it. And settled in that consistent unswerving understanding, He could go on.

Jesus never quit in His obedient following. To fulfill His final goal, he weathered the storm of pain, abuse, and even momentary abandonment. He brought salvation to a lost, broken, and sin-filled world through persevering to the very end.

And through His not quitting – we received the gift of the greatest victory the world has ever known.

Hallelujah!