No, I Won't Go

If we are not careful, we can take Grace for granted. Especially during a Holiday weekend such as this, we get distracted. There is a lot going on in town. We get busy. From the beginning of time, God understood that our gift of being created with free will would lead us to sin. He was never distracted. He knew the price that would ultimately have to be paid for our sin nature. We see that knowledge in the prophesies of the Old Testament. When Jesus was in the garden on the night he was to be betrayed, he knew the suffering he would endure, and it was coming fast. Although fully God, he was also fully man and would experience the pain and suffering. He prayed to the father, “if this cup could pass from me…” and then, what if he said… No, I am not going to do this. I am not going to go through this for these sinful people. At that moment, the great chasm in Sheol disappeared plunging the Old Testament saints into the same torment as the unbelieving pagans. Lazarus, as well as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, David, Joseph, and all others of faith would find themselves in the same Hellish place as the rich man of Luke 16. All who had died, were living, or to be born would carry the same price for the sin of Adam. But no…..Christ at that moment said, Not my will, but yours, the Father’s will be done, rescuing from eternal torment all who put their faith and trust on the saving and redemptive Grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He allowed himself to be scorned, beaten, and nailed to a Roman cross so we would have a sinless sacrifice worthy of covering our sinfulness. Something to think about as we take time during communion to remember Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, but because he lived, we too shall live in paradise and not in torment in the presence of a Holy Father.