Jesus knew that He had to be in Jerusalem on that Sunday. He knew that it was to be His final week on earth before He was executed. He still went because He knew that He had come to this world for that very purpose: to die for the sins of the world. Despite the fear, He walked on; He did not stop; He did not delay the trip to His death. Most importantly He did not change His mind when folks began to take branches of palm trees—and their clothes—and spread them on the road to welcome Him as their future king, the long-awaited Messiah. He stayed on the course that His Heavenly Father had set.

Thus, began the anxiety-provoking anticipation each day that Jesus lived for the rest of the week. No wonder in Gethsemane when He prayed, He did not sit and pray but rather He fell on the ground, as recorded by Mark. He was simply too exhausted, not only physically but also emotionally. He could not hold Himself anymore; He broke down; and He pled that He’d be relieved from this sacred duty. As He prayed, His sweat became like “great drops of blood falling on the ground” as described by Luke. He was terrified, but He stayed.

Jesus stayed and completed the mission that He came to the world for because of obedience to His Heavenly Father’s will. He knew He only had two choices: to obey or to disobey. No other choice! And that is something we can learn from Him: How we look at life, how we look at all decisions that we must make. It is always either we obey, or we disobey the will of God. There is no middle ground. We would like to think that there must be middle ground somewhere in between obedience and disobedience, but there is none. If Jesus had considered that there was middle ground in between going to Calvary or not going to Calvary, between death on the cross for the sins of the world and life as a king of the world, we would not have been freed from sin, and we would not have been here today.

Pastor Paul