GETHSEMANE
Calvary was not Christ's hardest test -- Gethsemane was! Jesus knew ahead of time that he would be crucified. What made Gethsemane so critical was Jesus was given the opportunity to just call it quits and go back home to Heaven.
Jesus didn't sweat blood because he had thin veins, but because of the incredibly intense struggle going on inside him. He knew he needed to go to the cross to save fallen humanity, but at the same time, his pure spirit was utterly repulsed at the degradation, shame, rejection and pain he would experience at the hands of evil men, demons and even Father God himself!
It was more than he could bear. He begged his three disciples to pray for him, but they were too busy sleeping! In the end, Jesus had to go through it alone, and when it was over, it was an angel, and not any man, that came to strengthen him.
The sobering point is this: Jesus' struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane was the most critical moment in man's history. If Jesus had said "No. It's too hard." He would have gone back to Heaven and all of us would have been doomed to Hell. Amazingly, not one single human being understood what God was doing. If we had, every single one of us would have rushed to Jesus' side and poured out every resource at our disposal to ensure that Jesus completed his mission on our behalf.
No human knew then what God was doing, so don't be so quick or brash to assume that you know what our Sovereign and Mysterious God is up to now.
