Hebrews 5:7-9

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him - Hebrews 5:7-9

Dear Jesus,

It's Wednesday of Holy Week. We don't have anything recorded in the Gospel accounts about what you did on Wednesday of that last week just two days before you died for us. We only know that on Thursday you came back into Jerusalem from Bethany. I think you spent the day in prayer. You had been contemplating the great sacrifice you were about to make for millennia. You talked about it in detail as if it had already happened in Old Testament times. (Isaiah 49, 50, 53, Psalm 2, 22, 69, 110, Zechariah 3) You had been telling your disciples this was coming. You even said this was your last trip to Jerusalem. So, I think you spent the day wrestling with God in prayer. Your verse in Hebrews describes how in your earthly life you had fervent prayers, cries and tears to your father who could save you from death. You prayed not in defiant anger but in broken hearted obedience. You perfected obedience by doing the unthinkable for the Father and for me. You were fully engaged and fully aware of what it cost. It took perfect faith that God the Father would accept the sacrifice for all humans and raise you from the dead. Today as I spend Wednesday of Holy Week thinking about your last Wednesday, help me to learn how to obey from the heart and how to suffer all the painful circumstances of my life with faith, hope and love. Make me a man of God in all circumstances.

Amen

Pastor Don Patterson

Jesus was fully engaged his whole life right to the end so that we might have a reason to fully engage with him.