A Father's pain
Simone has been on antibiotics after giving birth and last week we noticed that this was affecting Hannah giving her quite a bit of discomfort, leading her to be quite unsettled and she sometimes will cry for long periods without Simone or I being able to console her. Simone's off the antibiotics now and it's slowly leaving Simone's system as well as Hannah's - but it's been quite an awful thing to go through. It's especially distressing because when Hannah is crying, she looks just like Simone when she is upset (all other times I can't tell if Hannah looks like us at all!). As a father looking at my baby in pain and being unable to help - I can't remember feeling as powerless.
The experience brought be back to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying in desperation to His Father - the perfect Father, from whom every Father in heaven and earth is named. If I as a Father feel rotten at the pain of my child, how much more the pain of God the Father, seeing His perfect Son, whom he has loved from eternity, earnestly praying to him in agony. None of the accounts communicate the Jesus' agony so much as Luke's version - which I'm especially interested in this year.
Yet, as I looked at Luke's story, I noticed a detail which had never meant much to me before. God sends an angel to comfort and strengthen His Son as He is praying. I'd passed over it before, but now, seeing this detail from my limited experience as a Father, it speaks to me of great tenderness, kindness and love. Read it for yourself:
He came out, and went, as his custom was, to the Mount of Olives. His disciples also followed him. When he was at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you don’t enter into temptation.” He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples, and found them sleeping because of grief, and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Monday 4:28 pm, January 5 2009 - Permalink
Categories: JesusLuke,
- Consequences of Prayer in Luke and Acts
- How to host a great Backyard Bard storytelling event
- New Structure for Public Bible Reading Workshops
- Short Talk from Jonah
- Lessons from Paul's Third Missionary Journey
- Short Talk from Ruth
- New Workshop Structure - 'Connecting' and 'Communicating'
- First place in everything
- The low-hanging fruit in church
- Tips for better Bible reading
- A brief history of Public Bible Reading
- The Transfiguration happened at night!
- Misreading the Beatitudes
- Jesus: A Short Life - John Dickson
- A Father's pain
- Certainty of what you've been taught
- I said to myself: "Self, ..."
- Why stories are important in the Bible
- Gabriel would tell us off as well
- No longer pokey
- Purpose of this blog
