T
Thoughtfulone
Guest
I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about the Agony in the garden and also about what it means to have offended God through our sins. I, like many, have found it difficult to have perfect contrition, or the sorrow for simply having offended God, regardless of a fear of hell.
I mean, how can our sins really offend God that much? How is the almighty God affected by our little lapses and sins in such a way that we should have true contrition? Yes, Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins, but without MY particular sins, He would have had to suffer and die anyway for the sake of the rest of humanity, right? So what’s the big deal?
To start, let’s begin with how God might see things.
If God exists outside of time, and we on a sort of “timeline”, if you will, then God sees everything: past, present, future - all at once. This has been used as a way of explaining how God can know what we will do without compromising our free will. He knows because He sees it all happening without the construct of time that we as humans are bound by. He sees our future choices because for Him, the future is something He sees as easily as the past.
This got me thinking about the Garden of Gethsemane and Christ’s Agony there.
The agony could not just have been a fear of pain and death, not if Christ is God. Was this the very moment that Christ took on all of our sins, all of our guilt, in preparation for His sacrifice? What if, in that garden, Jesus Christ was actually feeling the full weight of our sins at that moment? Perhaps He was even feeling the effects of that sin, the incredible weight of guilt, the separation from God, the taint and the ugliness of it all? As a perfect being, as God Himself, the feeling of taking on sin itself must have been the REAL agony. It must have been almost unbearable.
Now what if Jesus, in His agony, but still being God, saw each and every sin that each of us has ever committed, and felt its full weight right then and there? Was Christ actually feeling the taint and the full spiritual effects of each and every sin that was ever to be committed? Was he feeling the full weight of each and every sin that He was about to expiate on the cross? Was this His agony? If the answer is YES, then each and every sin we commit actually DOES hurt God (Jesus) in a VERY real and tangible way. If this is the case, the each and every time we choose to do wrong instead of right, evil instead of good, we are adding to Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane in a very REAL and tangible way, not some small, abstract way.
By that same token, the angels DID come to Him and comfort Him in the garden. What if they were reminding Him, showing Him all of the GOOD things humanity would ever do? What if they were showing Christ each and every time we make the choice for good instead of evil. What if they were showing Him the millions of faithful that would exist and all of their good works and deeds? What if every good deed you have ever done or will ever do provided Jesus Christ with some comfort and helped to bolster His strength for what He was about to do for all of us, which is dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins?
Anyway, it is by thinking this way that I have started on the path to true contrition for my sins, because I am able to see how MY individual sins, the choices I make NOW, may have caused Christ so much pain in the hours when he needed our comfort the most, and how turning from my sins may provide Him with some comfort in that same Garden.
God has promised not to remember the sins that he forgives through Reconciliation. By going to Reconciliation, are we in some small way reducing Christ’s Agony by not having Him feel the immense weight of our sins during those final hours?
Christ asked the apostles to STAY AWAKE and not fall asleep in the Garden! Was He talking to us as well? Is Christ reaching out to us to help Him in His most desperate hour?
Is it even possible that we can provide our Lord with some consolation in the Garden?
I mean, how can our sins really offend God that much? How is the almighty God affected by our little lapses and sins in such a way that we should have true contrition? Yes, Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins, but without MY particular sins, He would have had to suffer and die anyway for the sake of the rest of humanity, right? So what’s the big deal?
To start, let’s begin with how God might see things.
If God exists outside of time, and we on a sort of “timeline”, if you will, then God sees everything: past, present, future - all at once. This has been used as a way of explaining how God can know what we will do without compromising our free will. He knows because He sees it all happening without the construct of time that we as humans are bound by. He sees our future choices because for Him, the future is something He sees as easily as the past.
This got me thinking about the Garden of Gethsemane and Christ’s Agony there.
The agony could not just have been a fear of pain and death, not if Christ is God. Was this the very moment that Christ took on all of our sins, all of our guilt, in preparation for His sacrifice? What if, in that garden, Jesus Christ was actually feeling the full weight of our sins at that moment? Perhaps He was even feeling the effects of that sin, the incredible weight of guilt, the separation from God, the taint and the ugliness of it all? As a perfect being, as God Himself, the feeling of taking on sin itself must have been the REAL agony. It must have been almost unbearable.
Now what if Jesus, in His agony, but still being God, saw each and every sin that each of us has ever committed, and felt its full weight right then and there? Was Christ actually feeling the taint and the full spiritual effects of each and every sin that was ever to be committed? Was he feeling the full weight of each and every sin that He was about to expiate on the cross? Was this His agony? If the answer is YES, then each and every sin we commit actually DOES hurt God (Jesus) in a VERY real and tangible way. If this is the case, the each and every time we choose to do wrong instead of right, evil instead of good, we are adding to Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane in a very REAL and tangible way, not some small, abstract way.
By that same token, the angels DID come to Him and comfort Him in the garden. What if they were reminding Him, showing Him all of the GOOD things humanity would ever do? What if they were showing Christ each and every time we make the choice for good instead of evil. What if they were showing Him the millions of faithful that would exist and all of their good works and deeds? What if every good deed you have ever done or will ever do provided Jesus Christ with some comfort and helped to bolster His strength for what He was about to do for all of us, which is dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins?
Anyway, it is by thinking this way that I have started on the path to true contrition for my sins, because I am able to see how MY individual sins, the choices I make NOW, may have caused Christ so much pain in the hours when he needed our comfort the most, and how turning from my sins may provide Him with some comfort in that same Garden.
God has promised not to remember the sins that he forgives through Reconciliation. By going to Reconciliation, are we in some small way reducing Christ’s Agony by not having Him feel the immense weight of our sins during those final hours?
Christ asked the apostles to STAY AWAKE and not fall asleep in the Garden! Was He talking to us as well? Is Christ reaching out to us to help Him in His most desperate hour?
Is it even possible that we can provide our Lord with some consolation in the Garden?
