The sun rises beneath the dark sky, its brightness glowing from somewhere far beyond the horizon through the early morning haze, like that one resilient ember that glows longer than all the rest, that stubborn coal that glimmers on once the fire has long burned out.
This morning the sun rises over the monster on the loose too, a giant hellion that’s waging war on the world, taking cities by storm, aiming for the most populated but stamping on every one in its path, wreaking its havoc on mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, on grandparents and children and stealing the most fragile, the ones who most deserve protection and care. Its vile power has sent the world indoors to shelter and safety and some to a loneliness and sadness so deep that the asylum is more than they can bear, almost worse than the behemoth itself, to a refuge that feels like a prison suffocating that barely burning cinder inside.
… and crucifixion Friday is coming. The globe calls it Good Friday. But it wasn’t good. It was horrific. It was a day in which evil reigned and the hardened hearts of men and women ruthlessly, savagely hung the most gentle, loving man who ever did and ever would walk the earth — the only man who could ever offer hope to this hate filled world.
It was a day not unlike today.
Yet the world didn’t want him. His very presence threatened the people of the world’s self worth and puffed up views of themselves.
He grieved and prayed alone in the garden the night before he was arrested, begging God to take away the cross with all of its pain and horror and evil. He begged his friends, the disciples, to stay with him through the night and to pray with him.
“Stay and pray with me.” Jesus asked his disciples.
Yet they fell asleep. ( Mark 26:36-46)
Loneliness consumed him.
His pain and anguish was so deep that there was blood in his sweat.
And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44
He wrestled with evil that night as he prayed for the relief of the very reason he had come to earth, and the world didn’t know it then and it doesn’t know it now, but that was the night he won.
That was the night history changed forever and victory was given freely to every single person on this earth. That was the night Jesus resisted the temptation to cave into weakness and his own humanity and said no to evil.
That was the night Jesus chose God’s sovereignty over his own desires — on his knees in prayer.
(Christ in Gethsemane, Heinrich Hofmann, 1886)
That darkest night of the soul when Jesus said no to himself, he said yes to us.
He said no to Satan and his evil schemes and to his own mortality, and chose not to call a league of angels to save him.
They were there, right beside him. They were there as surely as the greenery of the garden, as certainly as his disciples were sleeping. The angels were there with Jesus. He could have called them to keep him from the cross.
Had he called, God would have sent those twelve leagues of angels to rescue his son in less than a moment. He gave Jesus, fully human yet fully God, the opportunity to choose.
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? Matthew 26:53
Imagine the agony of the choice he made.
Jesus knew in the depths of himself that he must go to the cross, as surely as he knew God was his Father. The entire reason Jesus came to earth as a man was to go the cross.
He chose people, he chose to pay for all the sin of the world, to call humanity, brother and sister, he chose to give all that was his before the creation of the world. He chose to offer eternity over mortality, to conquer death and offer life, abundant and free. (John 10;10)
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55
Jesus chose to die for the salvation of the world eternal, the world past and present and future, when he bore the sin of humanity in his own soul on the cross.
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
Yet the cross never would have been if Jesus had not spent that time alone in prayer with God. It was there in the garden that God answered Jesus’ prayer. And it was in the garden with Jesus’ head bowed that sin was forever conquered and when, through prayer Jesus was filled with God’s strength and made his final choice to go willingly to the cross.
In the depth of the darkness, on his knees in prayer that night in the garden, Jesus was filled with God’s power and won the greatest victory the history of the world ever knew and ever will know.
Without that night in the garden, without the presence of an awake, attentive friend, without the abandonment of his beloved disciples, without those moments of desperate spiritual communion with God, no one could have ever put Jesus on the cross.
Without that night in the garden, alone, Jesus would never have risen from the dead.
The world would never celebrate His resurrection.
Victory would never have come.
There is power in prayer – in spending time alone with God.
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Now the moon rises on the skyline.
It has no light of its own.
Darkness spreads across the night as the sun dips below the earth’s edge.
Yet the darkness doesn’t block out the light.
The sun is still shining, still burning bright — shedding its light on the world.
Just because we cannot see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Rising in the darkness is an orb of reflection that lights the night by bending the rays of the sun and shooting them back to earth.
Even in the darkness, the light of the sun still shines.
The world is saved from complete and fathomless blackness by a reflection of the sun’s light.
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The monster rages on with its war.
Loved ones die of COVID-19.
The world grieves and groans under its breadth. The news blasts loud and clear with stories of the tearful trail this unrestrained monster unleashes in its compass. Over and over again, the news leaves the world empty, saddened, hopeless, bereft.
Where is the light in this darkness of COVID-19?
Where is the hope?
Countries all over strive to work a solution of their own.
Still the world refuses to bow their heads to God and pray.
God already knows the answers to this wretched virus.
He has the answers. The church needs only to pray to the one who sheds light on all things — to the one who created the moon to shine over the night.
Jesus said we’d do even greater works than he because he went to Father, referring to the fact that He would send the Holy Spirit to fill us with his power and grace – to fill us with the fruit of his spirit.
But we’re not doing the works that Jesus did.
Why?
Could it be that we are a church that has failed to pray?
Just because we can’t see God’s light doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
The world does not know God’s love and his miraculous power.
And the people may not be able to feel his love and healing power if the church will not pause to pray.
Perhaps God is waiting for his people to unite in prayer on behalf of those suffering with COVID-19.
Jesus invites us to share in his work.
God’s word is clear. Jesus does ask for his people to pray for workers for his harvest field.
The apostle Paul reminds us that our fight will NOT be won in the natural.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
Jesus reminds us repeatedly to pray and promises to answer our prayers.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. – Jesus, John 14:13, 14
Our world needs the prayers of God’s people.
Our world needs the church to reflect God’s light to our hurting world. The world needs to know that God has already overcome.
Jesus’ call is gentle and easy. He offers us peace in the midst of the storms and monsters of life.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. – Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30
He has provided peace and joy and contentment even in the midst of COVID-19. It’s ours for the taking. We need only to ask.
Jesus has conquered even death.
This isn’t all there is.
The suffering of this world is nothing compared to the eternity God has planned for us.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.— 1 Corinthians 2:9
Heavenly Father, may this monster of a virus humble us and teach us to love. May it unite us and remind us that we have a world that needs your light and love. Help us to learn to pray like you.
Lord, remind us to pray! Let it be the priority of our days.
May we be reflectors of the Your LIGHT, may we be moons amidst the darkness and offer hope to this hurting world.
May your people rise up and kneel in prayer for our world. May we be united in prayer and in support of all those who are working to help the people to recover.
Just as the darkest night you spent in prayer with our Heavenly Father before the cross brought the most glorious gift of salvation to the world, may you use this darkness of COVID-19 to teach us to pray, to love, to serve and to bless the world beyond our comprehension.
May this year, as we celebrate your Resurrection Sunday in our homes, may you begin a revival in our hearts that spreads across the world and reminds us of our need for you.
May we be living sacrifices of your love and the example of your life as you live on in us.
May it all be for your Glory.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
May God keep you safe and may you rest in his peace for you.
Blessings All!
