On any other day, the young man from Nazareth, the son of a carpenter, whom they named Jesus, would have easily hauled the heavy wooden log up the hill called Calvary! Yet, on that fateful day He simply could not!Under normal circumstances, carrying a heave object would not have presented a problem for the Son of Joseph, the Carpenter, but not on that particular day. Circumstances had made it physically impossible.
On this day the load was just too heavy!
The burdensome walk up the Via Dolorosa through the jeering crowd was just to long and hard!
On any other day, He would have easily carried a cross, but on this day, Jesus was just too tired.
Jesus had not slept the night before.
He had been cruelly tortured and savagely beaten. The soldiers had brutally plucked out his beard with pliers. His body was painfully cut and lacerated. A crown of thorns had been thrust into his skull. He had lost a great deal of blood. Jesus was in excruciating physical and emotional pain. He was hyperventilating and utterly exhausted.
He was traumatized and emotionally and psychologically disoriented. He had been beaten to the point of death.The shocking fact is, the Son of the Living God, Jesus the Christ, could not carry His own cross!
He collapsed and fell under the weight of the very cross that He was destined to be nailed to.
He lay powerless and broken, face down and defeated on a dirt road. The Daughters of Jerusalem wept!
He had somewhere important to go, but He could not get there by Himself.
His divine mission was to reach the top Golgotha’s Hill.
To be sacrificed as the Lamb that would take away the sins of the world…..but He could not!
He could not by himself fulfill his own destiny!
He just could not get from the place where he was, to where He needed to go!
The Roman soldiers had worn Him out. Judas had betrayed Him. His friends had deserted Him. His nation had abandoned Him. The crown of thorns blinded Him. His Mother stood by weeping. The minutes felt like hours. The end of the road had come.
Jesus had a dilemma!
He had come into this world to be the Saviour of all Mankind!
He had come to bond divinity and humanity together in unity.
He knew, that unless He be lifted up onto that cross, mankind would forever be under the power of deception and darkness.
Jesus knew that only through the cross, He would be able to “deliver us from the power of darkness and convey us into the kingdom of His love.” Col 1. 12
Jesus was in a quandary, because he knew that “for this purpose the son of God was made manifest, to destroy the works of the evil one.” John 3.8
Jesus understood that only by dying on that cross He could restore mankind’s innocence .Jesus knew that only on the cross He could forever” wipe out the handwriting of requirements that was against us and was contrary to us and nail it to his cross in his own body” Col 2;14
He knew that without the cross He could not remove mankind’s condemnation, guilt and inferiority.
Jesus was aware that unless He personally cancelled out the animosity towards his Maker poisoning man’s hostile and darkened mind, that separation and distance between man and God would forever prevail in mankind’s mentality… for it was through Him that we would have access to the Father . EPH 2; 18 (Par)
His conversation with Nicodemus flashed through His feverish mind;
‘ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness , even so must the son of God be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.16 for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. John 3.14,16
He was in deep trouble!
He had he most important reason in the world to get to the top of the hill, yet he could not get from point A to point B!
Yet, Jesus knew that His Father could!
He knew that His Father knew where He needed to be!
That God would find a way to get Him from point A to point B!
That God knows how to make a way where there seems to be no way!
His Father knew how to get Jesus onto the Cross!
Grace would find a way to Redeem mankind from estrangement and sin. Love knows how to reconcile a fallen creation to Himself.
He knew that Love and Grace would find a way, even when it appears to be impossible!
The Father had called and prepared a man called Simon!
Simon had just journeyed in from Cerene, and was standing at the just the right place at the right time. And Simon was strong enough to lift up that cross.
Jesus was in His deepest and darkest moment of defeat, failure and despair.
Yet through broken lips, mouth filled with blood and dust Jesus trusted and called only on His Father, and His Father sent Simon.
When your personal hopes and dreams are dashed by life’s circumstances; When the midnight hour has struck, and you find yourself in your darkest hour of despair facing the impossible; When the tide has turned and drifted out, and you find yourself stranded high and dry, unable to get from where you are to where you need to be;
When trouble comes and friends are nowhere to be found; When your Bank account is empty and the grocery cupboard bare; When your life is no longer working and your destiny seems out of reach; When even your divine calling and heavenly mandate appears lost: When you cant seem to get from where you are, to where you need to be! Who do you call upon?
Nobody and nothing can fulfill your destiny but God.
The Father knows exactly where you are, and where you need to be! He knows how to bring you from here to there!From from wherever you are to wherever you need to be!
Failure and disappointment sometimes causes us to stop believing God in our hearts, while we still ‘believe’ Him with our mouth.
God knows how to get you out of your dilemma. Out of failure. Out of fear. Out of sin, temptation, and confusion. When Jesus was down, He did not cry out to Simon, He cried out to God, and God sent Simon.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Psalm 50:15
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