No matter the tortures, Jesus would not turn from His Father.  Will you?

   In the agony of the garden, Jesus asks “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.”  He sees His Passion before Him, yet He continues, “still, not my will but yours be done.” [Luke 22:42]  He did not want to accept His Passion, but He would not separate Himself from His Father to do so.  He lives out the prayer He gave us by submitting His will to ‘thy will be done.’

   And Jesus is then faced with tortures.  He is taken by night to the Sanhedrin to be judged guilty.  At any point during His Passion, He could have stopped everything, but to do so, He would have had to separate Himself from His Father.  But in the garden, Jesus had already submitted to taking upon Himself our sins.  And sins have a punishment due them, and to remain in His Father, He knew His must submit to His Father’s laws and so He submitted to ‘thy kingdom come.’

   At any moment, Jesus could have denounced His Father, but He never did.  He called God the Father, His Father throughout His ministry and He did not stop now.  The submission of His will to the Father’s will and His body to the punishments due the sins He bore from us.  He lasted through all of the tortures and even died saying, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” [Luke 23:46]

   And lest we forget, Jesus fulfilled the remaining requirement from His prayer.  Calling upon His Father, He said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  Bearing our sins, He forgave those ‘who trespassed against’ Him.  Did He need to forgive them to receive forgiveness for our sins that He bore?  That is debatable, but Jesus forgave them.  Indeed, He forgives us for the sins that we commit that He had to bear during His Passion and Death.

   Is that it?  NO!  Jesus was a perfect Son to the perfect Father and received great glory.  He was resurrected and taken into Heaven.  Indeed, though we are imperfect, the perfect Son has taken away our imperfections and we can receive the resurrection promised to us in Heaven.

   Jesus, please help us to live out the Our Father, so as to accept God the Father as our Father.  Help us to do so, especially when we feel the torture of this world.  Amen.