“Made Vulnerable”
Luke 22:39-62
And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” – Luke 22:41-42
One of the most difficult feelings to deal with is vulnerability. Nations spend billions of dollars to not feel vulnerable to an attack. And on a personal level we too will invest in whatever it takes to not feel vulnerable.
But vulnerability is a condition for unconditional love, because “love always trusts” [1 Cor 13:7]. Trust, however, involves susceptibility, it requires being at risk to another. And that is why many fear relationship; it stems from a fear of vulnerability to another.
Trust, therefore, is the key ingredient lacking in a failed relationship. Because where trust lacks, love lacks. It really is a simple equation, yet difficult for so many of us to figure out.
In our passage this morning we will witness the greatest act of love that this world has ever seen. Jesus, our Lord, made himself vulnerable to sinners. Think of it. Jesus, fully God, at the right hand of the Father, came to this world and made Himself susceptible to sinners. Why? Because He loves sinners like you and me. Jesus said, “I have not come for the healthy but for the sick.” And then He exposed Himself unto death. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” [Jn 15:13]
When you look at how Jesus laid down his life [He was mocked, spit upon, shamed, and made a public spectacle] you begin to understand just how much he loves you. The depth of his love is revealed in how vulnerable He made Himself. And we gain deep insight into this when He made Himself vulnerable in the garden of Gethsemane.
Gethsemane means winepress and our Lord was pressed from all sides of darkness in His final hours. That pressing was the way by which the Spirit would be anointed upon believers in Christ from that first generation until now.
Pressing, “it can make you or break you” as the saying goes. Our Lord’s Gethsemane pressing [as fully Man], is what made the New Testament Church. It makes us a new creation in Christ [ref. 2 Cor 5:17].
May we continue to walk in this newness of life and never look back. There was too much invested to ever go back.
Let’s always be looking upward and forward and never backward. The only life for us is the one for Jesus.
