The road that Jesus accepted on the way to Calvary had to first pass through the Garden of Gethsemane (גת שמנים olive press in Hebrew). It was here that Jesus, in his humanity, experienced true “fear, distress, anguish, and sorrow.” These emotions which Jesus felt that night were real. According to James Keating and Thomas White, who used Thomas Aquinas, states that Jesus has two natures, human and divine. Both were aching with grief. They explain that all humans have two wills, which are caught in a web of tension. The first will is our sensitive will, which contains our emotions. The second is our rational will where our rational decisions are made. Seeing that Jesus is fully human, he had both of these wills in operation in Gethsemane. …show more content…
As Jesus and his disciples departed Jerusalem for the Garden of Gethsemane his heart was now aching with sorrow. It was at Gethsemane, which lies across the Kidron Valley that Jesus predicts that all his disciples, his closest friends, would deny him. This included Peter who would deny him, not once but three times. Although, his disciples, along with Peter, say that it will never happen, Jesus knows better.
As Jesus enters the Garden of Gethsemane he knows that his kairos (καιρός ) or definitive moment was fast approaching. Gethsemane was a place caught in time. The prophet Zechariah alludes to Gethsemane in an eschatological prophesy concerning the end of time. According to Zechariah’s allusion Jesus will come back to Gethsemane for the final judgment. Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel, because of the sins of God’s people, sees in a vision the Glory of God departing the temple heading east toward a Mountain, which is most likely Gethsemane. Yet, Jesus’ kairos was in the present. As he stood at the gate to Gethsemane his sorrowful heart was quickly turning to anguish. However, Gethsemane must have been a place of comfort. It was in Gethsemane that Jesus taught his disciples. It was only a few days earlier in Gethsemane, that Jesus had predicted his kairos, which was now upon him.
Jesus wanted to be reassured that his kairos was the will of the Father. As a result,
The existence of pain and suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God is a fundamental theological dilemma and may be the most serious objection to the Christian religion. In the book, The Problem Of Pain , author C.S. Lewis addresses the issue of pain as a mere problem that demands a solution; he formulates it and goes about solving it. "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both" (p. 16). According to Lewis, this is the problem of pain in its simplest form. In his attempt to solve the problem of pain Lewis evaluates the past and the origin of religion, he
Matthew’s Christology is one that emphasises to a Jewish audience the Jewishness of Jesus. It will be the purpose of this paper to argue that the raison d’etre of Matthew’s Christology is to portray Jesus as entirely compatible if not with the Judaism of his day then with ancient Judaic tradition, namely the Old Testament. Whilst there are numerous titles given to Jesus that are exclusive/predominant within the Matthean account, such as that of Son of God, it is the writer’s assertion that these merely complement Matthew’s central theses; this being the portrayal of Jesus as Messiah and so, as such, will not be investigated except where they promote this conclusion. This fulfilment of Judaic tradition will be
Jesus' death was an act of love that represents his final testimony to his trust in the faithful and loving God he proclaimed as his father.
He sought to stay close to God by avoiding committing “the sins of the flesh,” again. He wanted to live a more righteous life than he had when he was living against the will of God. He felt that each person, should, above all things, have a relationship with God.
Yet only in Matthew does Peter have a role in the story. Upon seeing Jesus on the water, he calls out, "'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water'"(Mt. 14.28). He almost succeeds, yet he suddenly gives in to fear and begins sinking. Jesus scolds him by saying, " 'You of little faith, why do you doubt?'"(14.31). This draws a strange picture of Peter. He no longer simply listens to Jesus, but tries to become actively involved in his teacher's lessons. This idea is again shown in Matthew 15.15. After the parable of the blind leading the blind, Peter asks, " "Explain this parable to us." Jesus replies with a rather impatient remark, but dives a little further into the meaning. He often comes to Jesus with questions throughout Matthew and these questions always ask for clear definitions of stories or truths about some spiritual detail. Many times Jesus snaps a little at him, but Peter obviously is not swayed by any impatience his teacher bestows. This seems to paint a closer relationship between the two men, where Peter is not afraid of Jesus and Jesus is not simply polite to Peter, as teachers tend to be. Jesus' obvious favoritism of Peter, shown in the transfiguration and throughout the gospel, leads one to believe that the two are indeed close friends with trust and mutual respect, which allows them to be freer with their words to one another. Friends tend to be less polite and more open with
The charity I picked to receive the $1000 is Matthew 25 Ministries. It is a disaster relief charity and much more. It’s location is 11060 Kenwood Rd, Blue Ash, OH 45242. I picked this charity because it is a worthy organization that provides resources to those who are in need of food, clean water and cleaning supplies, etc. This charity helps prevent diseases by supplying clean water to rural places. It also helps improve the economy of these places by teaching the people skills and sustainable practices.
Setting (7:1–13). “After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not
He even asked for forgiveness and was humbled to the point of death. This is another strong quality he shared with Jesus. Jesus was deserted by all his friends, yet through his strong heart he endured. In John Coffey we see a true Christ figure that had miraculous powers and died in the place of another. This movie is a great representation of Jesus Christ and the life that he lived.
Privately, Jesus warns the disciples three times that not everything will happen the way they expect: "the Son of Man will be betrayed and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up" (Matthew 17:22-23).
The Gospel according to Matthew is the first book in the New Testament, and also serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel tells us of Jesus and his teachings. It is believed that the Gospel originated with Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, and it circulated anonymously (Harris 149). The message in this gospel was compiled to minister to a Jewish and Jewish-Christian community when tensions between early Christians and postwar Jewish leaders aggravated bitter controversy. The Gospel of Matthew was written as an encouragement to the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians and Gentiles who were, at least partly, Torah observant during the 80s C.E. probably at Antioch in Syria
The teachings of Jesus focused primarily on the "the kingdom of God" and were usually relayed through parables drawing on familiar images from agricultural life. He rebuked the hypocrisy of some Jewish leaders and taught the importance of love and kindness, even to one's enemies. Jesus' popularity grew quickly, but so did opposition from local leaders. Roman rulers were uncomfortable with the common perception that he was the Messiah who would liberate the Jews from Roman rule, while Jewish leaders were disquieted by Jesus' shocking interpretations of Jewish law, his power with the people, and the rumor that he had been alluding to his own divinity. In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly suggests to his disciples his end is near, but they do not fully understand or accept the idea. The clearest expression of this is at the "Last Supper," which took place on the night before his death. All four Gospels record that Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples, asking them to "do this in remembrance of me." Christians celebrate this event in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion. On this evening Jesus also predicts that one of them will betray him, which is met with astonishment and denial. But that very night, Jesus' fate was sealed when Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples and possibly the group's treasurer, led Roman soldiers to Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As they arrested Jesus, the ever-colorful Peter defended his master with a sword, slicing off
The beatitudes are just a sample of the many teachings that this book has to offer.
Jesus had to carry his own cross, that probably weighed two times his size, all the way up to wear the crucifixion was going to take place. Already beaten and bloody, they lay him down onto the cross shaped piece of wood and begin by nailing his hands and feet into it and standing the cross up into the air. What a brutal sight it must have been for God to see his only son tortured like this, but the good news is that he knew what his plan was for Jesus and for his people and he knew what was going to happen after all this was over. Jesus died hanging from that cross, washing all of our sin away and paying the ultimate sacrifice. After he died he was wrapped in a white cloth and placed into a tomb with a boulder sealing the door to the outside world. Three days after being placed in there, the people went to check up on the tomb to find that the boulder was pushed aside and the white cloth was folded neatly where Jesus was laying. The son of God, the Messiah, rose again from the dead to fulfill his mission so that we may have everlasting life in God’s kingdom. God’s plan for our life and through Jesus he teaches us that if we follow in God’s word and make him our most prized possession and ask for him to be in our hearts that we may to “escape the penalty that God will execute upon all who have broken His
In the USCCB Bible, there are cross references to other Bible verses, ones that relate or have the same meaning or message. For Matthew’s account in the Bible, there are three cross references. The first is from John Chapter 4, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.” Jesus is saying that all he needs is to do what God wants. But even Jesus wanted to be spared from suffering. He still went through with the Passion, showing that he truly does everything God
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.