Total Commitment

Mark 8:31-33- "And He [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

Jesus began teaching His disciples that He was going to be rejected, arrested, mocked, beaten, and eventually killed and that He would rise from the dead after three days. The thought of the Messiah suffering was so different from the Messiah the Jews of Jesus' day were expecting that sometime after declaring Jesus to be the Son of God (see Mark 8:27-30), Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke Him!

Jesus' response to Peter's rebuke is interesting, and it shows us how committed Jesus was to His mission. First it says Jesus turned and looked at His disciples. I believe that as He did this He thought about them. Jesus knew what was involved in crucifixion (which was one the most painful deaths imaginable) and He knew He was going to be crucified, but He chose to put the well being of others ahead of His own comfort and safety. Jesus willingly laid down His life for the sake of others, and because He did you and I can have a relationship with our creator. 1John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Jesus demonstrated the highest love possible by laying down His life for us, and is so doing He set an example to show us that we should lay down our lives for one another.

On the night of Jesus' arrest, He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane: "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." (Matthew 26:39) While most of us tend to focus on the fact that Jesus prayed for the cup to be taken from His lips, I believe the focus of the prayer for Jesus was the phrase: "not as I will, but as You will." As the time of His suffering drew near, Jesus prayed a prayer of unconditional surrender to the will of the Father. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we read that we are not our own because we were bought with a price. That price was the blood of Jesus. Since such Jesus paid such a high price to save us, how can not make a total commitment to do His will no matter what?

In John 18:4, which is part of John's account of Jesus arrest, we read, "Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward, and said to them, 'whom are you seeking?' " Jesus saw the officers sent from the chief priests to arrest Him (led by Judas Iscariot), He knew everything that was going to happen to Him, and He "went forward" to do what the Father sent Him to earth to do. Jesus could have called more than twelve legions of angels to help Him if He had wanted to, and the men who had come to arrest Jesus would have had no chance (In Isaiah 37:26 we read of one angel killing 185, 000 soldiers in one night, so what could 12 legions of angels would have been 13,320,000,000 do?), but Jesus went forward to offer Himself as the sacrifice to wipe away the stains of sin that separated the fallen human race from the Creator.

The example set by Jesus seems impossible for us to reach, and without His help it is impossible. However, as we read in Philippians 2:13: "for it is God who works in you to will and to do for His good pleasure." Say "yes" to God and He will begin working in you, making you both willing and able to make a total commitment to His will. Not only will God make us willing to do His will, He will actually help us to follow through with that commitment! So, are you willing? If you're not sure you can say that you are, are you willing to be made willing? You can say "yes," to Him today and you will find that despite what trials come it will all be worth it.