Thinking About Easter part 2

So it has now been two weeks since easter and a lot has happened, and I have been doing a lot of studying and reading since that day and there is one thing that I still can't wrap my mind around, "Why would Jesus, while in the garden begging for the cup to be taken from him and stainning so hard that he was sweating blood, pray for me?"

Usually, when I am going through struggles I pray, but not for anyone else.  I am usually praying for God to take the cup from me, and then give him a list of compromises that i will 'try' and uphold so that I can get out with as little pain as possible.  Then I read the gospel acount of Jesus' prayer in the Garden before the soldiers arrested him.  He prayed for his disciples, he prayed for those who would betray him, and the he prayed for the future believers.  I was dumb struck.  Jesus, when he could have called down legions of angels to save himself, was thinking about you and me and desided that we were worth the agony that He was about to endure.  It is a humbling experience.

I want to try and think of others more than myself.  I want to try and help others no matter what struggles I am going through myself.  I want to consider others worth everything to save them.

this is a pic to Joe Matthews when we bought WalMart out of easter eggs for rez week.

Thinking about Easter- Part 1

While reading and studying about Jesus' life over this past week, I found myself in the Garden of Gethsenemie for a few days.  I read about Jesus going to pray, the disciples sleeping and having to be wakened, and I read about Jesus sweating blood.  I read about Judas betraying and leading a group of soldiers to the garden and giving Jesus into their hands with a kiss.

And then all chaos broke loose.  There was a struggle, and at some point in this struggle, Peter grabbed a soldier's sword and cut off his ear.  Then in the middle of a struggle of his own, Jesus bent down, took the ear off the ground and placed it back on the solider's head.  The soldier was completely healed.  That is where I want to stay right now.

This soldier woke up that morning.  Probably ate a breakfast that his wife had cooked.  He probably saw the kids off and kissed his wife on the cheek before heading to work.  After a rather long day he is given one more assignment in the middle of the night.  He and a group of other soldiers on the night shift follow a man (who up until this point had been a close follower of Jesus) who is supposed to hand over a man with a kiss.  Then as they start to arrest Jesus, his disciples try and fight back, and this soldier gets his ear cut off with his own sword.

I don't know about you, but I think that that probably hurt, a lot.  He probably bent over in pain, and was looking for relief.  Then his eyes met Jesus' and Jesus told his guys to stop fighting.  Jesus bent over to this solidier and touched him.  Physically touch his head ans healed his ear.  And I can only think that that soldier was changed forever that night.  I think that Jesus not only healed his physical need, but toughed his soul.  When he returned home, I garuntee that he had a life changing story to tell his family.  Who knows how much impact this man had on those around him for the rest of his life?