How Jesus sets an example for overcoming life’s hardest moments …

The simplest reading through the life of Christ reveals Jesus loved people!

But make no mistake about it, among all the stories in the four Gospels are times we see that putting up with the foolishness of human beings was sometimes frustrating for Jesus. We can relate to that!

But I think there were a couple of specific moments in the earthly life of Jesus that were His most difficult.

What were they?

I haven’t seen any studies on this, but chances are most biblically literate Christians would guess that time spent in the Garden of Gethsemane was the hardest time of Jesus’ human experience …

“Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, ‘Sit here while I go over there to pray.’ He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, ‘My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me,'” Matthew 26:36-38.

There, we see Him wrestling in prayer to the Father with the idea of going to cross …

“He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine,'” Matthew 26:39.

Three times in prayer that night, Jesus sought an avenue other than the cross to accomplish God’s mission, but always surrendered that desire to a much greater desire – to do the will of the Father.

That was a tough night in the Garden, one I’m sure many would vote as being the hardest moments of Jesus’ life.

But there may have been one other time that just might have been just as hard.

Certainly knowing your arrest was soon to come, and what that would lead to, could cause great distress. But that’s because there you are in the moment, everything is “in play,” the plan is happening!

But what about that moment of choosing to go to Jerusalem in the first place?

While Jesus was out ministering to the people, I can’t help believe making that final decision to turn toward Jerusalem and go there knowing He would be rejected by His creation and crucified had to be one of — if not the — hardest moments of His life.

But there was no hesitation.

In fact, scripture tells us Jesus “set His face” toward Jerusalem. In other words, in spite of knowing what would happen then, Jesus was absolutely resolute to go to Jerusalem in order to accomplish His mission and fulfill the will of His Father:

“As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem,” Luke 9:51.

More than 30 years of living on Earth had brought Jesus family, friends, followers – a life many would choose to continue. But would He finally and ultimately direct His trek to Jerusalem to offer Himself as a sacrifice for humanity?

Yes.

Jesus was “resolute” — firmly resolved, set, determined — to make His way to Jerusalem! I think that had to be one of the hardest moment’s of His human experience, setting the final trajectory of His life and being absolutely resolute to fulfill the mission to redeem humanity.

What brought Jesus through such an impassioned experience in the Garden that “… he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood” (Lk.22:44b)? I believe it was that earlier moment when Jesus “set His face,” when He was resolute to take the hardest trek but the only one that would fulfill His Father’s will.

What brought Jesus through the most difficult times of His earthly experience was His being resolute about fulfilling the will of His Father.

That’s also how you and I can make it through the most difficult times in our lives — by being resolute to accomplish God’s will for our lives no matter the direction, no matter the difficulty, and no matter the cost. If we are resolute about that, we will finish well.

Have you “set your face” to accomplish your part in God’s mission? Are you resolute about fulfilling the Father’s will for your life?

Scotty