23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? 24 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? 26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. 27 And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Matthew 21:23-27
Do you ever feel like you’re alone and no one understands? I think we’ve all felt that at one point or another, even if it was a fleeting feeling. Many times we say that Jesus is our example and we say that we know He understands. In reality what we mean is we know He walked the earth, was perfect, and that we should be but that’s where it ends. We don’t fully believe that He suffered the way we do. We sometimes think that because He was fully God that He didn’t have feelings, He did and He does. The cross was a physical pain, but He had more than physical pain while on this earth. Can you picture what He must have felt like this week? He literally had the weight of the world on His shoulders and the questions begin…again. In my minds eye I see the questions begin and a sigh coming from Jesus. Of course that’s just my imagination, but I’m sure by this point He was tired. Tired of the games that some were playing, tired of the attacks, tired of the accusations, and tired of the questions. Yet He knew there was more to come. He was so close to the finish line and couldn’t give up. Our spiritual walk is compared to a race. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:1 let us run with patience the race that is set before us. That’s not the only time that our walk is compared to a race, we have a finish line. Christ also had a goal and a finish line. That’s why in John 19:30 He says:
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. Christ understands exactly how we feel because He felt it too.
As christians we believe that He died and rose again and it was to restore a relationship with mankind. If we believe that then shouldn’t we also believe that He wants us to turn to Him in those moments. In the moments that although we aren’t carrying the weight of the world we feel like we are. In the moments that we are feeling attacked. In the moments that questions seems to be coming from all directions. In the moments that we’re happy and in the moments that we’re struggling? Regardless of the exact situation He wants us to turn to Him. He should be the first that we turn to. Friends are great, but our first instinct should be to turn to our first love, to turn to Jesus.
Luke 10:1-22, Matthew 21:23-27, John 12:37-50