"Now Is My Soul Troubled"

When the Lord Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem the people cried out, "Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel" (John 12. 13), but though they so welcomed Him He knew they would soon be saying, "Away with this man... crucify Him."

Throughout the Lord's sojourn upon this earth the prospect of Golgotha's terrible death was constantly before Him, and the thought of it lay heavily upon his heart. In anticipation of it He had earlier said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished" (Luke 12. 50).

As the time draws near, for the twelfth chapter of John brings us to the last week of that God-honouring life, He exclaims, "Now is My soul troubled" (verse 27). What shall He say regarding it all-"Father, save Me from this hour?" That He could not say; or else His words in John 4. 34; 5. 30; and 6. 38 are meaningless--"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me"; "I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me"; "I am come down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." Therefore, in keeping with that marked consistency which always characterized the Lord's utterances, every one of which was related one to another, He says, "But for this cause came I unto this hour." Nevertheless, He was sorely troubled about those coming sufferings. There was the treatment He would receive from men-by friend forsaken, by foe persecuted, even unto death; and then, more agonizing than all, was that from God, when like an outcast He would be forsaken because of becoming the Sin-bearer. In deep soul trouble was the Blessed Lord, the Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief; "Who in the days of His flesh... learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5. 7 and 8), and who had to pass through suffering before He could enter into His glory (see Luke 24. 26). But now,

His sorrows, all are o'er;

And oh, sweet thought! His eye shall weep,

His heart shall break no more.

Sweet, too, is the thought that a glorious future awaits Him when "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53. 11).

unknown | Jul 1932
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