Today Pastor Dale continued our series looking at Jesus' final days in Mark 14:27-32. In the passage we see Jesus praying with His Father. Jesus is about to step into the ultimate sacrifice, fulfilling God's will to reconcile humanity to Him through His son. While it's reasonable to wonder why God wanted Jesus to die the way he did, perhaps we should ask why God wanted Jesus to live the way he did.

What God wanted for Jesus, He wants for all of us, to live in the reality of God‘s kingdom. God wanted Jesus to live the kindness that is at the core of the divine identity, while also living as one of us facing all the trials and troubles that fragile human flesh must face. God wanted Jesus to live this way so that we could see what life in the kingdom of God, which is a truly human life, is all about. And not simply to show us, but also to forge a path into the kingdom and give us a way to be what God created us to be.

Jesus lived the life our Father willed for Him including death on the cross, all because His Father, our Father, IS love. When we exist in the love that is God, it is not just being at a place where we can say “It is truly well with my soul. It is love that makes it possible to join Jesus in saying “not what I will, but what you will.” It is from that place that dead things come to life.