Where sorrow and love mingled
“I sometimes think about the cross,
and shut my eyes and try to see
the cruel nails, and crown of thorns,
and Jesus crucified for me.
But even could I see Him die,
I could but see a little part
of that great Love which, like a fire,
is always burning in His heart.”
- William Walsham How in It is a thing most wonderful
I often have tried, many a time, to imagine what He must have felt at the cross. Where Love and Sorrow mingled at the scene of the Cross. But words fail me, and imagination creates but a glimpse into a reality my heart cries out to be unending.
The bible says that it pleased the Lord to crush Him (Isaiah 53:10), but the Son was also the delight of the Father, “In whom [He] was well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Surely He must have felt sorrow, for even Jesus Himself said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.” (Matthew 26:38). And yet, He continues in a monologue which includes repetitions of “Nevertheless, Your will be done.”. Here we see love, the Son had for His Father, His desire to fulfill the will of His Father, even unto death.
In Genesis 22, I read about the story of Abraham and Isaac, his only son which God had given him in his old age. A story, in which the writer leaves out much emotional descriptions of Abraham, that tells of how Abraham was instructed to sacrifice his son to the Lord. And the sanctity of that obedience is shown in the Lord’s blessing on Abraham: to bless him and even his descendants, going as far as to say He will bless all the nations of the earth because of his seed. All this, plus the fact that God withheld Abraham from killing Isaac.
When Abraham was on the way up to the mountain and Isaac asked where was the lamb to be sacrificed, I can almost imagine the tremor in Abraham’s voice as he replied, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”(Genesis 22:8)
And I now return to a certain garden on a mount. Some millennia later, just as Abraham saw the lamb caught in the thicket, here was a Lamb, freer than freedom herself, kneeling down and whispering, “Nevertheless, Your will be done.”. I can almost hear the voice of God, echoed by Abraham’s inspired words: “God Himself will provide His son.”
The love of Jesus for His Father, the sorrow from the weight of the world, the Love of an eternal being for imperfect ones. A glimpse of the intense, all-encompassing, all-consuming Love of God, the bible says, for me. I can scarcely imagine.
As the hymn continues:
“It is most wonderful to know
His love for me so free and sure;
But tis more wonderful to see
my love for Him so faint and poor.
And yet I want to love Thee, Lord;
O light the flame within my heart,
And I will love Thee more and more,
Until I see Thee as Thou art.”
Originally published at https://hjianfeih.wixsite.com on July 19, 2020.
