Very Dark Night

Except for sharing a wonderful last meal with His closest friends, Holy Thursday, over 2,000 years ago, in Jerusalem, was for Jesus' a most awful, dreadful, no fun, and very dark night.

His most trusted disciples fell asleep while He prayed. He sweated blood from His brow in anguish, knowing the pain He would soon endure. He received no answer to desperate prayer for another way to go. He was betrayed by a close friend for a mere pittance of silver and a brotherly kiss. His best supporter drew a sword, committing a great act of violence on His behalf. He was eventually arrested, roughly seized, and chained hand and foot. And every one of His followers with Him that night ran off to hide in the dark.

Jesus was hauled in by armed guards to appear before a sham clandestine court, bent on finding Him guilty. His closest disciple denied Him three times. He was accused of many things He did not do. Lies were told about Him. He was spat upon. He was slapped with an open hand and beat with a closed fist. He was taunted and treated with the greatest disdain. He was ultimately convicted of false crimes requiring the punishment of death. Finally, at evening's end, Jesus was thrown into a jail cell of sorts to stew until morning.

During this time, there would be no rest for the man of many, many recent sorrows. No doubt, as near His cell as she could possibly get, His mother cried. And yet, like a fading torch struggling still to pierce the darkness, Jesus clung to a hope-filled heart, knowing this night simply had to be, knowing His sacrifice for the world's sin was a necessity, knowing His love for mankind would surely see Him through the suffering, and knowing it was all part of God's grand divine plan. In His heart and mind and soul, Jesus knew there was a golden needle of hope residing deep in the heart of this otherwise calamitous stack of hay.

Is there a lesson here for those of us who would surely have been crushed and would have eventually succumbed to the heaviness of such darkness? Besides the fact that Jesus was/is/and will always be the Son of God, meaning He was never blind to what was going on, though His detractors did indeed blindfold Him. He knew full well what was transpiring around Him and why. Jesus modeled for us what we must strive to do with the Holy Spirit in all difficult situations…to have faith. We must trust God is in control and that His purposes will be met. And we must trust that He loves us and wants only the best for us. His Will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. No matter how awful, dreadful, no fun, or dark any of our nights might get, He must forever be our the inspiration for our last flicker of hope.
 

Matthew 6:22-23, 26:54-56
Luke 22:53
Ephesians 6:12

*apologies and thanks to Judith Viorst and her children's book titled, "Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

**and thanks for the inspiration of Max Lucado when he wrote about Holy Thursday as "the darkest night in history," in his book titled Just Like Jesus