This and the next several posts after it provide a helpful backdrop towards an understanding of the fact that the element of sacrifice is never enough to make your worship acceptable to God. However, to see how it all fits in, you will need to read the entire 15 posts this week, as well as watch the podcasts.

For the moment, let me take you on a mental tour of the last lap of our Lord’s journey: from the Olives Groove to Golgotha’s peak. First, it was a night of exhausting and bleeding supplication with neither physical nor emotional support from His closest friends. Then one of the members of His inner circle stabbed Him in the back by betraying Him to His enemies. It was a most painful phase of His mission.

Yet, notice how he kept caring for others and responding to their needs in spite of His tremendous agony. When one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, saw that the mob was going to arrest Jesus Christ, he cut off the the ear of one of them; slashed it right off! And what did Jesus do? Jesus reached down and picked it up and put it back.

⁴⁹ When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” ⁵⁰ And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.⁵¹ But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
~Luke 22:49-51

Now He did this in spite of His pain, torment, and agony. In spite of His acute suffering at this time, Jesus kept helping people. This is really amazing and encouraging. It helps me to know that no matter what, I can always count on the Lord to reach out and help me. But it also inspires me to never let my pains hinder me from reaching out to help others.

Now, remember that this interesting observation from Jesus painful trek to Golgotha provides a helpful backdrop towards understanding the main point of this week’s podcast episodes. So, don’t miss a single post, and don’t miss a single podcast!