Jesus’ intimacy with the Lord was a result of every “yes” that He had in Him for 33 years. By the way Jesus talked about God, we can see that Jesus had great confidence in who the Lord was. It’s obvious that He had an insurmountable amount of love and respect for Him! Leading up to His death, Jesus was even confident in His own purpose on earth. What was that purpose? And how could Jesus be so sure of it?
This is part four of our five part blog series on what it means to say “yes” to God. We’ve talked a lot about the meaning of the word covenant in our last few blog posts. (Don’t forget to check them out!) The concept of a covenant is important for understanding the story of the Bible as a whole. It’s also key to seeing the deep significance of Jesus’ life and death. Jesus came to earth as a result of a covenant made long before He was born. So, we’ll talk about that in this blog! Ultimately, we’ll be able to recognize that Jesus was only able to fulfill the covenant because of His intimacy with the Lord.
The Covenant That Promised Jesus
First, let’s back up a bit. To be more accurate, let’s back up around 1000 years before Jesus was born. A man named David made a covenant with God. (2 Samuel 7) You may have heard of David from the story of David and Goliath. Or, possibly, the story of King David and Bathsheba. Yup, that’s the one! In between those two major events in his life, God promised him that He would build David a kingdom. He also promised that He would raise up one of David’s descendants. God says, “He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever,” in 2 Samuel 7:13.
Naturally, as humans have done in the past, the descendants of David broke their part of the covenant. This lead to an exile of the Israelites from their own land, which left them feeling hopeless. In the book of Isaiah, the Prophet Isaiah wrote a poem, which was actually a prophecy! The poem recorded explicit details of how God would remain faithful to the covenant He made with David. Even though the Israelites had failed. The elements of the poem lined up with elements of Jesus’ life and death years later. You can read this in Isaiah chapters 52 and 53.
The New Covenant
Fast forward to when Jesus was alive and well, He was bringing freedom with Him wherever He went. He would heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. The leaders of the Israelites despised Jesus. Even though the history of their own culture foretold what would happen, their hearts remained hardened. His own people planned to kill Him, and Jesus let them.
Jesus knew who He was and what He came to do. He came to fulfill every covenant made with God’s people before, and to establish a new one. This is what all of the Old Testament was building up to. In this New Covenant, He died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. (Matthew 26:28) This even covered all of the times that humans broke their promises to God in the past. Meaning that anyone would be able to enter the Kingdom of God through believing and proclaiming what Jesus had done. Hallelujah!
Jesus’ Intimacy With The Lord
Luke 22:42-44 portrays the humanity of Jesus so well. In this passage, Jesus is just about to be given over to the leaders of the Israelites to be killed. He cries out to the Lord. Yet, Jesus still asks that the Lord’s will be done. Then, Jesus starts to literally sweat blood. Which is a very rare thing that can happen when the human body is experiencing extreme fear.
This passage showed that Jesus’ body was not some sort of superhuman body. It wasn’t “specially designed” to handle the pain that He endured on the cross. Even though Jesus knew what had to happen, it didn’t make it any easier to do. However, what did make it easier was that He knew the Father. He trusted God and His plan, all the way to His death. He knew that in the end, He would be with the Father. What a beautiful testament to the depths of Jesus’ intimacy of the Lord.
What Does This Mean For Us?
The story isn’t over yet! Jesus’ life and death made a way for God’s Kingdom to come to earth. Since it obviously hasn’t happened yet, there is still work to do! This means that we have a purpose to serve in our time here. We can use Jesus’ life as a model for how we can live our lives. He embodied humility, sacrifice, and love to the highest degree. It’s possible to know God’s heart like Jesus did, and to live it the way He did too!