I’ve heard of the Garden of Gethsemane most of my life, but it was only a few years ago I learned the meaning of Gethsemane. Gethsemane is a parable of what Jesus endured. The olive tree is called the tree of life because it provides oil for light, medicine, food, and soap. To harvest olives, cloths were spread under the branches, and then the harvesters took heavy sticks and beat the branches to make the olives fall onto the cloths. That reminds me that Jesus was beaten with wooden sticks by both the Jewish guard and the Roman soldiers.
We know from John’s account that the perfume Mary anointed Jesus with was worth 300 denarii, which is equal to a year’s wages. So figure your annual salary, and you begin to have an idea about how expensive this gift was. But she poured it all out on Jesus in an act of worship. To Mary, no expense would be spared. Her great love for Jesus could only be expressed by giving her most prized possession. Breaking the bottle symbolized her brokenness before the Lord.
When we surrender to Jesus, we haven’t lost, we’ve won! Our victory is assured when we surrender completely to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in our lives. The Bible says, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” Some people stop here and think that since faith is the victory, that if I want more victory I must have more faith. Not at all.
Has there ever been a time in your life when you consciously surrendered control of your life to God? After studying the life of Joseph, I’ve learned it isn’t about Joseph; it’s about what God did for Joseph. It’s not about you and it’s not about me, it’s about what God can do in and through us.
God wants each of us to come to the point in our lives where we say, “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.” It’s not about money. God doesn’t need your money. You need God. Truthfully God doesn’t want your money–He wants YOU! He wants you to surrender fully to Him. Have you come to a place in your life where you have said, “God, I offer myself to You?” When you do that, your faithful and generous giving will be a natural result of your surrender.
Too many times, we’re asking people if they want to find Jesus, and they wonder if Jesus is lost. If we’re going to present the claims of Christ to this generation, we have to start talking in ways they can understand. We must start asking the right questions and listen to their questions so we’ll know the answers they’re looking for.
You often hear the statement, it doesn’t matter WHAT you believe, as long as you’re sincere. Not really. You can be sincerely wrong. In other words, you can have a great faith in the wrong thing, and it won’t help you. But a little faith in the right object of your trust can make all the difference.
In sports and business, we are taught to play hard and to never quit. Sadly, we sometimes transfer this same competitive, win-at-all-costs attitude to our Christian faith. Because of our proud human nature, surrender doesn’t come easy, but when it comes to your relationship with your Creator, surrender is the ONLY pathway to peace and victory.
Luke’s description of the birth of Jesus is far more detailed than any other gospel writer. In order to help us grasp the fullest significance of who Jesus Christ was and what He accomplished, Luke takes us back to the very beginning of Jesus’ life. He describes more fully than any other gospel writer the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth and the announcement of Jesus’ birth, then the birth of John and the birth of Jesus. By describing the origin of John and the origin of Jesus side by side he shows how their destinies dovetail in God’s plan, but also how Jesus is vastly superior to his forerunner.
