The Bigger Picture (Part 1)

Jesus like each of us had some limitations in his humanity. Please don’t cry foul yet because it was these limitations that made him to wish God to “remove this cup from him...” (Luke 22:42, Hebrews 4:15).  

In His humanity, Jesus Christ:

-  Had to undergo ‘PAIN’ from the particularly harsh scourging of the Roman soldiers. The scourging was done with a fragrum (a Short whip with lead balls, sheep bones or metal).  This deep stripe like cuts the scourging inflicted on its victim, usually caused a considerable blood loss on the victim and eventual the victims death. 

-  Also suffered the ‘HUMILIATION’ of being portrayed as a criminal and being eventually hung on the cross. This was a very pitiable death.

-  Suffered such an unimaginable level of ‘BETRAYAL’; imagine how

Fragrum

Jesus Christ felt going through this. First the disciples had very good reasons for not tarrying with him in prayer. Secondly, Peter his trusted friend, brother and disciple denied Him before the cock crowed thrice. Thirdly, the same crowd that heralded and triumphantly received him into Jerusalem on the back of a calf; is now chanting that he be crucified.

His list of betrayals could go on and on. Will it be complete if the role of Judas Iscariot is not mentioned? Depending on how you choose to see Judas, he could be seen as a trusted ‘friend’ or a trusted ‘foe’ (what we call household enemy today).

- Cried and the words: ‘my Lord and my father why have you forsaken me…’ represents Jesus’ cry of anguish. A cry made in the realization of God leaving him alone for the first time to walk in this path of life. If you have not been rejected before in a relationship, this may not make much sense to you.

-  He was laughed at, spat on, cursed, back talked, mocked etc to say the least. No wonder the Bible called him a man of many sorrows. I can only imagine how easy it was for him to deal with all these relationship challenges.

As painful as all these relationship challenges could be, they all work to accomplish just one purpose. Which purpose is to ensure you are buried in the smaller picture of the things happening around you (that is to focus you only on the offenses, mistakes, issues etc that obstruct your relationship’s wheel of progress). Hence you take wrong decisions on the basis of this picture.

The question then is: why is very hard to shake off the impact of this smaller picture? My answer is simple: ‘offense is not offense until it comes from where you do not expect it to come from’.  These limitations that cage you up in HATE are peculiar to every relationship.

This is why friends suddenly become foes, sisters become sin-stars, brothers become heart breakers, beloveds become bewitched etc.  We all get to that point in life, when we get beclouded by these things. When in this situation, focusing on the smaller picture will only make you to see is yourself (what you have lost or suffered) and those whose actions brought you into such situations must be avoided like an epidemic.

Jesus irrespective of the burden he went through, looked beyond the smaller picture and focused on the bigger picture by saying "…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He expects us today to do the same.

Click here to continue reading and to LIKE our Facebook page