SORROW AND LIBERTY

SORROW AND LIBERTY

“And when He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow.” Luke 22:45

Sorrow is not the companion and ally of God but the messenger following in the track of sin; a sense of loss. Sorrow is a deep sense of loss, the consciousness of lack, the natural experience of a God-forsaken life. Had not the King been dethroned in Gen. 3, there could have been no sorrow, for the whole being, still and quiet in Him, could have no sense of loss. When they committed the act of high treason, by listening to a voice that called in question the love and wisdom of the Divine authority here on earth, there sprang up in that instance, the first sense of lust, boredom, hunger, and sorrow, and it took the form of a desire to know what God had NOT revealed. And when following that desire, instead of returning then and there to allegiance, man passed through the door, seeking LIBERTY, but finding himself in a dark void, without God, and yet possessed of a nature making demands perpetually that neither himself or any other could satisfy.

Sorrow, then, is the result of sin, but it is the benevolent, tender, purposeful messenger of the eternal Love, Who cannot see His offspring loose all, without causing within these this sense of loss, and so always by that means attracting them homeward. (Isa 53:3-4). The Father's Servant experienced that same loss so He might minister for us and to us knowing personally the darkest moment of sin, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me." The Conqueror next lays down His life. Sin is put away, sorrow is thereby recalled. Righteousness commences her reign and joy follows in her wake. (John 16:20-21). The heart comes to leisure with itself. It has become so learned of Jesus as to rejoice in exactly the circumstances that in the old life caused the deepest and keenest sense of sorrow. Here we see the mission of sorrow.

Take two persons,

-One whose will is rebellious and whose heart is unregenerate,

-the other a disciple of Jesus,

and let them pass through identical experiences of bereavement, affliction, failure and disappointment. In the one case the spirit becomes embittered, and callous, and the character degenerates; in the other gentleness, love, tenderness, are the results, and the very face catches a new glory and beauty. The one defiantly faces sorrow and looks upon God's messenger as an enemy, attempts to destroy and banish it, and so sinks into hardness and hatred; the other is drawn to the heart of God, and finds the very pain is but God's fire for the destruction of dross, and so rises into sweetness and love which is such a revelation of the power of the God of love. (Isaiah 35:10; Rev 21:4).

While Judas was bringing the multitude to Jesus prayer spot, Peter was sleeping while his Master was praying (vs. 45), and resisting while his Master was submitting (vv. 49-51; cp. John 18:10), sorrowing when he should have sensed the strength of Christ's love about to come to full manifestation for the weakness of all men. He followed at a distance (vs. 54), sat down among his Lord's enemies (vs. 55), and denied the Lord, the faith, and the brotherhood (vv. 57-58, 60). What a picture of mankind and the world today.