Recapture the Wonder

by Ravi Zacharias

A student at a university said to me,“I often wonder about Jesus struggling at Gethsemane over the impending crucifixion. What was happening there? Jesus asking to be spared the cup? It sounds crazy to me,” he said. I answered,“Ponder with me for a moment. The cup of human sin was to be drunk to the last dregs by the purest one of all. The most painful physical torture was that of being crucified. Yet the Lord Jesus did not fear the physical pain. The only indivisible entity in the world is the very Holy Trinity. The possibility of His Father turning away from Him when He was subjected to the accursedness of sin was paramount in His mind. But He knew that if that was the only way to accomplish salvation, He would do it. “Think further. There are realities in the human experience that cannot be mitigated until they have been seen for what they are. Evil and love are two such truths. There is nothing so horrific as evil and yet we have tried to deny its existence. The Hindu calls it Maya—nonreal, illusionary, having a different context in appearance than in actuality. The Muslim denies original sin. The Buddhist believes you can work your way through the maze of reincarnations till all evil, that is, desire, is shaken off and we are left desiring nothing. “Look at the Cross, now. Evil is seen for what it is—all the vileness in the human heart is there in the face of the perfectly pure. Evil is not covered up. See again the marvel of God’s love that offers forgiveness of such...