The Song and the Cross

By Michelle Stace

 

 

Song 5:2  I sleep but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to Me, My sister, My love, My Dove, My undefiled: . . . . .

     (Mk. 14:37,38 And He cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.)

 

. . . . .  for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of night.

    (Mk.14:33-36 And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.  And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, Abba, Father, all things  are  possible  unto Thee; take away  this cup  from  Me: nevertheless  not what I wilt, but what Thou wilt.                                 

Lk.22:44 And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.)

 

Thoughts:

In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus takes Peter, James and John apart from the others to accompany Him in His deepest grief and pain. He shares this very personal experience with them, even knowing they would sleep and later abandon Him.

Was it because He loved them so much that He wanted them with Him even though they would fail Him?

Was it to show how costly His sacrifice was?   

Was it to reinforce that they must be partakers of His suffering?

Was it to show that in our deepest suffering, we must go it alone with God – that no human is capable of providing what only God can?

Jesus brought only those 3 disciples with Him (as He did when He was transfigured – Matt.17:1-13, and when He brought  back to life Jarius’ daughter – Lk. 8:49-56) to be a part of His most excrutiating pain. Is this a picture of how only a few believers are drawn into a far deeper relationship with Jesus than most?    

Even Jesus shrank from the completion of His suffering. What we may suffer is not even to be compared to His torment, but we do need to become entirely surrendered to God’s will as Jesus was. And I can trust in this promise: ‘For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ -Philippians 2:13   Jesus brings me to a garden of Gethsemane in my own heart. Here I must decide to follow Him, to be a part of Him, once and for all; or to forsake Him and flee.

 

Song 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

    (Mk. 14:50,67-71 And they all forsook Him, and fled. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew. And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.)

 

Thoughts:

~Why do we fear suffering? Because it means pain, loss, hardship, shame, humiliation and death. It means leaving the familiar and secure, the comfortable and easy.

~Why is there suffering? We bring it upon ourselves by sinning/disobedience against God. Sometimes He allows it as punishment. Sometimes He allows it as a tool to help bring people to Himself – in it they begin to see their need of Him, which in good times they are more blind to. God also uses suffering as a means of purifying, cleansing, and maturing His people. It helps them to release the things of earth and look forward to heaven.

~It is natural to want to protect or prevent others from suffering  - especially a child or loved one. And sometimes this is right and necessary, but often we can be interfering with a work God is doing in the person’s life. One reason we don’t like to see others suffer is because WE don’t like to see or feel their pain. So the motive for alleviating their suffering can be selfish and may not be in the best interest of the person.

~How can I keep from being overwhelmed by suffering? Recognize it is all within God’s control. He has a purpose – whether we understand it or not – and He will bring good from it. In connection with helping others, one can only help in the small realm God has given and entrust the overwhelmingness – the human impossibility of it – to His power and grace. I must develop the continual practice of looking UP to Jesus and not around at the problems that discourage and drive me to despair. The greater the trust and abandonment to God, the greater the peace in bearing any suffering. To fight it – not accept it – intensifies the pain. To go beyond what God has given me to do, says He isn’t doing enough, claims control, and attempts to carry a burden I am not meant to, nor can, carry.     

 

Song 5:4 My Beloved put His hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels (my very being) were moved for Him.

     (Lk. 22:61,62 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He has said to him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.)

 

Thoughts:

The love of Christ constraineth me. Love is the most powerful thing in the universe. It is the reason for everything. Jesus chose to do what He did, subject and submit to what He did, for love. This is my choice too . . . and yet it’s not a choice . . . LOVE keeps and compels me. The thought of acting or doing on my own has become foreign to me. To act apart from Christ is repulsive. Even saying this, I know there is much that isn’t in line with Him, but I long for it to be.        

 

Song 5:5,6 I rose up to open to my Beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave no answer.

    (Jn. 19:39,40 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

LK.24:1,3,6 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus . . . He is not here, but is risen.)

 

Thoughts:

Nicodemus isn’t afraid or hiding his faith as he did when he went at night to see Jesus in John chapter 3. Here he comes to help bury Jesus and I think to bury his own will and self life as well.

The choice made for Jesus, in Song 5:4, is now being lived out – the spices of death are now on the hands – they have entered the heart that has been opened to Him.

Mk.8:34 Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Lk.23:26 And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.

‘Daily cross’, ‘hunger after the cross’, ‘bearing the cross’, loving the cross’. The cross means suffering.  To complain or be discontented is not part of bearing the cross. The sinful self nature needs to die – to be denied.  This means pain and suffering because something is being given up or taken away.

~Giving up – desires, opinions, possessive attachments to people and things, will, ‘rights’ or fairness - allowing yourself to be ‘used’, position, self-seeking, willing to be and have less or nothing, freed from all to love Christ wholly. At the same time one becomes a vessel of Christ’s love for others – a love that cannot even be compared to the best examples of self motivated human love.

~Abandonment – total yielding, surrender, obedience to God’s will. ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.’ - Lk. 9:24   If I seek to save my life by refusing to follow where Jesus leads by withholding anything back, then in fact I am cutting myself off from LIFE. How can His life flourish in me if I put limits on how far I will follow my God?  ‘Faith covers the soul, hindering the soul from examining itself and seeing anything that is opposed to it. Abandon hides that soul on yet another side, preventing it from regarding itself, from seeing its own loss or its own advantage, thereby obliging it to abandon itself blindly to God.’  Madam Guyon

~Bearing (patience) – the pain and suffering others go through as you encourage, love, support, help and pray for. Patience in bearing one’s own trials and temptations.

~Bearing (forgiveness) – being sinned against, being unjustly hurt or accused, degraded, humiliated (perhaps without seeking to defend self.)

~Hungering - Willing to suffer reproaches as Jesus did

  - Willing to bear whatever difficult people or trials God allows

  - Willing to bear the burdens and pains of others

  - Willing to be purged, cleansed, purified to be nothing but an empty (of all that involves self) vessel for Jesus to live in and flow out of

  - Willing to be isolated, lonely, seemingly set aside or useless if that be God’s will

  - Wholehearted desire for whatever it takes for one not to lift up itself against God – humility

 

Song 5:1  I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse:  I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.

    (Jn. 21:15a,17-19 So when they had dined;  Jesus saith to Simon Peter . . . the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me: Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.)

 

‘The burden was His, not hers. She need not ask Him to share it with her. He was asking her to share it with Him.’   A. Carmichael

 

Thoughts:

This is true service.

The garden is the heart of the person – the center of the being and is ready to be opened. The spices and honey and wine are the ripe, mature, abundant and now overflowing fruits of faith. They are now to be shared with others in whatever capacity Jesus intends. 4/10/10 entry

 

‘The Fellowship of His Sufferings’

By A. Carmichael

 

. . . Darkly distinct, he saw a vision pass

Of One who took the cup alone, alone.

Then broke from him a moan,

A cry to God for pain, for any pain

Save this last desolation; and he crept

In penitence to his Lord’s feet again.

. . . Never an angel told, but this I know,

That to whom that night Gethsemane

Opened its secrets, cannot help but go

Softly thereafter, as one lately shriven,

Passionately loving, as one much forgiven.

And never, never can his heart forget

That Head with hair all wet

With the red dews of Love’s extremity,

Those eyes from which fountains of love did flow,

There in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

Thoughts:

I see this as a perfect expression of Peter’s last night with Jesus. It was a night of horrors to him personally. Jesus tried to share with him, His loved one, His pain and suffering. He tried to teach, to show them all, His love, humility, service. It fell on deaf ears because they were too full of themselves to hear.

At supper they even argued who was the greater and Peter made his great boast of laying down his life for Jesus. At the garden during Jesus’ agony Peter sleeps despite being repeatedly woke up. When Jesus is arrested he flees and when He was being questioned by the priests, he denies Him with curses . . . Jesus took His cup alone.

Peter, now shattered to pieces, longs to be able to share in Jesus’ pain . . . but it’s too late. All he can do in his own pain and brokenness is seek the Lord’s forgiveness. The rending of his soul wasn’t the result of repenting of some horrible ‘outward’ sin. Rather it was the sight of his own inward corruption – the unfathomable depths of his own sin nature. What a revelation of black hopelessness.

His love for Jesus now has no bounds – self love has been destroyed. His is clothed with humility from on High. He will never forget seeing the agony of Jesus and what it cost Him to save a wretch like himself. He will never forget the look Jesus gave him that night. But he can spend every moment he’s given deeply loving his Savior.

 

 

My Vow.

  Whatsoever Thou sayest unto me

  By Thy grace will I do it.

My Constraint.

  Thy love, O Christ, my Lord.

My Confidence.

  Thou art able to keep that which

  I have committed unto Thee.

My Joy.

  I delight to do Thy will, O my God.

My Discipline.

  That which I would not choose, but

  that which Thy love appoints.

My Prayer.

  Conform my will to Thine.

My Motto.

  Thee to love, to live to Thee.

My Portion.

  The glory of the Lord is my reward.

 

By A. Carmichael  (I have changed some of the wording.)