At Calvary, Jesus' heart burst open for us with a love of such incredible magnitude. He received our sinful hearts of stone into His body to give us forgiven hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Our Divine and loyal Friend walked into and removed every obstacle that stood between us and His Holy Father by His substitutional death so we would receive irrevocable intimacy and eternal fellowship. We are now 'not our own,' but we have been adopted in Christ and belong to our Father (Ephesians 1:5).
Jesus went to the cross to work on our behalf so that we would stop worrying and working and begin resting and receiving.
Let's continue to visit with our Lord in another room of Martha's home. There we see a meal of a different kind was being prepared and eaten with joy. Jesus was teaching and His followers were feasting and savoring His words. Martha's sister, Mary, "was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word." (Luke 10:39 NIV), fixing her eyes on what was unseen and eternal, in contrast to her sister, who was working with little love for what was seen and temporary in this earthly world (2 Corinthians 4:18). But in uniquely different ways, Jesus was teaching both sisters to grow in Christ-likeness and discipleship (2 Corinthians 3:18).
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." John 6:27
Mary was a peaceful image of the loveliness of intimate abiding, of resting and receiving, and worshipping with her God as she sat at the feet of Jesus. Her mind was set on things above (Colossians 3:2), assuredly immersed with thoughts of His goodness and excellence, and things that were true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable (Philippians 4:8). In John 12:3, we also see this same Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with a pint of expensive perfume and then tenderly wiping His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of her adoration of her Lord, symbolically preparing His body for His burial as He would be crucified not long after.
Mary was praised by Jesus for choosing a better way to live, indeed the way to live in communion with Him, which is to receive from and rest in Him continually, a life which would never be taken away from her (Luke 10:42). At the cross, Jesus did the one thing needful for you; He took your sin away and nailed it to the cross and buried it in a tomb. Now He calls you to do the one thing needful: come and receive, come and find rest, come and worship. Let His cross be to you bread from heaven, that you might feast on Him.
"I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." John 6:51 NASB
All along His road to the cross, Jesus in His humility counted others more significant than Himself (Philippians 2:3). Though He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten (1 Peter 2:23), all to bring us to God:
“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18
Jesus offered His flesh to be torn so that we may now run unhindered into the arms of God and enjoy the pleasures and peace of abiding with Him at the Holy of Holies forever. This gift of eternal life with God will never be taken from us. Even though Christs’ friends and even His own Father left His Son for a time, this plan of redemption was carried out to seal God’s guarantee that “he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV).
Worry, work, and anxiety deceived Martha, and they can trouble us too, with feelings of isolation from the love of God and doubts about His care for us. But we can confidently overcome such wrong thinking by meditating on God's words of truth embedded and displayed in His Son's magnificent works of salvation for us at the hill of Golgotha.
“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:29
Applying the Gospel
Would you take some steps out of the isolation of your anxiety and walk towards the holy ground of Calvary? The remedy for crippling stress and troublesome worry is to look up and see Jesus welcoming you in love, knowing that His shed blood has overcome all barriers between you and your Heavenly Father. Jesus has eternally opened up a new and life-giving way through His torn flesh into the Most Holy Place of God's presence (Hebrews 1:20). He has not abandoned you now.
When the list of work seems to stretch too far, and you find you are turning inward, doubting God's care, and growing agitated with others, would you look at the cross and let the rivers of strengthening grace wash your heart clean and lighten your load?
When you seem to have more than your fair share of demands, can you pull up a chair under the shadow of the cross and become immersed in the love of Jesus who keeps no record of our wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5) and does not condemn (Romans 8:1)?
Because Jesus bowed His head on the cross and exhaled His last breath crying out, "It is finished" (John 19:30), you can exhale now in spiritual rest. Jesus invites you to His rest. Drink in His words of truth that nothing separates you from God now, and nothing can stop God's love from reaching you:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Question 1: Can you describe a situation when your worries have made you feel distant from God and upset with others?
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Question 2: As you look at the cross of Jesus, how does considering the isolation Jesus endured draw anxiety away from your heart?
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Worshipping at the cross erases worry.