Words From The Upper Room

“I want to be like Jesus!” Many people SAY that, but few seem to understand what it means! As He approaches the cross, looking forward to facing the mockery and humiliation of “trials” before the Jewish council, Herod and Pilate, enduring the physical agony of being beaten and whipped, and finally suffering the wrath of God against the sin of all whom the Father had given to Him, Jesus had one thing in mind: glorifying the Father and returning to the presence of the Father to share in His glory once again. Do you still want to be like Jesus??? In fact, Jesus had told them that whoever would come after Him (be like Him), must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Him. Do you still want to be like Jesus??? As Jesus begins what many have called His “High Priestly Prayer,” Jesus turns His attention from His disciples to where His mind and heart always were aimed, toward His Father. What it must have been like to have left His glory in heaven in order to take upon Himself a human nature and to enter into this sinful world none of us can ever know … but following Jesus and having “the mind of Christ,” His Spirit, living within you, means that the desire of HIS heart becomes the desire of your heart: to live for the glory of God!! Even now Jesus was not thinking of His own comfort or His own glory, but rather, that His Father would be glorified through His perfect obedience. He had been sent by the Father to accomplish a mission that only He could do, and after fulfilling His purpose by enduring God’s wrath on the cross, by shedding His blood in our place, He would utter that word: “Tetelestai!” … “It is finished!” … “Paid in full!” Do you still want to be like Jesus??? Are you fulfilling the mission the Father has given YOU for His glory? Are you living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, following His example, submitting to the Father’s will?? Do you still want to be like Jesus? Really?? Then you will desire above all else to live “for the glory of God!”