This song was written to fit hand in glove with the message that was given at my church on Palm Sunday (4/9/2006).

The topic was: "The fears Jesus faced and how he overcame them." Specifically, the fears our pastor covered were: fear of separation from the Father, fear of betrayal of the disciples, and fear of death.

 

The setting of the song is the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus sweats blood. The first verse is Jesus praying to God asking Him if he can see the dark where he's going. That was inspired by my daughter Lenora who asked me a few weeks ago if I could see the dark - a very interesting Physics question, indeed, for a 4-year-old.

 

The next verse is Jesus talking to his disciples and asking them if they believe him. Of course, they say they do. The kiss is the famous Judas kiss when he arrives with the soldiers.

 

After the guitar lead the next verse is Jesus asking if the "cup" of hideous brutal death that's about to befall him could somehow be avoided.

 

He overcomes his fears by submitting himself to the Father's will even unto death... not an easy thing, me thinks... although I've "died" in many ways because of my Christianity, I've never come near something on the order of crucifixion.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead he achieved resolution for all of these concerns - The Book of Revelation describes the risen Christ as scarred and seated at the right hand of the Father. Anyone who receives Him (including the disciples), dies to this life and has the Christ living in his/her heart. When Jesus rose from the dead the chains of death are broken and, the ransom for the salvation of mankind was paid in full.

 

Although it is an extreme case, the passion of Christ illustrates the profound teaching in the scripture that "all things come to good for those who believe and are called according to His purpose." This reverberates through my life again and again and, thankfully, I've lived long enough to experience it first hand. Sometimes the bad things we go through don't make sense for decades. But when they do, you sit back and say, "WOAH!"