During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death (Hebrews 5:7). We are told that He fell to the ground, where he prayed fervently and profusely (Luke 22:44).
That's the picture of our Lord. Not the judgy-much God that media wants to portray when people damaged by skewed faith or mental illness or both go on a rampage and shoot up their fellow men—and women.
Easter is a picture of overwhelming love. That first Easter was a picture of Jesus, both fully human and fully God, willing to do what it took to make things right for us while we inhabit these fallen bodies and as we follow Him into eternity. It was God making a way to bridge the gap between our brokenness and His holiness. It was Jesus willing to suffer pain and humiliation carrying the sins of the world, yours and mine so that we won't have to assume that burden.
Hebrews 12:1-2, says, "We may feel alone, but we aren't. We are surrounded by an army of witnesses. They have run the race of faith and finished well. It is now our turn. Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him...(The Voice)."
It does us well to reflect during this Easter week that Jesus was never more like us in our human frailty and vulnerability than when He prayed in the garden.
"The next time the fog finds you, and you think that no one understands, reread the fourteenth chapter of Mark. The next time your self-pity convinces you that no one cares, pay a visit to Gethsemane. And the next time you wonder if God really perceives the pain that prevails on this dusty planet, listen to Him pleading in the twisted trees." Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him Savior.
The "joy" that Jesus focused, that got Him up off the ground to drag his heavy heart and tear-stained face down the Via Delorosa to the cross, was you and me. He would clearly rather die than live without us.