Scripture: John 12:27-36 (NIV)

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

After what no doubt was a rousing feast and a great night with the Ewoks, Luke Skywalker started to feel a burden sitting on him. He knew that Darth Vader was his father and, more notably, that Vader knew Luke was on Endor. He knew that Yoda had told him that the two would have to face again before Luke could truly be a Jedi. All of this became too much and he headed out into the Endor night.

Leia saw him go and caught up with him, asking to share his burden. When Luke told her that Vader knew that he was here, Leia tried to talk him into running away, putting a lot of distance between him and Vader (and, by extension, drawing the Dark Lord away from the mission). Luke, however, wouldn’t think of it. He knew that this is what he had to do, this was the moment that he’d been preparing for. It made no sense to try to avoid it.

As Christ got closer to the cross, His spirit was burdened as well. He knew all He was going to have to go through, all the pain and misery that He would suffer. He knew that He would face betrayal and desertion. It’s no wonder that He was troubled and perhaps not His most joyous self. This was not something He wanted anyone to go through, which is why He was going through it.

He could have run away. He could have done all sorts of things with His power that let Him escape the coming sacrifice. That would have defeated the entire purpose of His coming to Earth, however. It was necessary that He take on all our sins so that we could be presented as blameless to the Lord. The only way we could have eternal communion with our Creator was for Jesus to go through all of this. There was no way He was going to shirk His calling.

There are times when our spirit is burdened as well and we have hard things ahead of us, things we really don’t want to do. With Christ by our side, though, we don’t have to fear them because we know we can endure them. We can be strengthened by His power and comforted by His love. We don’t have to like it, but we will be stronger by the trial than by avoiding it. If you are facing a hard time, know that Christ is with you and going head-on is better than any alternative. Use His strength for your benefit!