Oh No... CNN Got Jesus Wrong In 'Five Things You Didn’t Know About Jesus.' Article

CNN has been posting some articles and videos about Jesus Christ in preparation for Easter. Some are quite helpful. But I disagree with one of the articles, titled, “Five things you didn’t know about Jesus.” The last point of the article is, “Jesus didn’t want to die.”

The author points out what Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). The article concludes about Jesus’ words, “It’s a blunt prayer addressed to the father, whom he affectionately calls Abba. He doesn’t want to die.” Then the author tells us that once Jesus realizes dying was the will of his heavenly Father, he assents to going to the cross.

On the surface, this looks like something to which you could say a hearty, “Amen!” I hate to be picky, but I’m going to have to take issue with it, so hold your amen.

Jesus didn’t just die for you. That’s where the article goes wrong. Jesus wasn’t looking at mere death and pleading, “Father, don’t let me die!” That’s not what his agony and consternation were about. Death would have been easy, even death on a cross.

It’s not that Jesus was trying to avoid a torturous death; he was trying to avoid something else—something far worse. We can see what he is trying to avoid in his words, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” Jesus wasn’t avoiding death, he was avoiding “the cup.”

What was the cup? It was the...
cup of God’s wrath, as describe in Psalm 75:8, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” Jesus asked for the cup of God’s wrath to be removed.

The cup of God’s wrath is his infinite punishment of and hatred toward evil. The cup is his fiery wrath, destined for sinners. The cup is meant to wipe out sin and make the world clean. It is God’s vile of ferocious purging.

Jesus didn’t just die for us. He bore the full judgment of God for us. He didn’t just get beat up by some run-of-the-mill Roman soldiers, he was crushed under the omnipotent fist of God. He received infinite punishment, which was supposed to go to sinners, had he not intercepted it first.

Mere death is a walk in the park, a gentle sleep, compared with absorbing the eternal wrath of God against sin.

But there’s more. This prayer wasn’t just supposed to show us the weak humanity of Jesus. It was mainly to show us the victorious obedience of the Second Adam, the world’s first Perfect Human, who did not capitulate beneath the weight of life and temptation. We’re meant to see that there is no other way: the perfect obedience of Jesus is our only hope. We’re meant to hold our breath in this moment, for if Jesus backed out, then we’re lost forever, and will forever drink the cup of God’s wrath ourselves.

Then the article concludes, “Jesus is not so much a problem to be solved as a mystery to be pondered.” Again, I can’t let this sort of nonsense slide. Jesus is far more than a mystery to be pondered, as if we can just treat him like a cheap fortune cookie. Rather, eternal destinies are on the line. We’re beneath the foaming cup of God’s wrath, because of our sin. Jesus is not a “problem to be solved” because he is the Problem Solver. He solves our mysteries. He is our Savior.

Easter is not the time of year to ponder Jesus for a few weeks, before returning to life as usual. Easter is our opportunity to be saved from our sins, to cross over from death to life. Jesus didn’t drink the cup of God’s wrath so that we could continue to sit on the fence, quietly meditating on the existential cries of Jesus’s humanity. Jesus bore the wrath of God so that we could be saved.

Jesus wanted to die for you.

“No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18).