Pain is a Microphone, Part 3

Note: a hospitalization delayed this posting. Series continues with part 3.

Crushed Like an Olive

The Bible calls us kings and priests (Revelation 1:6). An interesting thing that a king and a priest have in common is that, in Old Testament times, both had to be anointed. They went through a symbolic ritual of being smeared with oil to show that they were set apart for the platform, the microphone they were called to.

A king couldn’t take the stage, the mantle of authority of leadership, without being anointed. Priests had to regularly be anointed and consecrated into their service. That’s why it’s striking that before Jesus, who is both King and Priest forever, went to Calvary, he first went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Gethsemane means “olive press.” Olive oil is made by pressing olives with a giant stone until the oil runs out. Because olive oil was used in the anointing process, olives had to be crushed so that someone could be anointed. There could be no anointing without a crushing.

Beyond the actual ceremonial oil, Scripture says that there in the Garden, Jesus knelt down and was in such agony, under such great pressure, that he began to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). At Gethsemane we see Jesus being crushed before going to the cross. The cross was His stage, the nails the proof of His love. He was willing to take up that dreadful microphone, to use the influence He had been called to:

For this purpose I have been sent. — Luke 4:43

But getting there meant first being pressed like an olive. There are no shortcuts; you simply cannot get to Calvary without going through Gethsemane. You and I have not been called to die for the sins of the world, but we do have a divine assignment, a mission we’ve been called to fulfill. And to fulfill it we must be crushed; we must be pressed if we are to see it accomplished. We cannot be used in a great way without experiencing pain. A. W. Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful whether God could ever bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”1

Your calling involves suffering. There’s no way around that.

Selah ~ think on this
Connie