The "G" Road

​“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me’” (Matthew 28:10 NIV).
 
Galilee, at least according to the Gospel of Matthew, is where the disciples will see the risen Christ, and it is presumably the place—again, according to Matthew—where Jesus issued His Great Commission to the disciples (and, by extension, to you and me). For our purposes, Galilee, metaphorically speaking, is where we get our marching orders; it is the launchpad, the point of embarkation, for our participation in God’s great adventure of reaching the nations for Christ. 
 
And many Christians have seized their “Galilee moment” and ventured forth to do great things for God. There’s a bit of mention these days, a timely reminder, about “the Jesus Way”—not quite Charles Sheldon hypothetical “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do), but what Jesus actually did and how He went about doing it, and, conceivably and where possible, copying or emulating Him.
 
And in that respect, it’s important, perhaps even fundamental, to note that before Galilee, there were 3 equally significant locations, all starting with the letter G, laid out in sequence: Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb. Have we, in following and walking the Jesus Way, experienced our own Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb—before arriving at our Galilee?
 
Gethsemane
 
Gethsemane was where Jesus surrendered His will to His Heavenly Father. It was where Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39 NIV). Before we can even get to Galilee, before we go about fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission, is your will, is my will, fully surrendered and submitted to that of the Heavenly Father? 
 
Golgotha
 
A fully surrendered will leads not to a crown but to a cross at Calvary, also known as Golgotha, the Place of Skulls. As the late Henri J.M. Nouwen once mused, “The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross” (In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership [Darton, Longman and Todd, 1989], p. 33). Many have offered themselves in sacrifice for the sake of Christ, but as we see here, there can be no Golgotha, properly speaking, before Gethsemane.
 
Surrender to Christ must necessarily come before Sacrifice for Christ. In 1 Samuel 15:22, the prophet Samuel told King Saul that God expects obedience rather than sacrifice. In two places in the Gospel of Matthew (9:13 and 12:7, respectively), Jesus quoted from Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” And in 1 Corinthians 13:3, the apostle Paul wrote that if he’d given his body to be burned but had no love, he would’ve gained nothing. No sacrificing of our lives in service and worship to God is complete without our wills being fully surrendered to God and expressing itself in obedience and love. 
 
Garden Tomb
 
But that’s not all. We cannot go from Golgotha directly to Galilee without encountering the Garden Tomb. The tomb is where Jesus was dead and buried for 3 days, after which the Spirit of God raised Him from the dead. If you and I don’t pause at our own Garden Tomb, it may mean that we’re not walking and ministering in and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We’d be doing God’s work in our own strength and our own capability and by our own devices. Only when we’ve killed and deep-sixed our carnal man/woman can our Spirit-filled man/woman arise. 
 
Walking the “G” Road
 
Is it possible to “go to Galilee” without first going through Gethsemane, Golgotha and the Garden Tomb? It is undoubtedly possible, but it wouldn’t be the Jesus Way. It would be tantamount to what Jesus once said about climbing over the wall to get into the sheep pen instead of entering by the gate (John 10:1).
 
But I’ve also found that God isn’t always a stickler for a particular sequence to which we have to be strictly adhere. In my experience, if I’d leapfrogged over the first 3Gs to get to Galilee, God would just make sure I “fulfill all righteousness” by checking all the other boxes at some point or another. Sometimes, He may even jumble the sequence—maybe Golgotha first and Gethsemane later—but He would make sure I get my ticket punched at all the “G’s”—over and over and over again. Truth be told, whether by choice or not, I find myself visiting all 4Gs on a daily basis. I think we all do. May the Lord give us grace—His merciful grace, the most important G(!)—at every stop we make.

*We stand in prayer with you for this country, its leaders, and all those affected by the recent violence.