The Agony in the Garden(Luke 22:42)

Jesus is confronted with the idea of his certain death, and asks God to be relieved of this burden. Jesus says "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done." Jesus here can easily be seen as a human being who is pleading for his life to be spared, but what does this reveal about Jesus' model of faith?

Jesus, as we see here in this passage, is pleading for his life and asking God to spare it. While this is true, we also see that Jesus is not only selfishly running away from his responsibility, rather he is putting complete trust and faith in his father, God. Jesus says that he will still go through with it even if it is God's will. This is a great model of faith for us as human beings because we at many times are burdened and hope that the burdens will be lifted from us, but we see Jesus here with the biggest burden of all, death, and he is still willing to go through with it just to follow his fathers will.

The Temptation of Jesus(Luke 4:1-13)

Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the desert. Here in the desert Jesus was to be tempted for forty days by the devil. Jesus does not eat during the forty days, and is very hungry. The devil tells him to make food from a rock so that he could eat, but Jesus refuses. The devil again tempts Jesus, but Jesus responds "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."

In today's world we are tempted all the time. Around every corner there are temptations to take the easy way out, and allot of the time we accept these temptations because it truly is easier. Jesus, as we see here, is a perfect model of faith. He is willing to follow God's will and does not even abuse his powers at all because that would be taking the easy way out so to speak. We need to follow Jesus' model as shown in this story to help us overcome our temptations.

Love of Enemies(Luke 6: 27-32)

Jesus here talks about loving your enemies, and the people who hate you. He asks us to be better to one another by giving as well as forgiving all of those around us. Jesus tells us to tell the person who strikes you on your cheek to offer the other one to him.

Jesus is being completely countercultural, but completely human here at the same time. He tells us to give as well as to forgive our fellow human beings, even though it is true that God will always forgive us, he asks us to forgive those around us too. Jesus sets a perfect model of faith here in telling us to treat our neighbor as we would want to be treated.