Have you ever thought about
how olive oil is made? Olive oil comes from the olive itself. In order to get
olive oil, the olives must be pressed and crushed.
Oil was used to anoint
kings in the Old Testament. Anointing with oil was used as a sign that they
were God’s chosen one and that God would be with him. But, in order to get the
oil, there needed to be crushing. Before there is anointing, there has to be
crushing. Before there is purpose, there needs to be pain.
I don’t find it a
coincidence that Jesus was in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) right before He
was betrayed. Nor do I find it a coincidence that Jesus says, “My soul is
crushed with grief to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). In Matthew 26, Jesus
prays to avoid the crushing. He prays three times that “this cup of suffering
be taken away” (Matthew 26:39). Yet, in order to get to the anointing of Sunday’s
resurrection, He had to submit to the crushing.
I think this principle
applies to us. In order for us to be anointed for a purpose, there has to be
crushing first. The only way to arrive at the anointing is to submit to the
crushing, believing that God will hold us fast and sanctify us through it.
My prayer is that we will
submit to the crushing of life, and while we submit, that we hold on to the
hope of our coming anointing.
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we
are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted
down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not
destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies”
-2 Corinthians 4:8-10
