I know it's been awhile.....
So today is Good Friday. This is the day where we remember Jesus' selfless sacrifice on the cross. As like what it says in 2 Corinthians, Jesus Christ "who knew no sin became sin for us".
Isn't it hard sometimes to truly reflect on this truth? I know that may sound crazy, but I really woke up this morning with a hardness in my heart toward the power of the cross, treating it like it was "old news". Of course it's not old news!
In hopes of getting out of this "funk" I was in, I sat down this morning and read through some of the popular passages of the Bible, starting with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament. Something that caused me to pause and reflect on was what Jesus' reactions must have been as He read from these passages during His time on earth. In the 30 years before His ministry, He spent a lot of time growing in wisdom and stature, and one of those ways was reading and analyzing scripture. We see this in Luke 4 as He stands and reads from Isaiah in a synagogue in His hometown. Jesus would not have been able to do something like this back in those days unless He was an avid scholar of the scriptures, so it shows that He did spend a lot of time analyzing them.
So anyways, as Jesus' eyes were edging toward these passages, I almost picture His heart racing. Maybe He was even sweating in anticipation. Since He was and still is God, I know that while reading those passages He knew that this would be Him. I can imagine that He was especially moved by the graphic language and depictions in Psalm 22 with phrases like "all my bones are out of joint" and "they have pierced my hands and my feet". He was not only moved because He knew it was about the upcoming Savior of the world, but because He WAS that Savior!
I'm sure that during His time reflecting and praying in the garden, sweating blood from extreme emotional distress, those passages were the ones He was reflecting on. This was because He was about to LIVE out those very passages. His hands and feet were going to be pierced. Or as it says in Isaiah 53, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities" (v. 5). Jesus was that man whose "appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness."
That was Jesus on the cross. He knew it the entire time going up to that hill to be nailed to that cross and He did it freely. He did it for us. He did it for Him.
It was a rescue mission for mankind, that many witnesses at the time thought had failed, but really it was at the pinnacle of its success. Jesus bore the wrath of God that all mankind deserved on that cross with those metal spikes in His wrists and feet. He was up there for six hours just barely trying to breathe as people there were mocking Him incessantly. The pain of that was nothing compared to the true pain that He experienced of the loving Father of His turning His face away. Jesus Christ actually experienced the true scorn of God that we deserve.
I encourage you today to really take a moment today and linger on the thoughts of the power of the cross. Don't just shrug them off. Reflect on what the Wondrous Cross means for you.
God bless,
Steve
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