As I sit here thinking about Good Friday, I can't help for the emotions to swell up in my heart and soul.
It was on a dark Friday years ago....
Jesus paid the sacrifice for my sins, MY sins... I wasn't even born yet and he thought of me? He thought of you? Sometimes it seems so much for my little mind to take in. I think sometimes we have the ability to minimize or put what he did for us to the side.
We start each day with a prayer for the day, we pray for our children, we pray for our spouse, and we pray for blessings. We have hope that God will deliver us from whatever trial, difficulty, or painful experience we may be enduring. We pray that there is an "easy" answer and that miracles will be performed. We live out our day in our human thought of what faith is... Faith that he will protect us from evil, that he will protect us from the bad, protect us from trials...
But as I sit and meditate and really ponder that dark day so many years ago, it really makes praying for protection from these things seem so small. It is good to pray for these things, but why do we curse the trials and the painful moments that in turn seem to grow our faith! After all, Jesus was spit on, he was beaten, he was tortured in ways that make us all cringe and want to hide our eyes. He was betrayed by those he trusted, his friends had turned their back on him.
"...and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present..........While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest............. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:2-6, 47, 48, 54-62 NIV)
Sometimes it's so easy to look around and think that others are being blessed but we continue to suffer. We continue to face trial after trial after trial. But when I sit and think about the betrayal, beating and crucifixion of Jesus, these trials seem really insignificant. He had the power to perform miracles and save others but yet he didn't save himself. He sacrificed himself so that I can live. So that I can love.
Yes, I do pray that God will remove these painful trials sometimes, but then I realize...it's not about me. This world is not about my comfort, my pleasure or enjoyment. I truly believe that God has given me this life to love. To love others no matter where they are at or what they are going through. I believe he has allowed the ugly, the messy, and the chaotic so that I may bond with others through relatability. It's in those messy, ugly, nasty moments in life that we become so vulnerable. That we open ourselves up to the love of others. And that we in turn, can choose to love others through their pain.
Praise God for our Saviors sacrifice on that cross! It was ugly, it was messy, and it was painful....but he chose it for me and for YOU! He chose it that we may spend eternal life with him. He chose it so that he could show us grace, forgiveness, and redemption. He chose it so that he could show us LOVE!
"He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed". (Isaiah 53:3-5 NIV)