April 10, 2009

Good Friday

From His early morning encounter with the guards in Gethsemane, His trial before the high priest and Pilate, the beating and mockery at the hands of the Roman soldiers, to being nailed to a tree and left to hang naked for 6 hours...never once did Jesus complain.

I cannot fathom the pain and the loneliness that He must have felt this day a long time ago and yet when I realize that He did it all for you and I find myself humbled and grateful. The only man in the history of the human race that could withstand the weight of the world's sins and not be crushed. That is what makes this Good Friday. A burden that would crush any of us in an instant was taken off our shoulders and our hearts that day.

It is there at the foot of the cross where we must come to terms with who we are and who He is. Where we come to the harsh realization that it should have been you and I hanging up there bloody, bruised and naked. It is at the foot of the cross where we hear Jesus' words, "It is finished" not as a cry of agony but as one of accomplishment.

It was the deliberate utterance of a clear consciousness on the part of God's appointed Revealer that now all had been done that could be done to make God known to men and to identify him with men.

Footsteps in the Path of Life by Marcus Dods

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