Can you even comprehend the kind of day that Jesus was facing when He was crucified? I hardly doubt it. To have your father give you up to be beaten beyond recognition, nailed to a cross, have your side pierced to make sure that you were dead. Jesus knew all of this before it happened. He knew what He was going to face on the dreadful day that we now call Good Friday.
He knew that He would be scourged, whipped, beaten so badly that He was hardly recognized by others. Then He was made to carry His own cross to the place of crucifixion. It has been said that the cross that He carried weighed around 165#. Can you imagine carrying that kind of weight after what He had just endured? He was bloody, gouges in His back, His arms and legs whipped so badly that He could hardly stand. Then made to carry a 165# cross about a 1/3 of a mile. Sometimes I have a hard time walking that far myself and I didn't have anything like that happen to me.
Once at the final destination, the soldiers took Jesus and nailed His body to the cross. Took His arms and stretched them out as far as they would go and put a nail through each wrist. Took His feet and placed them together and put a nail through both of them. Then stood the cross upright with Jesus hanging between two other criminals.
He hung there for a while and then finally cried out " It is Finished!" and breathed His last. The soldiers couldn't believe that He was dead so they took a spear and pierced His side to make sure.
Now I ask you again. Can you comprehend having a day like that. I know that most of us get upset when meaningless things don't go our way. But nothing compares to this.
Even Jesus prayed to His Father to take away this cup of bitterness that He was about swallow. But He didn't want His will to go forth, He wanted the will of His Father to be done.
So why am I writing this you may be asking yourself. I want to let you know that Jesus went through all of this, for you and me. He took on all the sins of the world upon Himself. He paid the price for us. He suffered for us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 New Living Translation
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
The best news about this is. Jesus rose from the dead three days later. He is alive and sitting at the right hand of His Father. Hallelujah!
Hebrews 10:12 Amplified Bible
12 whereas Christ, having offered the one sacrifice [the all-sufficient sacrifice of Himself] for sins for all time, sat down [signifying the completion of atonement for sin] at the right hand of God [the position of honor],
So I urge you today to live for Christ. Live like His death meant something, because it did.
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