Wondrous Love

19Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face. 4Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ 5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ 6When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.’ ~ John 19:1-6

Good Friday always makes me reflect on that Holy Day, so very long ago, where the only perfect man to have lived upon this earth chose to go through unthinkable torture and death to save someone like me.   To hear of the actual pain that Christ had to endure for me brings me to tears.  Watching the movie, "The Passion of Christ," really brought it all home a few years ago in a very visual representation of what I, and everyone else, should have had to endure at life's end for all of our sinful ways.  Every blow of the whip made me cringe.  The taunting, beating and spitting upon Christ was so unfair.  Yet, Jesus took all this upon Himself so that none of us will ever have to endure such pain to pay the price our our own sin if we believe in Him. 

The whipping, beating, taunting and spitting upon Jesus wasn't even the worst of the punishment.  Sweating blood from His terrible beating earlier in the day, He still had to carry His cross up a winding hill to the place of His ultimate death.  The soldiers nailed Him to the cross through His feet and hands, (although it is now said that it was probably through His wrist at the base of His hand).  Then to have to hang for three hours, with His already bloody, beaten back rubbing agonizingly against the rough post as He put pressure on His feet to raise Himself up enough to draw a breath of air, then slide back down the post again to have the pressure of His weight pulling at the nails at His hands prolonged the feeling of the previous beating.  All the while, His lungs are filling with fluid, making it harder and harder to breath as He slowly suffocated in His own body fluid.  

Through all of this pain and torture, Jesus still made the time to see that His mother would be cared for, forgives those who persecuted Him, "for they know not what they are doing," and tells a thief that is dying beside Him that he "will be with me in paradise," for this one thief already could see that Jesus did not deserve to die, for He had done nothing wrong.  This thief, instead, rebukes the other thief who is taunting Jesus from his own cross of death, and asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom.  This is proof that, even if we are so stubborn as to not see Christ for who He really is until almost our final moment here on earth, it is never too late to ask for forgiveness and believe in Him.  Christ will still forgive us and take us to be with Him for all eternity.

This weekend, really think about the pain that Christ suffered to save you with His unfathomable love for each and everyone of us.  How many people that love you now would be willing to undergo so much pain and agony to save you?  Would you be willing to undergo that kind of torture for others you love?  Even for those that have wronged you in so many ways?  May a deeper realization of just how much Jesus loves you be gained as you meditate on Christ and His ultimate sacrifice to save you from eternal death.

Prayer

Dearest Lord Jesus,As I ponder the cross and all that it represents for me and everyone else, I am drawn to tears by how deep Your love is for each and every one of us to have endured so much pain, torture and ridicule just to save me.  I know I have done nothing to deserve Your love or greatest sacrifice on my behalf, but I thank You and praise You for loving me so much that You did undergo the cross and death to save a sinful creature like me.  Amen.

~ Wendy Miller