You and I were there.

April 10, 2020
Today’s Holy Week devotion is based on the prophecy of Isaiah, written in Isaiah 53:5, “He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace.”

In the movie “The Passion of the Christ” you will be shocked and maybe even brought to tears, for it brings to life what happened to Jesus. You might not be able to watch certain scenes for other death reveals such brutality, cruelty, or hatred in our human heart. There is dark insanity at work in our nature.

Yet the record of Jesus Christ with merciful love for us holds the event of the cross as paramount and unavoidable. To turn our eyes away is to shrug off a far worse virus than anything medical science has ever faced. Today we stand before the awful cross. Here the life of Christ was tortured from him; he whose love blazed brighter than any other in the pages of history. This was no story gone wrong, for it was his plan, the reason why he came to be one of us.

Here, on Good Friday, you meet the Jesus of the cross. Here, you see the cure for your sin, your inability to be as God made us. Here you see your only hope, your cure. We were there. Thank God, for this day, is our only hope.

Please pray with me the prayer for today: Let me see in your suffering the truth about my human condition. Let me be brought to my lowest before you, whom I have crucified. Help me to understand that this day is not for my misery, but to end my misery, my fear, my guilt. Lord, ready me for the dawn to come, the Son-rise of your love for us all. Make us your instruments of Good News, your cross for us. In Jesus’ blessed name, I pray. Amen.