Friday, April 15, 2022
#GoodFriday #JesusDiedForYou #Jesusdiedforme #crucified
I read today’s Our Daily Bread and the lesson mentioned a painting by the Dutch artist Egbert Modderman, his depiction of Simon of Cyrene – a Jew from Africa who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
The lesson got me thinking and I found the painting online. It depicts a man bearing a cross. It is as if he is looking directly at the viewer, his eyes reflecting an intensity of the weight upon his shoulders.
I want to visually paint you a picture of that Good Friday from centuries ago. Pay close attention.
Jesus is walking along the Via Dolorosa (which means the Way of Suffering). The night prior, he had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by soldiers, as if He was a common criminal. He was taken under cover of night to be tried by false accusers.
Imagine: betrayed by the kiss of a friend who previously walked with him, sat with him, and ate with him. Then he is taken first to Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate. In between, for several hours, Jesus endured Peter’s denial of “I know not the man” while warming his hands at the enemies’ fire. He was questioned by Pilate. Accusations were hurled at him, He was flagellated by soldiers with three cords that had iron balls at the tips. 40 stripes were laid upon His back until the flesh was torn and hanging from His frame. He was already bleeding. A crown of 9-inch thorns was placed firmly into his skull. His beard was ripped from his face till he was no longer recognizable. He was spat upon, slapped and taunted into playing a guessing game. “Yo Jesus! Since you claim to be God, can you guess who slapped you?” Yup, I said it. He was slapped. He endured mocking by both religious and political leaders, and later by everyday folks like you and I.
Though Pilate found no fault in Him, He was tried and convicted speedily. The final verdict? “Guilty. Crucify Him”.
So, I want you to see Jesus… alone, tired and carrying this heavy, horrific cross after such brutal beatings to his body.
Now, I want you to see Simon of Cyrene.
He had come from North Africa to celebrate the Passover. You may be familiar with the historical event of the children of Israel who were in Egypt after 400 years of bondage. On the night of the tenth plague levied against Pharaoh who refused to free the people and allow them to leave and to go worship God. A warning went out: the angel of death would kill the firstborn child of every household, except if the doorpost was marked with the blood of a lamb. If the occupants of that house obeyed, the angel of death would pass over that house and move on to the next.
I am sure during Simon’s journey to Jerusalem, he had no idea that he would later be pulled from the crowd of onlookers to help Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb of God, helping to bear His cross up Golgotha’s hill, the place of a skull situated outside the city limits.
Simon’s perspective must have changed in an instant. No longer a curious bystander, he unwittingly became a participant of the plot unfolding before his very eyes. There is no mention of any hesitation on Simon’s part to carry the cross of a Man doomed to die. The cross was made of solid wood and weighed somewhere between 70 – 90 pounds. As a carpenter, on any other day except this, Jesus would have carried that cross as if it was as light as a feather. But on this day, tortured and scarred, beaten and bruised, He struggled under the weight of it, symbolic of the weight of the sins of the world.
As Jesus continued His journey, now accompanied by Simon, I want you to pay attention to the sounds around you. Can you hear the jeers of the crowd, the boos? What about the sounds of the horses’ hooves pounding the pavement of the Via Dolorosa? Clop, clop, clop, clop. Can you hear the soldiers shouting? Do you see the anger and the hatred on the faces of some of the people who previously cheered for Jesus the prior week, lauding Him as their King! Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Can you see the hardness in their eyes? Such a swift turnaround, honoring Him with their lips but their hearts were far from Him.
In the midst of the chaos and confusion, I marvel at the compassion of God for a lost world.
O! What Love the Father has for us! While yet in sin, a planet of orphans, He Himself became our Sacrifice, the propitiation and full payment for our sins.
While we may be in a hurry to gloss over that journey on the Via Dolorosa, in a rush to get to that 3rd day, to the Resurrection, let us not forget. In fact, may we never forget the extreme price that was paid in blood, sweat and tears by our Beloved Saviour, the Begotten Son of God.
I want you to intentionally p-a-u-s-e…..
Meditate on the enormity of what our Saviour did for the world. Meditate on the costs stamped in blood on so many levels so that we would be saved, sanctified, made righteous, and restored to a right relationship with our Abba Father.
Jesus took my place, your place, our place so that we would not be sentenced to eternity in hell, forever separated from God. He did not have to do it, but He did.
Father, I do not like this cup right now. But feelings have to get out of the way. I was born for this. This is my purpose. Not My will Abba, but Yours be done.
And so today I say, “Thank you Lord Jesus. For me, your life, death, burial and resurrection are not in vain. I appreciate all that you have sacrificed, exchanging Your life for mine. I appropriate all that You died for, for me as well as for my family.”
My prayer to you dear reader is that you do the same for you. If today you hear His Voice, harden not your heart. You are loved by the Almighty, Creator of all the earth and all they that dwell therein.
His arms are open, and He waits for you! No longer halt between two opinions.
If today you hear His Voice, harden not your heart.