This is a very important day as we consider the

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Year A

#75

Good Friday 030403-5 Hello! This is Dorothy This is a very important day as we consider the Cross. I am not talking about something that we might happen to wear around our neck; I am talking about when God became spotless Man and, living a spotless life, took upon Himself your sin and mine at that Cross. There is so much that we could speak about the timings and the words that He spoke. I do pray that you put yourself out to read in the Bible those memorable words and the terrible time of the darkness that fell.

There has been a book written that, to me, says all that I want to say to you. I am asking you to take the time and write for the book called, Your Quest for God. There is a chapter on “Does God truly love me?” It speaks about the enormous cost. If we are to live with God forever and ever, we must find a solution to our sin problem. The answer to the sin in our life is found only in the death of Jesus. The holiness of God, the justice of God, and the love of God were all met at the Cross of Christ. There, His holiness was preserved; His justice was vindicated; and there God’s love embraced such sinful people as you and me.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He suffered for our sins, as it were in a 1

three-fold way. On the Cross, the body of Jesus was wracked with agony. On the Cross, His love was stretched to the ultimate. And even more traumatic than this, on the Cross, Jesus was cut off from the light and glory and the peace He had forever enjoyed in His oneness with the Father. Yes, the sufferings that Jesus endured upon the Cross are really beyond our human comprehension. However, as we reflect upon His physical suffering, His emotional suffering and especially His spiritual suffering, we are going to appreciate, in a new way, the measure of His love for you and for me.

Physically, it is impossible to say all that He went through, but many Scriptures point to the awful happenings even before He got to the Cross. It is a miracle He did not die from what they did to Him! We read in Isaiah 52:14 that He was . . . marred more than any man. I cannot imagine what that was like. As a nurse, I have seen some hideous accidents, but to think of the worse I have ever seen cannot compare to what our Lord looked like. He had a face that must have been so swollen and marred and His body so brutalized, He did not even look like a human being any more and that was our Lord!

Yet, He had set his face to do it! We read in Mark 10 33

Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man

shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the 2

Gentiles; 34

And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall

spit upon him, and shall kill him . . . And that is exactly what happened!

Mark describes later what

eyewitnesses had seen: First, they smote him. . . and did spit upon him, and after that, they mocked him, and finally, they crucified him. (15:19,20, 25). You know, the Roman scourge that lacerated our Saviour’s precious body was made of leather thongs weighted with sharp pieces of bone or lead. These were cruelly and deliberately thrown at Him in such a manner that He was beaten as they tore the flesh of His back and around to his front. It was hideous! We read in Psalm 22 tells us -16

. . . they pierced my hands and my feet.

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I may tell - count - all my bones: they look and stare at me.

Yes, our Lord went through this most dreadful, dehumanizing, dreadful death.

Emotionally, the suffering cannot be compared to what He went through for you and me physically in the separation that came upon Him. For we read in John 19 33

But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead

already, they brake not his legs; 34

But one of the soldiers pierced his side, and forthwith came

out blood and water. You see what He bore in His heart, then literally, 3

His heart broke. And out came from that heart, when the spear was stuck in the side, blood and water. The pericardium had gained this water around it, and there this sac, bearing the agony of all the torture of what He bore you and me in His spotless soul, as He bore my sin, caused that He died of a broken heart. And then, what could be worse -

an holy God forsook Him! My God, my God, why hast thou

forsaken me? (Matthews 27:46). Oh, I encourage you. If you do not have this little book, send for this book. But open your Scriptures and open your heart. Such amazing love that God should die for me!

Lord, right now, I give my life to You. For Your glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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