I’m heading overseas shortly. Not for long, but an International flight will be involved. So as a result I will queue up more than once as I process through check in, immigration, security, customs etc. I can’t circumvent these steps, it’s part of the journey to enable me to visit a distant land. My destination and purpose of my trip (work!) will keep me patiently queuing and standing and waiting. I’ll endure it all so I can get to my destination. I know that on the other side is the plane for me to board and the country for me to visit.
During Lent, we can give pause to think of Jesus on the before side of the Cross, His death and His resurrection. How must He have felt? How must He have longed to avoid it? To avoid the pain, the suffering, the horror. Jesus, while fully God was also fully man, so this journey to the Cross would not have been without fear or anguish. Yet He pressed on, He continued. He rode into the City of Jerusalem knowing He was days away from arrest and crucifixion. He shared Passover with His disciples knowing that this side of the Cross it was the last meal that He would share with them.
Why did He stay on this journey to the Cross? Why did He endure it?
For us! For you, for me! Out of love for us and love for the Father. For our redemption. How incredible, what a sacrifice that Jesus would endure all of this, for us, to restore us as sons and daughters of God.
“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ” (Hebrews 12:2)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Blue Skies & Lollipops 