It’s Holy Week and I find myself feeling a bit overwhelmed at all this week represents. Where would we be without Christ’s great act of love and mercy on the cross?
Brian and I have a tradition. Every year around Good Friday we watch “The Passion of the Christ” movie. It has proven to be such a great reminder of what Christ endured for us and it jolts us out of our complacency. As ridiculous as it sounds there are times when the Passion story has become way too familiar to me and I’m dangerously close to becoming numb to it. This movie cuts right to my heart and causes me to feel again. And make no mistake, when it comes to Christ’s act on the cross; we all NEED to feel something about it.
So much of the movie stirs my heart, but perhaps the scene that has impacted me the most is when Christ is carrying His cross through the streets and his mother, Mary, is trying to catch-up to her son to see him face to face one more time. She finally reaches Him as he is struggling with the cross and He falls to the ground. He is bloody from the brutal torture He has already experienced. Their faces meet and He looks into His mother’s tear-stained eyes and says, “See mother, I make all things new.” In my opinion it’s one of the most powerful moments in the entire movie. I weep every time I see it. I am overwhelmed when I think about what it took to make me new. Jesus experienced such brutality for me…in my place. That’s what it took to make me new. Oh, the price He paid. It brings me to my knees with a strange mixture of sorrow and gratitude.
I recorded a song a few years ago written by Janet Paschal called, THE BODY AND BLOOD. Part of the lyric says:
This is my body broken for you.
For all you’ve been and all you’ve been through.
This is my blood and when you’ve reached the end
I offer you again the body and blood.
For all you’ve been and all you’ve been through...I’ve sung that line hundreds of times and I still get choked up. This song helps to remind me of just how serious my sinful nature is. Christ died not just because of the things I’ve done, but also because of everything I’ve been…a sinful human being. Oh how He loves us!
I hope you will take some time during the next few days to really contemplate what Christ did for you on that cross more than 2,000 years ago. When you spend time at the foot of the cross, it makes the celebration of Easter so much sweeter. Thank God the story doesn’t end at the cross. It ends with an empty tomb and our risen Savior who is alive and well and sitting at the right hand of the Father! Wow! Thank you, Jesus, for doing whatever it took to make us new!
Finally Free 