As we celebrated Easter this year I tried to put myself back to the time of Jesus’ arrest, trial, death, and rising again. At our community Good Friday service, sitting in a comfortable church, it was hard to connect with the horror of the day of Christ’s death. I thought of the pictures on the news of riots in the streets of some Middle Eastern country where people are throwing rocks and there’s chaos in the streets. I tried to picture Jesus walking that road of suffering and people focusing their hatred and disappointment in his direction. How far they were in their knowledge of Him and what He came to do. There must have been so much confusion on the part of His disciples. As tears came to my eyes, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love.
My friend just got back from Jerusalem and she walked that street of suffering but it is now full of vendors profiting from the tourists that visit that spot. And then I thought how we have profited from Jesus’ suffering in so many ways.
I could relate to the mourning and grieving over His death. My mother’s death still seems fresh. Grief comes in waves or it would consume you completely. I have had a fresh wave of grief this season. I tried to think what a loss Mary Magdalene was experiencing. The one who had freed her was dead. I thought of a mother’s grief as Mary watched her son give His life away. What a whiplash of joy they must have felt when they found out He was alive.
I have also been thinking about the power that rose Jesus from the dead – the power of obedience to death, the power of a surrendered life, the power we have available to us. This power to walk in what Christ has done for us - power to experience love, joy, and peace. Power over evil, power over selfish ambition, power over lies and deception. Power to walk with Christ in this life as more than a conqueror.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean,
In its fullness over me;
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love . . .
It seems so small, but thank you Jesus.
