When I was in my 20's, I was in ministry at a church. We had a large wooden cross at the base of our property on a hill. It was at the corner of a very busy intersection. Every year on Good Friday, I would go early in the morning and drape that cross in black, and we would leave it that way until the Easter Sunrise service held on the hill. Symbolically, we would take the black cloth down and replace it with a white cloth as the start of our service.
On those Good Friday mornings, standing there in the dim light of dawn, I would step back and look at the cross with the black cloth draped across it. It always made me feel so sad and alone. Everytime I would drive by in the next two days, I would feel those same feelings. If I felt that way 2000 years later, how must the disciples, and Mary Magdalene and Mary, His mother have felt. When they took Jesus down from that cross and sealed Him in the tomb, he was gone forever.
It also makes me think of how alone Jesus must have felt from the time He was praying in Gethsemane, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," until he yelled out to His Father, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Crucifixion is a horrific, agonizing, death, yet Jesus went willingly to His death....FOR ME! There's a line in a Sandi Patty song called "They Could Not." The line goes, "and when at last they took what willingly He gave." They didn't get it. I like to think I would have "gotten it." I wouldn't have let Jesus die alone, but I have 2000 years of hindsight. I am sure I would have been just as scared as they all were.
Do I get it now? I think I do. I hope I do. It's really rather simple. There isn't a lot of analyzing to do. JESUS DIED FOR ME! Why? Because of His Amazing Love.
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