By Judy Villanueva
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
There He is hanging on the cross…nails in His hands and feet, blood oozing from his side, a crown of thorns pressed into His brow… beaten, bruised, torn open, and naked. To make matters worse, from the cross he looks down on the people he is dying for only to hear their mocking words. They don’t get it! How can they not see and embrace the gift that Jesus is giving as He gasps for air? More to the point, how does Jesus not cry out, “You ungrateful people! Don’t you see what is going on here? Just forget it! Go to your graves hanging onto your sin! I’m outta here!”
Nope. Never entered His mind. Instead He calls out to His Father with whom He has shared intimate friendship for all eternity, and asks for a pardon for those who are killing Him. How on earth? How in heaven? The love that fills Jesus’ heart for mankind is beyond imagination. It is immense and unstoppable! The fact that they were undeserving, self-willed, head-strong, mean-spirited and blind didn’t count against them. It didn’t matter!
Nothing mattered except that Jesus loved them. He never flinched. It was never a question. He is love and loved us unto death.
How do I respond to this kind of Love? How do you? If I stand beneath the cross and look up at my Savior, I feel pierced with sorrow at His suffering. If I then take in the reality that He hangs there for me…I fall to my knees! I wake up most days with this story in the background of my awareness and can live separate from it, but I don’t want to!
I want this act of Love to sit in the foreground of my life so that whenever I open my eyes, I see it!
To see Jesus loving me and going the distance on my behalf pushes me out of complacency and fills my heart with overwhelming gratitude. It pulls out of me the deepest desire to live loved and to love well. It makes me want to love Him back every moment and with all of me!
“Jesus, how can I thank You for dying for me? Help me to remember… to call to the foreground this most precious gift each day and fill me so that I might love you with my life. Amen.”
How about you?
What do you feel when you stand at the foot of the cross and look up?
How do you respond to this kind of love?
Is the reality of the cross in the background of your life or the foreground?
Take time to remember the cross, to bring it’s reality into your heart each day. You are loved with a mighty love.
Worship
The first time you posted was Gods perfect timing and again this time as well. I ALWAYS need to be taken back to the Cross to keep everything in perspective. To forgive like Jesus-to love as He did. I’m thankful that He forgave me and I pray to be like Him with those in my life who reject me. Father, forgive them. I Love You!
I’ve been so busy that I’ve let Lent go by without really reflecting or praying on Jesus suffering and death on the Cross for me……thanks for bringing me back to now.
I am one of those ungrateful people, God forgive me. Lent is still with us, and I will now
go over in my mind, Jesus suffering, and His great love for us……praying
words of thanks. First thing, I will again read your words that go over His passion.
So glad you are out there reminding us of our God.