Love:Working - Podcast Day 5 Deeper GuideDaria Nardozza - 29 Mar 2013

All we can do is sigh with the deepest and most profound relief that someone has taken our place, and that someone just happens to be God incarnate.

Reflect                                       

Bible Reading: Mark 15:21-30 (MSG)

“There was a man walking by, coming from work, Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. They made him carry Jesus’ cross. The soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, meaning “Skull Hill.” They offered him a mild painkiller (wine mixed with myrrh), but he wouldn’t take it. And they nailed him to the cross. They divided up his clothes and threw dice to see who would get them. They nailed him up at nine o’clock in the morning. The charge against him—the king of the Jews—was printed on a poster. Along with him, they crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left. People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament: “You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days—so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you’re really God’s Son, come down from that cross!”

“Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.”
George R.R. Martin, 'A Game of Thrones'

Suffering, death, frailty and pain is what Jesus became when he died on the cross. The purest person that ever lived was met with the darkest darkness in the cosmos. Consider what Charlie shared about seeing losing his father struggle with cancer whilst painting Jesus crucified.  Suffering is ultimately what has brought us to God, not morality or anything we could have done. Good Friday is the ugliest thing to have ever happened yet the most beautiful.

Respond:

Consider the amazing gift of Good Friday that puts us in this incredible place with the Father. All we have done to get there is acknowledge our sin and give it to God, it has nothing to do with our morality or performance. Today, write a list of the good things that you do and offer them as worship. Thank God that Grace and salvation is a freely offered gift paid for by Him.  

Pray

Lord Jesus we thank you for becoming sin, for taking on everything, for absorbing the rage we deserve.
Thank you for this extraordinary gift that puts us in an incredible place with the Father;
Free, forgiven, Clean.
And we've done nothing but give you our sin.
Pray you would take it.
We are sorry.
We thank you.
And we love you.

Amen