The Crucifixion

PRAYER PRACTICE

Breath Prayer – Take 2-3 minutes today to pray a simple breath prayer. Get somewhere quiet and relaxing. Breathe in deeply, and then breathe out fully. As you breathe in, ask God to fill you with His presence, grace, love, peace, etc. Consider using the list of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5:22-23. As you breathe out, offer to God the things you need Him to take from you – sin, doubt, shame, anxiety, fear, etc. Pray this way for just a few minutes, trusting God to work, and then begin reading today’s Scripture.

 

DAILY READING

Luke 23:1-56

 

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

The Crucifixion 

By Andrea Taphorn

I don’t read the gospel recordings of Jesus’ crucifixion without really be driven to them by something outside myself, because they are uncomfortable to read. My heart will gravitate towards passages about hope in Christ. I find myself not really wanting to sit in this story, read its details and let it do its work on me. I’d like to skip quickly ahead to the joy of the resurrection. Because of this tendency, I am grateful for this reading today that bids me to do the thing that otherwise, I don’t quite have the power to do on my own, which is to read and reflect on the details of Christ’s death on the cross.

Today is just two days before we begin the season of Lent with the celebration of Ash Wednesday, the Christian holiday where we remember we are going to die. From the outside looking in, this sounds like quite a strange holiday to celebrate each year, doesn’t it? We remember our mortality. But we remember it in light of this very story of Christ’s own death. As I read this chapter, I found myself being drawn in by verse 49, “But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”

If there are characters in the story that I find relatable, it is the ones who knew Jesus and followed him. And I find it so convicting that I am not all that different than those that walked and talked and laughed and prayed with Jesus and one another. Once their following brings them to this scene, they could not take it in and stood at a distance. Their following took a hard stop.  I certainly have empathy for them in their bewilderment. But our dear Savior just doesn’t quite stand for that does he?

Jesus’ death on the cross demands that not only that I take in this story, but up close and personal. And not just once, but he bids me here again and again. Jesus wants to apprise me of the fact that my sin is on him. And this news, that my sin has been placed upon Jesus, is something I have heard my entire life and still feel myself wanting to stand at a distance from it. It’s the kind of news that does something to me every time it bids me closer.

For Jesus does not die instead of me, but ahead of me. And to the human heart this just sounds startling and fearful and quite honestly- deadly. And dear friends, I am astounded each time I come in close. I find that this is the best news I could ever hear- again and again. Jesus has taken my sin from me. He has put me to death, praise be to God. For Jesus is relentless in raising me to new life. Jesus resurrects me with the words, “You are my beloved child. You are mine. I’ve taken everything of yours upon myself. I’ve taken it all. My resurrected life is your resurrected life. Everything I have is yours.”