Jesus' Death

Prayer Practice:

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

Daily Reading: Luke 23:44-56

 
Devotional

Death Takes Center Stage

by Pastor Jeff Morlock

Today death takes center stage. Good Friday is always difficult. But this year it feels even more so, for death is the ultimate pandemic. No one escapes it, not even Jesus. On this day Emmanuel, God with us, takes on its deepest meaning. Jesus is never more identified with us than on the cross. He’s  never more present to us and our suffering than he is on Good Friday - not at his birth, nor in his teaching and preaching; not in the miracles he performs, nor even at his resurrection. It’s on the cross, in his suffering and dying, that Jesus is most like us. And it is in dying to self that we are most like him, fully loving God and neighbor as he commands.

Good Friday confronts us with our lack of control and our powerlessness over death. COVID-19 intensifies this, of course. Yet the reality of death doesn’t diminish or negate our lives, it intensifies them! Death is the frame around the picture of our day(s). It focuses our attention on what really matters. The fact life is fleeting but God is good means every moment is holy. In fact, this one right now is priceless. Jesus knew this, of course. It’s why he lived as he did. Our Lord took no person, no thing, and no day for granted. His life was intense. His love passionate. His presence palpable. But he lived as he did, not in spite of his coming death, but because of it.

What does it mean that, as Christians, we live in the shadow of the cross?  What does it mean for your relationships, your priorities, and the values you hold? What does it mean for the ways you love, forgive, and show up for others? For the places where you invest your time, money, and effort? Are you living in light of eternity, as though today is a precious gift from God? Good Friday says it is. And because of Jesus and the freedom he won for us--freedom from sin, death, and the devil; freedom from shame and fear--tomorrow will be, too.

Prayer:
God, as we remember what your Son, Jesus was willing to endure so that we could receive the gift of eternal life, let us not take this life in Christ for granted. Empower us to join you in the kingdom opportunities of this day, and to rejoice in the truth that you are making all things new, including us. Even now. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.