This Easter I am praying that amidst the busyness of everyday life, God’s love and truth would break through in the middle of whatever is going on, in whatever parts of the world…whether in struggles and/or celebrations, in joy and/or in grief, in peace and/or in turmoil… as only His love and truth may extend to reach every height and every depth, every corner of this world we know (and don’t know) as well as into the crevices and inner workings of each individual heart and soul.
I’m praying for God’s love and truth to break through powerfully, impact-fully…That the eyes of our hearts could see and know the significance of what happened almost 2000 years ago from that very first tragically devastating “Good Friday” to the miracle of “Easter Sunday”…
I am praying with the Apostle Paul in Ephesians:
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe…” (Ephesians 1:17-19)
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)
I am praying this not only for others — for you and all people out there — but I am praying this also for my own heart…for my own life to become ever increasingly aligned with the purposes for which He has bought my life at a price…and for my own heart to become ever increasingly captured by His love and incomparable worthiness of praise of devotion!
On this day before Good Friday, I am particularly contemplating the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion:
(1) beginning with the plot against Jesus by the religious leaders of his day,
(2) to Jesus’ “anointing” with the perfume at Bethany (i.e. Matthew 26:12, Jesus explains “When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial”),
(3) leading to/followed by Judas’ decision to betray Jesus (see John 12:3-6).
(4) There is then The Lord’s Supper (or the Last Supper) and Jesus’ prediction of one of His best friend’s Peter’s triple denial,
(5) His agonizing prayer time in Gethsemane,
(6) and then His arrest and “trial,” the day ending with Peter’s triple denial as predicted (knowing it would happen ahead of time doesn’t make a friend’s denial hurt any less…).
All this happening knowing that the very worst was yet to come the very next day…
What strikes me most today is He knew. Not only did Jesus know that all this was the very hour, the very purpose, for which He had come to the world….God Himself, the Father, knew even before Jesus was sent down to earth as a baby (commemorated and celebrated each Christmas Eve)…God knew from the beginning of creating humanity, I believe, what was to come…He knew what it would cost Him to defeat sin and death on behalf of the people He created and loved (i.e. see 44 Prophecies of the Messiah Fulfilled in Jesus Christ)… And yet, in light of this knowledge, He said “yes.”
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27)
“‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” (John 12:32)
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when the chief priests and the elders of the people with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs came to arrest Jesus, Peter uses his sword to cut off an ear of the servant of the high priest. Jesus’ response illustrates again that Jesus is willingly…deliberately…going forward to face his fated death:
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:52-54; also John 18:10-11)
As I reflect on this, and also Jesus’ challenge to us, that in order to be His disciples, we are called likewise to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34-35), and to follow in His footsteps:
And he said, “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:2-25)
Jesus’ heart is clearly after something different, something greater, than simply “making it” here on earth, of staying/getting out of trouble, of living a protected, safe, comfortable life… God’s heart clearly sees that the salvation of our souls is worth this great cost of suffering and sacrifice, that having us truly and fully reconciled to Himself, in right, intimate relationship, is worth it to Him, even if the great cost must all be paid and suffered and sacrificed on our behalf by Himself.
These days as I am asking God to continue leading me to a place of effectiveness for Him, of living a life that is increasingly pleasing to Him, I am recognizing the gravity of such a request, even as I realize that for myself as a believer, there is also really no other request to be making of my beloved Jesus…
What might it cost? I am pretty sure nothing less than everything. What will be the effect of any sacrifices I make, as I seek to devote everything to Him from the bottom of my heart? That I’m also pretty sure will be greater than whatever other plans I might conceive on my own…
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
“Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:7)
May He cause us also to be and to grow into people of heart, of great courage, able to set our minds on the things of His Higher purposes over and above the daily things which will add up…
Reading the PRE-GOOD FRIDAY Events in the Bible:
Matthew 26 (full story: Matthew 26-28)
Mark 14 (full story: Mark 14-16)
Luke 22:1-65 (full story: Luke 22-24)
John 12-18:27 (full story: John 12-21)
Reading the Easter Story in the Bible:
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