BLOG | NO. CRUCIFY ME.
It's Palm Sunday.
From the outside there is a party mob waiting for Jesus.
From early on, the palm trees were stripped of their lowest leaves and from everywhere people came out to welcome Jesus at the city entrance.
From within, the roar of hosannas mingled with the quiet undertone of "crucify Him!" for this audience of One.
A deadly appetizer for the King of kings, presented and wrapped in the most beautiful melody.
Our Lord is not naive, He is all-knowing.
He knows the tide will turn.
He knows the tide will turn against Him.
And He chooses to stay.
We are not all good stayers.
Other people's hurt often gets us out of the blocks the fastest.
And I believe He understands.
Even though He chose otherwise.
That night in Gethsemane when the blood broke out like sweat on Him...
Would it be the nails and thorns that He would have rather avoided?
Or was it the overwhelming prospect of a humanity's hurt that would be dropped into His being in one moment?
The hurt of thousands of Joshlins and
Princess Kates and
Annelies and
Ernas and
Chloes and
Richards and
Ronelles and
Michelles and
Daleens and
Lizels and
Hetties and
Rubys and….
Would this be where He would be the most human?
In that one moment, loaded with all the pain of the visible and the invisible future inhabitants of the world... Would this be the reason that He would rather have gone?
We don't know.
All we know is that He stayed.
But how?
"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in.
Study how He did it.
Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish
in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way:
Cross, shame, whatever.
And now He's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item,
that long litany of hostility He plowed through.
That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
Heb 12:2 The Message
When my pain and the pain of others become too much for me again, may I remember in detail how Palm Sunday was just the beginning of a story that would not end on Good Friday.
Because when they shouted: "Crucify Maxie!", He stepped forward with all the authority of the Ruler of the universe and said:
"No. Crucify Me.”
Your inspiration for the week: You have been there