Focal Passage: Luke 19:28-22:65
I don’t like pain! When it comes to pain I will try any way I can to avoid or alleviate it.
Even as a child I would try to slip out of the doctor’s office to keep from getting a shot. I personally do not know anyone who enjoys pain. Pain can be physical, emotional or both.
Watching the movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” and studying what He went through, I find it hard to conceive how much Jesus must have suffered leading up to His crucifixion.
On different occasions He tried to prepare the disciples for what was going to take place.
And, just as we often are, they were too absorbed with their own plans to listen.
Those three hours on the cross were the climax of the suffering He endured. He understood how hideous sin really is.
He knew what an eternity in hell separated from God would entail.
Being Creator, He understood what we are like. He also knew what we will go through in our Christian walk.
He gave us a memorial to remember the importance of His crucifixion in the Lord’s Supper.
We look back to what He has done, to our lives today, and to His return.
He knew that just like Peter we will disappoint Him, maybe not with words like Peter, but in our daily lives. The things we do or don’t do can cause great suffering and grief in our Savior.
He knew all that would happen, and still He did it for you and me.
We should be grateful that He was willing and able to suffer as He did. We need to show our gratitude with our lives.
First John 3:18 (HCSB) says: “Little children, we must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth.”
We must come to the place where we seek to not do anything to disappoint Him.
We must stand for the truth no matter the stress, humiliation, or pain that we might endure.
Our living out our gratitude comes from our understanding of His willingness to suffer for us.