Tag: Suffering

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Meditation on Christ’s Crucifixion

The Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross

 

Jesus was nailed to the cross at nine on the Friday morning. For the first three hours he endured people’s wrath – threats, spitting, insults, mocking, jeering, etc. Then at noon the sun was darkened. It remained dark, as in a total solar eclipse, till three in the afternoon. In these second dark three hours Jesus endured God’s wrath – drinking God’s cup of judgement to its dregs… on our behalf, in our place, for our sin and rebellion, sickness and death. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2Cor 5:21). The Gospels record that while hanging on the cross for six hours, till his death, Jesus spoke seven times. We do not know the exact order in which each of his ‘sayings’ took place. But reading the context of each of them, I have put them in a possible/probable order from nine till his death at three in the afternoon.

 

In your time of meditation, picture the entire scene. See yourself standing there before the cross with John the beloved disciple, and Mary, Jesus’ mother. Relive what happened during those six hours. Listen carefully… hear what Jesus says. Receive his words from the cross… what do they mean to you? What is he saying to you… personally? What is your response to him? Do you need to do anything? Use your imagination by the Spirit to be with Jesus, hanging on the cross… how you can be with him in his suffering.

 

(Whichever saying ‘speaks’ to you, or grabs your attention, etc, stay with it, meditate on it. Answer Jesus… dialogue with him… do what you must to do to respond to him. If you need to, read the particular text and its context in your Bible so as to personalize it more)

 

 

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”
(Luke 23:34)

 

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”
(Luke 23:43)

 

“Dear woman, here is your son… and… here is your mother”
(John 19:26-27)

 

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34, Matthew 27:46)

 

“I am thirsty”
(John 19:28)

 

“It is finished”
(John 19:30)

 

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”
(Luke 23:46)

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The Life of The Beloved

Recap: You as THE Beloved

 Jesus’ life and baptism is the model for Christian life and baptism. Believing in Jesus, we are “accepted in The Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6 KJV). Our baptism in water and the Spirit confirms and empowers our identity as God’s Beloved – made real in God’s Family of Love, the local church. THEN questions arise:  how do we daily live the meaning of our baptism? What is the basis of our identity, of being loved? How do we die to the old and rise to the new? I.e. how do we live the life of the Beloved? We must go back to Jesus and apply what we learn to ourselves.

The Life of THE Beloved – TESTED

After his baptism – his affirmation of identity and destiny as God’s Be-Loved – “the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert” to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). A careful study shows that when Satan tempts us, it is also a test from God. The three temptations that Jesus experienced are common to all human beings, testing our basis of identity and destiny by challenging God’s love for us. Jesus’ first followers not only took his baptism as the model of Christian baptism, but also took his desert temptations as the model for Christians to overcome evil, to grow mature through spiritual warfare, dying to our old life and identity, and rising to the new.

The First (Economic) Temptation: “After fasting forty days he was hungry. The tempter said, ‘IF you are the Son of God (Be-Loved), tell these stones to become bread’” Prove or use your newly confirmed identity and newly acquired power to be relevant by meeting human needs – your own and others. Then you will feel good about yourself, proving yourself to others! The deeper challenge is to God’s character of love: Will God feed you? Act independently of him and meet your needs! Jesus refused by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “God humbled us (Israel) in the desert, causing us to hunger, then fed us with manna to teach us that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God’s mouth.” And his words that give me life are: “You are my Son, my Beloved, I’m pleased with you.” I.e. I will trust God for my (and other’s) needs, refusing to prove or to find my identity by meeting economic-material needs apart from God, in my own power. In fact, I am so secure in my Father and his love for me that I will give myself as his manna, his bread of life for the world (John 6:35). Continue reading The Life of The Beloved