Reverent Sadness

Today, for Christian belief, is Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday of Holy Week. It is the day commemorating the Washing of the Feet(Maundy) and the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples right before he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This night was a very long and painful night for Jesus, not because his torture had started but because of the betrayal and desertion by his followers, the disbelief of Jewish leaders, and the weight of what was to come.

The following day was Friday. We call it Good Friday, not that it was a happy day but because Jesus willingly suffered and was crucified on the cross for atonement of sin. But we must fully understand its purpose. My devotion this morning from Oswald Chambers says it where I can understand it best so I share that with you.

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God. Oswald Chambers

The cross was not something that man did to Jesus, it was the reason Jesus came in the first place. To redeem our souls. We can’t think of the cross as a cross of man, for it is a cross of God…for man because His love for man is so strong, even when we don’t deserve it.

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God. Oswald Chambers

Let us never forget the extent that God went to to assure that we could remain in His care and ultimately join with Him on that heavenly day with the multi-million voice choir as we praise His name.

As you go through these next few days of the Easter season, remember the unfathomable kindness God has shown us and try to show kindness to others.