9 Holy Week Lessons for Handling Hard Times预览

Today is called Holy Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.

Little known fact: Holy Saturday is the only day in the entire year, where neither of those churches offer communion/eucharist. It is the day that commemorates the day that Jesus lay in the tomb lifeless.

The service that’s held on holy Saturday is often referred to as “The Adoration of the Cross.”

I have a Presbyterian friend who married a Catholic many years ago. And when their family came for the rehearsal at the Protestant church, one of the boys walked into the room and said, “Mama, Jesus isn’t here in this church!” What did he mean? Was he anti-protestant?

No, he had noticed that there was a cross at the front with no Jesus hanging on it. Because in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, Jesus is always pictured on the cross dying. (By the way, it’s worth remembering that’s the vast majority of Christianity, so we Protestants are in the minority here). I’ve always appreciated looking at an open cross that signifies a risen Jesus. But there’s great value in taking a moment today to look upon his suffering as most Christians do when they enter their house of worship.

Martin Luther said that the older he got the more he focused on Jesus on the cross. When Billy Graham was asked what an old Billy would tell a young Billy, he said he would’ve “focused more on the blood of Jesus. That’s where the power is.” His death is the keystone of the arc of history, the crux of the play.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate a risen Jesus. But for today, I’m focusing on his suffering, and I guarantee you, it will lessen my focus on my own suffering. While it’s a graphic movie, Mel Gibson‘s, “The Passion of the Christ” has moved me every time I’ve watched it. Seeing a depiction of the physical suffering of Jesus should move someone to tears, even this Dutch guy.

But even more than physical suffering, Jesus’ suffering on the cross was emotional and spiritual. When he breathed his last breath and quoted king David, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was speaking literally.

In that moment of crucifixion and death, Jesus was separated from his father for the first time ever. He was also literally transformed into sin for us. Paul writes about this in a letter to the Corinthians in the second of today’s verses.

Essentially, when you look upon the cross of Jesus and him dying there, you’re not just looking at someone suffering physically. You’re looking at someone who has taken on your sin, my sin, and every sin that has become before or after us. He literally became sin so that we might not have to. Enough so that when his father looked down on him on the cross, he no longer saw a son, but saw pure sin and literally said, “I forsake you.”

William’s translation: God looked on the cross and said, “You can go to hell.”

Most days, I focus on an empty cross. I’m ready for resurrection Sunday. But today, as I focus on a suffering Jesus on the cross, the blood he shed for us, and most of all his willingness to take our place, my suffering just doesn’t seem that important.

Where can you focus on him today? Could you take a few minutes to consider the suffering that he went through? I guarantee you that if you’ll spend time focusing on his crucifixion, even adoring the moment on the cross, the size of your suffering will shrink.

Sunday is coming, but for now let’s focus on the fact that Jesus literally died a sinner so that we don’t have to. Focus on his suffering, and you’re suffering will shrink.

Prayer:

O God of the living, on this day your Son our Savior descended to the place of the dead: Look with kindness on all of us who wait in hope for liberation from the corruption of sin and death, and give us a share in the glory of the children of God; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen. (From The Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Holy Saturday)