My Part

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I wrote a bit on Good Friday last year that  I don't think  I could say any better this year:


Sacrifice is a common theme among world religions.

The Greeks and the Romans were perfectly familiar with the concept of a son of a deity walking around on earth; part of the reason Pilate freaked out when the Jews said Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.  Pilate, a Roman who no doubt worshiped Zeus and Mercury and the like, had no problems with the notion that the Son of God could be standing before him.  So the idea of God coming down to walk around with people isn't unique either.

But...God sacrificing Himself on behalf of the people He loves is unique.

All other religions require people to sacrifice to appease God.  Christianity states that God sacrificed himself so that sin could be removed and His relationship to people restored.

Good Friday is dark and grim and shocking ... Resurrection Sunday is the miraculous fulfillment, and together they are the difference that makes Christianity unique. 

Actually, Good Friday is the culmination of the Great Sacrifice; the first was Jesus leaving heaven, leaving glory, to come walk around on earth as a human, subject to all the same stuff, the same vulnerabilities as every other human. 

That He also endured Good Friday for us...not just the unspeakable physical suffering, but the emotional suffering of being rejected by the very nation He had come to redeem, abandoned by nearly all the people who were close to Him and under the judgment of God for transgressions He did not commit...(my rebellion and my selfishness) ...is further evidence of His amazing love for us.

Inspired by the BSF study of John, May 1996:

Transfer

I see You hanging on the cross,

I know Your death’s for me

I understand no one but You

Could pay the penalty

But, there seems to be so much

That You are called to bear,

I find myself reluctant

To add to that, my share.

Why can’t I drop this load of sin

Before You, at Your feet –

And leave it there upon the ground

And then, delivered, retreat?

But gravity will not remove

The stain that sin imparts.

Either You or I must bear this load

That weighs upon my heart.

So I must claim my part in

The suffering that You had

And deliberately choose to place my sin

Upon Your bleeding head.

“Oh, Lord, forgive me!” I must cry

As the burden I cast on You

And count myself along with those

Whose whips and scorn You knew.

Never again will I lightly treat

Your sacrifice for me

For I see anew it was MY sin

You bore upon the tree.