Skip to main content

The Cross

The head once crowned with glory, crowned with thorns instead. A crown of humiliation, shame and pain. The thorns lacerating into his tender flesh and drawing blood.

It is dark – pitch black. A constant stream of blood dripping down from the cross onto the ground below. The gasps of slow suffocation meet the resistance of nail pierced hands and feet.

A man, lashed and beaten beyond recognition.

I turn my face away. It’s too awful to behold. I don’t want to look at it. I don’t want to face the reality of his suffering.

A thought crosses my mind. I haven’t done anything that bad. I’ve never murdered, I’ve never robbed a bank. I consider myself to be a nice person.

The king of glory, Jesus, hangs dying in unrecognisable pain. And I don’t want to admit, or face the reality, that it’s my sin that put him there. I don’t even want to dwell on the brutality of the suffering he endured.

That was the cost of my sin. That was the cost of my shame. That was the depth of my depravity. That was the level of my brokenness. That was the extent of my separation from God.

Jesus’ very life was the price paid for my freedom. For my reconciliation. For my healing. For my chance to live again. To live for eternity.


Jesus looks into my eyes. He tells me – this was for you. His eyes of honesty, compassion and gentleness. There is no reproach. There is only love. A free gift of which I’m still grasping to understand the immeasurable cost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Great Exchange

I had walked past that shop many times. Flickers of curiosity had been quenched by apathy, worry or distraction. Today for some reason, I stopped. The sign outside stated in clear and daring letters “The Great Exchange”. My eyes travelled down to a notice underneath. “ I want all your junk.   Bring the worst that you have. In exchange, I will give you my life ”. It was such a strange concept. I had heard of the man who ran the shop inside. Some people said he was an imposter. Some people said he was crazy. Some people said he was a myth; that he didn’t really exist. They said he had holes in his hands, and scars on his body. Whoever he was, he was surely an enigma. Maybe he was dangerous? Why did he want this junk anyway? And could it really be true? I mean, it sounded just too good to be true… There must be some sort of catch. If there was anything I had learned in life, it’s that you can’t trust anyone these days. Walking away I dismissed this mystery pawn man from my ...
2 comments
Read more

The Slave Market

  I had known for some time that this day would come. I woke that morning with a heavy heart, half hoping for a moment that my dream had been reality and my waking a dream. My reality was so much worse than any nightmare my mind could fabricate. Today was the last day of my freedom. Well, perhaps it would be more correct to say, that today would be the last of any semblance of self-independence. Today I would be escorted to the old courthouse in the centre of the city. I would attend the dreaded courtroom 99, known colloquially as ‘The Slave Market’. I would leave the courthouse, in the company of a new master. I would have been bought by one of my creditors. I would be his slave. The only uncertain thing about this entire process was who would claim me. All of my creditors had a good case in law and fact against me. And I could not afford to repay a single one.    I had pawned everything I owned in the hopes of repaying my debt. Last week, I had made the tragic journey t...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's so offensive about Grace?

  There’s just something about grace. It’s beautiful, it’s free and somehow, it’s altogether offensive. Have you ever struggled with the “I’m not good enough” plague upon your mind? Or perhaps: “I’m not doing enough/ achieving enough”. Or maybe it’s that roundabout guilt from past sins that rises and ebbs at times, but never seems to disappear? Paradoxically, these thought patterns can sometimes stem from pride. A pride that fails to understand the free gift of grace offered to us by God. A pride that teaches that we still somehow need to earn our salvation, or God’s forgiveness. A pride that deceives us into believing that we are somehow capable of earning it.   But isn’t it by faith we have been saved? So can’t we take pride in our faith? The Bible tells us that no one can come to the Father unless He draws them. Despite our multiple attempts to prove the opposite, we are irretrievably wholesale products of the breath-taking and incomprehensible grace of God.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more