Most Precious Lord, during a very stressful time for You in the Garden while in prayer, Your apostles (in their human weakness) slept. You remained engaged in what You would face while they obliviously slept. When the throng came to arrest You, Malchus’s ear was severed during the scuffle. Even though You knew why they had come to arrest You, You were moved by compassion to restore Malchus’ ear. If I desire to be good like You, I must imitate such goodness. I must learn that there are times when I must be strong and forceful and other times when I must be kind and show mercy. Through the reattachment of Malchus’ ear, You demonstrated that You wanted Your people’s hearing to be restored. You want me to hear with my heart. Therefore, my prayer is for You to heal my spiritual deafness so I can hear Your words of life that You want to share with me. In these times, I needed to heed Your words.
Pilot thought that by scourging You he would satisfy the mob and be able to release You. This is the way most humans seek to compromise and, by doing so, give in to evil to appease it. Your meekness, goodness, and unwillingness to defend Yourself was in contrast to the brutal, senseless cruelty of Your persecutors. How foolish it was of them to feel they could bind Your hands and think they could constrain You when all You had to do was say “cords be loosened” and they would have fallen to the ground. What extraordinary courage and internal and mental strength Your displayed before Your tormentors. You stood in meekness without protest while committed to the wish of Your Father and Your trust in Him. If anyone denies You they are denying justice, love and purity. By rejecting You, men produce a chaos and vacuum into which others will be drawn.
When You were nailed to the cross, You were deformed, without beauty and one bloody mess. You were a victim of sins You did not commit. You were, and remain, the personification of virtue. You never had to atone for anything that You had done. So why did You do it? Because of the gravity of the sins for all of mankind for all of time … including mine. The thought of Your selfless sacrifice should stir me to completely trust in You. In being redeemed at such a high price, I need only to ask for forgiveness, repent of my sins and accept Your grace to help me become more obedient. Today, Your pain is caused when I reject Your commands to follow in my own ways. Facing my sins and my own inability to atone for them should cause me to bow down, seek forgiveness and resolve to sin no more. Help me become submissive to Your will and Your ways. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
John 19:30 When He had received the drink, Jesus said “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.