Five Minute Fridays: The Hard Love

It's Good Friday.

As I sit down and prepare to participate in The Gypsy Mama's 5 Minute Fridays, the topic being The Hard Love, I begin to think of the severe nature of this day so many years ago.

I think of my Jesus, who was beaten, mocked, stripped of his clothing and forced to carry a massive cross--on which He knew He would die--up the road to Golgotha.

Upon that hill He would be nailed to the very cross He carried and would hang there.  In the beating sun, the storming sky, with gravity pulling on Him.  The weight of his body pulling against the nails in his hands and feet, that were pierced to hold him there. . .

GO:

What. Pain.  What. Suffering.  What. Hard. Love.

All for me, in this present day.  All those years ago, He thought of me.  He took the punishment for me.  He endured the Hard Love of the cross.

And . . .

With every last ounce of Himself.

"With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last." ~ Mark 15:37.

With that last breath, the debt had been paid in full.  The debt of my sins.  The sins I had not yet committed.  The sins He knew I would commit.  He knew I needed a Savior.  He knew I needed new life.  He outstretched His hands on that cross and dying He thought of me.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." ~ John 3:16-17

I know there are people who will read this and roll their eyes.  The mocking tone in their thoughts as they read of my blind faith, is nothing compared to the mocking Jesus endured on this day.

"The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.  They put a purple robe on him, then twisted a crown of thorns and set it on him.  And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!"  Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him.  Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him." ~ Mark 15:16-20

The words in bold print just really stick out to me as part of:  THE HARD LOVE.  All for me, He endured this.

"In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves.  "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself!  Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him." ~ Mark 15:31-32



The soldiers, religious leaders and all who cried out for His cruicifiction, soon learned that He was indeed the Son of God.  The grave could not hold Him.  Hell had no power over Him.



In 3 days. . .



He is risen.  He is alive.  He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  He has defeated hell and secured a place in eternity for me. . . and for you.  He is coming back . . . someday.

What. Great. Hard. Love.

STOP.
I went over my 5 minutes today.  I had to look up my scripture references and place them in the text.

Won't you join in and share your 5 minutes?