A Reflection

We live in a world filled with turmoil and woe, a time when folks' hearts are in one of two conditions- deception or anticipation...daily my heart focuses upon God's goodness and His ultimate act of love. During Easter, when the world looks toward and celebrates a bunny, my heart turns toward the only occasions that are marked by more controversy than any other single event...the birth and death of a Savior.

It's officially the Sunday before Easter. The Sunday Jesus entered Bethany. 

Thank you Lord...for doing what I could not.

"The Promise came in the form of a baby.
The baby's cry broke the silence between the Testaments.

In that very moment the tide of all history turned; the long-awaited promise had been fulfilled.

Simeon held the infant and declared, "For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."~ Luke 2:30-31

The Promise keeper had kept his promise."*

For thirty-three years, God in Christ walked among men. And then...

He arrived in Bethany on Sunday and went on to His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Monday He irritated the chief priests, protesting the exchange of money within the temple.
 

On Tuesday, He explained the Greatest of the Commandments and announced the day of his execution while in secret Judas agreed to betray him.

He called the religious leaders out as hypocrites and vipers and then mourned Jerusalem's rejection and impending destruction on Wednesday.
 

By Thursday, He sat for a Last Supper and then prayed alone in Gethsemane.
 

Early Friday morning He was betrayed and stood trial six times before ungodly men.
 

He was beaten, ridiculed, and rejected.
The Creator was accused by the created and condemned to die; the sinless One for the sins of all men.

He endured humiliation on the path that led to a criminal's torture and put on public display on Calvary.

"It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining." ~Luke 23:45-45

 

At the same hour when sacrificial lambs were slaughtered, the heavens darkened, the earth shook and trembled, and the King of all Glory, the sacrificial lamb, died.

 "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split" ~ Matthew 27:51

"When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”~Matthew 27:54

That same evening godly men buried Him in a borrowed tomb.

By Saturday, soldiers were ordered to guard it.

And then... all creation held it's breath in anticipation of Sunday...

* E. Hindson (2003). Courageous Faith. AMG Publishers. TN: Chattanooga