I asked my Sister in Christ Ethel Maharg if she would write an Resurrection Sunday message for us all! It is so very powerful and so very loving. Ethel is the Director of the New Mexico Right to Life Committee! We are so very thankful for her leadrership here in New Mexico!
Not wanting to go, He went.
Imagine being in such agony as you pray about what you know is about to happen to you that you sweat “great drops of blood” pleading with your Father asking that the cup of suffering would pass from you. Would we go through with it? This is exactly what Jesus was experiencing in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prayed “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”
We see that Jesus went in obedience, to the cross, yet He didn’t want to. This is evidenced by His prayer. He knew it would be excruciatingly painful and He would lose His life, yet He went. Why would He endure the cross? He knew without a doubt what His mission was and that was to save the lost and He knew it involved the cross. There was no other way, and there was no one else who could accomplish what He was sent to accomplish. There was only one sinless lamb.
Jesus knew that on the other side of the cross was salvation for all mankind and so He went willingly, laying down His life so we might be free. On Friday Jesus was betrayed, beaten beyond recognition and nailed to a cross where suffered, bled and died. He was laid in a borrowed tomb then stormed the gates of hell and the grave leading captivity captive. Then came Sunday. Thank God for Sunday.
We have all been tested lately. Some of us financially, some physically, or emotionally and we find ourselves at Friday, Good Friday. Surely as night follows day, Sunday follows Friday. What will we do on Saturday though? Will we too storm the gates of hell? We have a choice you know. We can obediently do what God calls us to do knowing it will probably be painful, while holding on to the hope that Sunday will surely come. Like Jesus we don’t have to want to go through this.
God has a purpose for us all and on our way to that purpose there will be a cross or two for us to bear. There is no other way and no one else but you who can fulfill what God has for you to do. We can still rejoice in our suffering however because Sunday will surely come and with it the promise of new life. This is the hope we have in Christ, that we will rise again, not just at the end of our life, but from every circumstance.
This Easter let’s focus on what lies ahead. It is good. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
