Saving Jesus #T

We have come through what is known in the church as Passion Week.  We have observed the adulation of the crowds in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  We have seen the Master with his select twelve in the Upper Room at the Feast of Passover.   We have watched Jesus agonize in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane while his followers were unable to stay awake "even an hour."  We have seen the tragic betrayal of the Christ by one of his own select, the taking of this innocent man to be tried and falsely convicted and sentenced to die on the cross.  We have watched as a favored disciple, "Rocky," as it were, denied that he even knew this fellow.

We have watched the agonizingly slow dragging of the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and finally collapsing, Jesus yields the cross to another to bear in his stead.  But the denouement, the nailing to the cross and the plunge of the post into the hole prepared for it; the tearing and ripping of the flesh of his hands; the crown of thorns placed on his head; the promise of paradise to the thief who dying beside him believes on Jesus as Savior; his cries, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  And finally, "It is finished!"    We see this even as his friends and his mother before the cross witness this unbelievably cruel death in which this man is literally suffocated as he is raised up on the cross. The Temple curtain tears in two. We see the soldier piercing his side and his removal from the cross.  We see him taken and entombed in a burial chamber belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea; the great stone slamming the entrance shut; the Roman guard placed on the burial site.

But now!  But now on this Sunday morning, this Easter Sunday morning, we celebrate the completion of our salvation through the death and resurrection, yes, resurrection of this Man Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

Is it any wonder that this day unrecognized by any government fiat is nevertheless my favorite Holiday of the Year?

Rejoice!

 
 Tipton Presbyterian Church

March 2016

Samsung DV150F

Evening available light
f/6.3 1/60sec at 30 meters