For days I endured a headache after watching the Blue Jays as they battled for the World Championship. I confess, I got a bit stressed at times! Sadly, they did not win, but it was so much fun to watch. I was thinking about how life can feel a lot like the Jays may have felt after their loss. They came so close!
There have likely been times in all our lives where we are just over one sickness and then into another. Or we have had to endure a what seems utterly impossible and winning seems like a pipe dream.
I am slowly reading through the book of Matthew. In Matthew 27:27 -31 it reads like this:
“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.”
At first reading, the story does not look good for Jesus. He seems defeated and if you and I were standing on the sidelines it looks like none of this is leading anywhere good. Except that it actually is. If you know the rest of the story this leads us to Christ’s death on the cross, and then 3 days later, the resurrection!!
All of this leads to our salvation, the keys of death now in the hands of our Lord. Satan is defeated and the curtain in the temple is torn in two. Now we can know our Heavenly Father and experience forgiveness of sin! And so much more!
We have times in life where frankly, it feels like life is being lived out of the bottom of a valley or on a steep climb to the top of a mountain.
Jesus is familiar with our suffering and straining to get through. This day which Jesus endured helps us to understand that Christ does identify with us on impossible days. He has been there and endured which then led to a wonderful victory with benefits we enjoy every day!
We don’t know where some paths will lead, but we do know that we have Christ who has walked hard paths and endured humiliation and suffering. Wherever you find yourself today, friend, you are not without hope. Christ promises in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” That is where that dark day led Him to and the privilege that is ours today!
Dear Father,
Thank You for being One who not only loves me but overcomes in all things. Thank You for the gift of the Cross and what it led to in my life and the difference Your suffering continues to make for me. Help me today. You see my struggles; I ask that You would show me the way forward!
In Jesus Name
Amen