That’s Nice

I am guessing that most of you reading this know the story of Jesus.

You have heard or read about how He came to earth to be the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have forgiveness for our sins and be united in Heaven when the time comes.

That’s nice, isn’t it?

One definition of the word sacrifice says that it is an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

Read that definition again, I’ll wait right here…

So, by that definition, Jesus regards you, me and everyone else as more important than His place in Heaven. He chose us worthy enough to leave eternal peace and harmony to come here, on this messed up earth, and be our living sacrifice.

That’s really nice, isn’t it?

“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.” John 3:16

What I don’t think we can fully comprehend is the intensity of what Jesus’s sacrifice was actually like.

Reading about it in scripture allows us to put our own visual picture together, but our minds will only allow us to take that picture to a certain emotional place and then we stop.

This is why watching The Passion of the Christ is incredibly hard for me.

My mind cannot conceive what a beating and crucifixion of that magnitude would look or sound like and yet, there it is on the screen in front of me.

I cry.

No, I pretty much sob every time I watch it.

It shakes me to my core.

I close my eyes throughout the scenes where they are torturing Jesus because it doesn’t seem very God-like.

What I mean by that is when I think of God and Jesus, I think of peace and joy and miracles.

Because…that’s nice.

I don’t like to think of Jesus being so stressed out over what’s about to happen that He literally sweats blood.

I don’t like to think of the excruciating, physical pain He went through when they ripped His skin off with whips and impaled His head with a crown of thorns.

I don’t like to think of railroad spikes being pounded into His hands and feet.

I don’t like to think of those things.

But we have to, we need to, we must if we are going to even remotely understand how much God LOVES us and considers us WORTHY of the sacrifice!

Regardless of what we have or have not done, we are that IMPORTANT to Him.

And that’s nice.

<>< KC