Walk Boldly With Jesus

What About The Waiting…

Episode Summary

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.” Today's episode discusses two main points. First, our sin is the reason Jesus was crucified. I knew this but didn't realize it at the time. Second, the episode draws our attention to Jesus in the waiting. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode Notes

What About The Waiting…

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.”

Today is a very sad day. I know that without Good Friday, we have no Easter Sunday, and yet today is still a very sad day. Thinking about all the Lord went through for us is a bit overwhelming. To think about all he suffered and the fact that He never sinned. He was completely blameless, and yet He suffered immense pain for all of us. That can be overwhelming, too, if we really let it sink in that it was our sins that killed Jesus. My sins and your sins. That is a lot to take in.

I remember Father Mike saying that he was at an event once, and someone came up to him and asked him two questions. The first was, why do Christians blame all Jews for Jesus’s death, and the second one was, if you believe that Jesus’s death saved you from sin, shouldn’t you be thanking us? Father Mike wasn’t sure what to say, so he called upon the Holy Spirit. Then he explained that, yes, some of the Jewish people conspired with the Romans to put Jesus to death. However, the Catholic Church does not blame the Jewish people for Jesus’s death. Jesus would not have had to go to that cross if we were blameless. Jesus went to that cross for my sins and your sins. We are the reason Jesus was crucified.

This wasn’t news to me. Of course, I knew that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. However, it did hit me in a different way when Father Mike said that our sins are the reason Christ went to the cross. I don’t know if those sound exactly the same to you or not, but for me, they were slightly different. It was almost as if I was recognizing the redeeming factor of Christ going to the cross without realizing the blame I had for it. I don’t know if I can explain what I am thinking in a way that will make sense, but I am going to try, so please bear with me.

I know Jesus died from my sins. I am so grateful that because of his sacrifice, we have been set free from sin and bondage. I focused on that part of it in the past. Good Friday was about Jesus taking our sins to the cross. The focus was on Jesus and what He sacrificed for us. And the focus should be on Jesus. However, I don’t think I allowed myself, or I don’t know if I ever thought to think about my part in Jesus going to the cross. I don’t know that I ever really felt the guilt of sending Him to the cross. I don’t know that it really sunk in that it was my sins that caused Him to go to the cross. I am not sure if that makes sense, and it may be a subtle difference but it is an important one.

Another thing that I am reminded of each Good Friday is something I heard about at a conference in Germany. I unfortunately didn’t get to see it. I was at a conference in Ettal, Germany. This is not far from Oberammergau, Germany, where they hold the Passion play every 10 years. In 1633, the Oberammergau villagers promised to perform the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ every tenth year, in so far as no one was to die of the plague anymore. God answered the villagers, and therefore, in 1634, the first Passion Play took place. The promise has been kept until today. During some free time at the conference, some of the people took a ride to Oberammergau to walk around the village.

One of my friends went to this town. Her friends walked into a church, and she was outside. She entered just a few minutes after them, and she walked in, and they were all crying. She wondered what she missed, what had happened. Then, they pointed to a display at the back of the church. It was Jesus waiting in a cell, and it hit her, too. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to wait in a cell for the time to arrive? We tend to think of the physically demanding times, such as the scourging at the pillar, the carrying of the cross, or the actual crucifixion. But what about all the times in between all of that? What about the times when He was all alone, left with His own thoughts?

We know that when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, thinking about all He would have to endure, His sweat became like drops of blood. We know the pain of thinking about all of our sins was overwhelming to Him. What about when He is waiting to meet Pilate? What about after the scourging and before the crucifixion? Was He waiting alone in a cell somewhere? What was going through His mind? Did you ever take time to meditate on that? I know I haven’t because I never really thought of it before. The quiet part, the waiting part, isn’t really talked about.

I just looked up Jesus’s waiting to see if maybe it was talked about but I didn’t hear about it. I found an article  from a woman named Christina. Christina has visited Israel and was telling about what she saw when she went. Here is what she said: (Click Here for full article)

"On our trip to Israel, we went to that courtyard where a statue of a rooster now stands. We then went to an underground prison beneath Caiaphas’s home, where Jesus was likely held the night of his arrest. It was a deep, dark pit. There was one light dimly illuminating the room for us, but I could easily imagine what it would have been like turned off. I thought about the time our family went on a tour of a cave in the mountains of Tennessee. At one point on the tour, the guide turned out the lights so we could experience what it was like for gold miners when their lights were extinguished. It was the darkest place I’d ever been. Complete darkness. That’s what I imagine the pit in Caiaphas’s dungeon would be like without electricity."

As we know from our own lives, sometimes waiting can be the hardest moment. I invite you into Jesus’s waiting today on Good Friday. I invite you to ponder what it was like for Jesus in the waiting. What was going through His mind? What kept Him going? What gave Him the strength to remain silent and not call out in pain? I invite you to ask Jesus what He wants to show you today. I invite you on this Holy and somber day to spend some time with Jesus. Thank Him for giving His life for us. It says in the verse above, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.” I invite you to spend some time with that verse today if you don’t know what else to ponder. “By his wounds, you have been healed.” That is a pretty powerful statement. Maybe spend some time with that one line.

Today is a day when we remember all Jesus sacrificed for us. We all have different ways of remembering Jesus today, and that is wonderful. It doesn’t matter how you remember Jesus today. What is important is that you spend time remembering Jesus and His sacrifice. I hope this has been a great lent for you this year. I hope it was challenging in all the right ways. I pray that you have an amazing Easter weekend and I will meet you back here on Monday! 

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, we are so grateful you sent your only son to die on the cross for our sins. We are forever grateful that you saved us and redeemed us. Help us to thank you for the way we live our lives. Help us never forget the price paid for the blessings we receive. We love you so much, Lord. Thank you! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen! 

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I pray you have a very blessed Easter! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! 

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “All is possible when you come to me. There is no problem that needs to overwhelm you. I am with you always, ever ready to help you in your times of need. Your first response should be to me. I am the one you should seek first. I am your Lord. I am your God, your Savior. I send my spirit to guide you so that life can be easier for you. Please take advantage of the help that I send.”