God’s Heart Overflows
Opening Prayer
As you read today’s passage, ask God to fill you with the same pure love that Jesus showed on the cross.
Read John 19:16-27
[16] Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. [17] Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). [18] There they crucified him, and with him two others-one on each side and Jesus in the middle. [19] Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. [20] Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. [21] The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” [22] Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” [23] When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. [24] “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” So this is what the soldiers did. [25] Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” [27] and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How did Jesus show his loving nature even on the cross?Adversity reveals character, they say, and I expect that we have all seen people under pressure “snap” and behave in ways that perhaps surprised even themselves! So here is Jesus, in the most extreme adversity: betrayed, falsely accused, whipped, abused, and agonizingly nailed to a cross to slowly die. It is difficult to imagine the emotional, spiritual and physical pain that has been inflicted on him. What depths of character are wrung from deep within the God-man hung out to die? He showed only love, expressed as tender concern for his family and friends around him (25-27). There is no self-defense, no self-justification, and no condemnation of his accusers or executioners. There is only love so complete that the other Gospel writers tell us it was even extended to his enemies (e.g. Luke 23:34). The cross is God’s eternal sign of love, planted in human history. The hymn-writer put it beautifully: “Here is love, vast as the ocean, / Lovingkindness as the flood, / When the Prince of Life, our Ransom, / Shed for us his precious blood” (William Rees, 1802-83).
Apply
Picture yourself beneath the cross. What does it mean to you that Jesus shows such concern for those around him?
Closing prayer
Pray for the grace to be able to show such love-in-adversity in your own life.
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