Recently I found myself walking the Stations of the Cross on the beautiful grounds of an Abbey just outside of Mt. Angel Oregon. The morning air was cool and crisp. The blue sky was bright, with silky fog filling the beams of sunlight that broke through the dense forest covering. I walked from station to station pausing to observe the beautiful statues, taking in the imagery which depicted different scenes of Christ's suffering. Many thoughts of thankfulness came to mind as I was reminded of His willing surrender and open hands, yet sorrow filled my heart as one of the images captured the hatred in the eyes of the Pharisees in the background.
It broke my heart to see the familiar pride and hatred so perfectly caught by the sculptor. I was gripped by the thought that the Pharisees were convinced they were doing the right thing. They had an air tight argument they repeated to themselves until they felt justified in their actions. They didn't just think it was ok, they believed it was the right thing to kill Christ. Scary!
Scary to think that we all, no make that I. I am just as prone to justifying evil action as good or right. By building religious framework around an action that will profit myself. God forgive me for my potential to call good evil and evil good.
My heart was low as I reflected on this sobering reality, when I came to an image that showed Christ stumbling under the weight of the Cross. He was so weak He was unable to carry His own Cross. The obvious reason Christ could not carry His cross was due to the often deadly scourging He had already endured. Therefore, He was unable.
Just think about that for a moment, Jesus, Lord of Glory, Maker and upholder of all things was unable to uphold His own Cross.
This is amazing humility. It blows my mind that Christ would lower Himself not only to step down from Heaven to walk our streets but lower Himself to take on our own frailty and weakness.
He was WEAK and couldn't do it Himself
I know is may sound sacrilegious to say that Christ was weak and couldn't do something Himself but look at the Gospel accounts, to me it is obvious, He was so broken and weak from the scourging that He needed help even to get to the place of His own execution.
So what do we see happen?
Luke 23:26 "As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him cary it behind Jesus."
He was weak and unable so they got a man to help Him. A man.
I think it is amazing that the all powerful Son of God would humble himself to encounter the ugliness of human suffering at its darkest and so experience it that he was weakened by it.
Jesus on His grand mission of redemption, so humbled Himself that He invited a man into His heroic story as a partner. And Simon a man from northern Africa lifted part of Christ's weight.
Know this:
Simon felt the pain of the massive beam on His shoulders
Simon was not comfortable, he likely struggled and shed his own sweat as he followed the silent frail convict to His death.
Simon likely walked away from the Calvary's hilltop hot and messy with the very blood of Christ on him.
It blows my mind to think that by God's sovereign choice He wrote it into the story of redemption that Christ would use the assistance of humanity to accomplish His work. But this was the depth of His humanity, and is the essence of His redemptive plan. He secured our salvation at Calvary and He writes humanity into His mission of showing and proclaiming this love.
Christ the author of life writes us, broken and twisted humans into His mission as integral pieces to reach and rescue those who are in the world but are without hope. So many individuals are deeply loved by God, yet are at odds with Him. They don't even know where to start or how to reach out to God. The beauty is that God has reached out toward them when He came and laid down His life to restore right relationship with us. In fact, He is reaching out toward them through you and I today.
It may seam overwhelming to think that we are God's reach to those who desperately need God, we are after all are weak ourselves, still struggling and sinful. But let us look at Simon of Cyrene who simply took up the bloody Cross of Jesus and followed. He followed in discomfort, struggling under the weight of the Cross as he simply followed, one step after the other placing his feet in the footprints of Jesus.
All we can do is follow, carry the burden of loving others and proclaiming life in Jesus.
We will for sure spend our sweat, our energy, we are likely to struggle, stumble and even sin along the way but, all I want is to be a hot mess dripping in the blood of the Son.
God has written us into His plans.
How are you actively joining Christ's mission?
Who is within your reach the need to experience the love of Christ and the truth of the Gospel?
Well an update on the happenings of the Libby's is well overdue. I wanted to take moment to share with you a slice of what God has done over the last few months. I think it is important not only to share the prayer requests but also to share the provisions of God that have encouraged us and pushed us forward in trusting God for even greater things for His Kingdom.
Two months on, we have had two weeks in a row of meeting in this beautiful space. Surrounded by brick walls and windows that open up to the downtown area the sound of our worship pours out into the streets for blocks and the truth of God's Word reaches the ears of passers by; it is a miracle.
