A day of sorrow was only the beginning

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Have you ever felt unloved, like no one loved you? Let me tell you about God’s love. God sent His only begotten son to Earth. Jesus was the spotless lamb that God sent to sacrifice for our sins. God wanted a bridge to connect us back to Him because sin separated us from Him. 

That bridge was Jesus. In order to do that, Jesus had to take all our sins upon Himself. A man who knew no sin had to become sin to reconnect us back to the creator of the universe (God).

Jesus’s sacrifice shows a love like no other. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬). Jesus considered us His friends and was willing to die for us.

A day of sorrow filled the air as some of His followers, and mother watched Him be treated with so much disdain and disgust. The same ones praising Him a few days ago are now the same ones shouting for His death. 

He took the stripes and lashes upon His body. He took the heaviness of the cross as He had to carry it. He took the teasing and insults. He suffered through the nailing of His hands and feet on the cross.

He took all of that to save us from eternal death. A man who knew no sin became sin for our sake. Jesus, a spotless lamb, was crucified on the cross for you and me. 

At a point on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalms 22:1)

Jesus felt abandoned by God as he bore our sins. God could not be in the presence of sin, and as Jesus was in the ninth hour of His crucifixion, He felt the suffering and feelings of abandonment. 

God placed the sins of the world on His Son, and Jesus, for a time, felt the desolation of being unconscious of His Father’s presence. It was at this time that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In John 19:30, Jesus’s last words before dying on the cross were, “It is finished.” This Greek word, “tetelestai,” means that his work of salvation is complete.

It represents the fulfillment of prophecy, the judgment of sin, and the availability of forgiveness through his sacrifice. 

That heartbreaking day would not be the end of the story. It may have started in pain and suffering, as some of the people Jesus loved witnessed His pain and suffering on the cross, but that’s not where it will end.

Good News will be coming in only three days. (“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalms 30:5)