WALK FOR LIFE
"'I THIRST' - GOOD FRIDAY AND JESUS OF THE SCARS" - by John Stonestreet , Breakpoint.org, April 14, 2017; http://www.breakpoint.org/2017/04/breakpoint-i-thirst/
Today, on Good Friday, we remember, honor, and reflect on the God who entered the world of human suffering on our behalf.
“I thirst.” Only John’s Gospel records these words. They were uttered by Jesus, we’re told, not as a guttural physical response, but with intention: “Knowing that all was now finished,” Jesus said, “I thirst” in order to fulfill the Scriptures (John 19:28). And yet, we ought not think these words are manufactured or insincere either.
Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had, on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, “stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” (John 7:37). “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).
And now, on the cross, He who said these words was Himself thirsty. Why are we told this? Why is the fact that Jesus thirsted important?
The world changed
on All Saints Day in 1755. In
“Are you then sure,” he wrote, “the power which would create
The universe and fix the laws of fate,
Could not have
found for man a proper place,
But earthquakes
must destroy the human race?”
And so in the modern era, trust moved from God to man. And it seemed to work: the next few centuries were marked by technological advances, scientific progress, and scholarly criticism of the Bible.
However, the peak
of modernism was the 20th century, which revealed that trust in man was badly
misplaced: the mechanized slaughter of millions in two world wars, Communism,
The cross directly addresses this world of moral and natural evil: As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Is 53:5).
The cross proves that God is not aloof from human suffering as Voltaire had imagined, nor will human evil have the final say. Our God once thirsted, like we do. He bled, as we do, in this existence of fallen people and a fallen world. In Christ, God entered the world of human suffering, suffered Himself, defeated suffering and now has the scars to prove it.
Nearly two centuries after Voltaire, theologian Edward Shillito, offered a poem with a very different take on the suffering we experience. Here are two stanzas of that poem:
“If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn
through the dark, our only stars;
We must have
sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow;
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. . .
“The other gods
were strong, but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but
Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds
only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has
wounds, but Thou alone.”
Today on Good Friday, we remember, we worship and proclaim this God, Jesus of the scars. To Him be all glory and praise forever and ever. Amen.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES:
'The Seven Last
Sayings of Jesus on the Cross' - http://breakpoint.org/free/
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the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
PRAISE GOD for the continuing recent successes against
A vision for sub-Saharan Africa. Christians across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) encounter pressure each day, including high levels of persistent, targeted violence fueled by an extremist agenda to spread radical Islam. Attacks leave the most vulnerable Christians destitute, with dire consequences for individuals and the Church at large. Open Doors’ vision is to help these believers remain resilient and ensure they can live fruitfully—courageously sharing the gospel in the face of persecution.
.April 2 - Pray for Christians across SSA who are vulnerable to attack, abduction and even murder for their faith in Christ. Ask God to protect His children and provide for all their needs.
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