“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

As it’s Good Friday today, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts of what Jesus has shown me over this last year. I have shared before about how sometimes I can feel a little immune to many stories that happened and are spoken about in the Bible, because I was brought up on them so have always known them. I don’t think I’ll ever be immune to my feelings about the crucifixion…However, I don’t think I could even slightly access the depth of what Jesus really did until now. I am forever grateful for what He did for me on and through the cross and thank Him for that every day. So last Easter I decided to focus, not just on what He accomplished for me, but what He did for mankind. As it was my Year of Sacrifice and I spent the whole year wanting to get to know Jesus in a far deeper way, Easter was particularly poignant.

Recently I’ve watched a fair few documentaries and ‘real’ dramas about difficult issues. In my naivety I had no idea of the sadness of the red light area in Amsterdam with the prostitutes in the shop-like windows. I have heard and watched testimonies of child abuse, murder, exploitation, sex trafficking, abandonment, manipulation. All heart-breaking and hard to get your head around. I will mention at this point that this is not all I’ve been filling my head with, but there does seem to have been a lot more of it in the media recently.

Isaiah 53:5 NIV says “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The NLT verse 4,5 says 4 “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

It breaks me to think of this happening to Him just for my sin but when I think of Him taking upon Himself all the sin of the world…past, present and future…I cannot contain the shock and grief I feel. One of the things I always respect God for so much is that He can see all the terrible terrible things that go in our world – all the pain, hurt, grief, disappointment and shame. If I were to feel that on behalf of just one other person, especially if they had been through terrible things or caused terrible things, I could not contain the shame and pain. Yet…He sees it all every day and still loves us so much. Jesus had to literally take all of that on Himself – billions of people’s hurt, confusion, pain and shame. I have tears rolling down my face as I’m typing this. He did it though…because of His great love for us…and went into hell on our behalf, then rose again in such glory to bring us the incredible eternal life that we don’t deserve and to walk with us through every moment of our lives.

This Easter, allow Him to stretch your mind a little so you can grasp just a little bit of what the cross really means.