GOOD Friday

As we commemorate the death of our LORD, many things come to mind. Why did it have to be this way? Why could not have been a different type of death? You know most of us would not have ever known about crucifixion death if it was not for our LORD. I really feel a whole life time without knowing how gruesome and painful it was would have made my life less sad. It is just a horrible way to die. No way could this have been pretty or less awful. GOD had a plan and this was it. He chose His own son to endure it for us. I wept tonight as our priest reminded us of the scene in the Passions movie where Jesus looks at his mother as He falls on His journey to Golgotha. "The place of the skull" Even Google recognizes the word. It is not on spell check. Amazing, for a world that normally turns its back on our LORD. Jesus is holding the cross on His back and His mother has desperately been trying to maneuver around the crowds to get close to Jesus. As He makes His way he falls several times, but this time He looks up to her. She desperately wants to help Him, but knows she can't. She remembers a time when He was just a boy. The boy Jesus falls and scraps His knee and she takes care of Him. She can't at this moment. She can't help Him on this journey. She is distraught by it all in this scene of the movie. I believe she is thinking, "God in Heaven, I did not sign up for this. Take this from Him and this pain in my heart from me! Please!." I could not imagine in my life time the agony she felt at that moment. Or the moment they actually put the nails in His flesh. Her little boy defiled and destroyed in such a horrific way. I know the loss of a child, but I can't comprehend the pain of this helplessness in so much suffering of a child. I am sure there are parents in this world that know, but I am fortunate not to be one of them. I remember the scene where she cleans up His blood from the scourging. I can not imagine what was going through her mind looking at the site of so much blood. I just can't. My father told me right after we saw the movie when it first came out that there was no way that the LORD endured that scourging and then carried the cross on His back. It was just a Hollywood thing, that our LORD could never have endured that. I think He could have. Have you ever heard of someone picking up something extremely heavy to save someone else- a car, tree, metal pole, etc. They always say that something just gave them the strength to do it. I think it was GOD or a guardian angel. Something divine helped them. Maybe Jesus' love for us was so strong that it helped Him carry that cross to Calvary. Maybe GOD was helping Him at that one moment. I think about all that He went through and through it all He had love for us and even those that were mistreating Him to the very end. We will never know that kind of LOVE here on earth. It will never happen. GOD had to be right there watching it all play out, the agony of our LORD and the inconceivable pain that Mary endured watching all of it unfold before her eyes. One of my favorite pieces of art is the Pieta. If you have never seen it, please GOOGLE it right now. It is beautiful and every time I see it I visualize Mary holding her dead son and looking to Heaven for answers. It had been a long 24 hours for her. She had gone through an emotional nightmare and still it went on and on. There He is in her hands gone. That I can relate to. I have held death in my hands and it is not a pleasant experience. It is just not anything you can or will ever be prepared for. No one is prepared for it. I have held life and death at the same time and that makes it even harder. You can physically feel the difference. It is horrible and the greatest sadness you will ever know. It is just awful. As I think of that moment, I think that Mary must have just been spent. She looked down at Jesus and then she wanted answers, but she got nothing. When that baby was in her arms in the stable, she knew He was the Messiah. She knew that, but did she know the gruesome details? I doubt it. She, like any other caring mother, would have hid Jesus for as long as possible to protect Him. She would have done something to save Him from that death. She would have accepted death, but I don't think this was what she had in mind. Through it all she did not turn her back on GOD. She, just like I, wanted to go to Heaven someday and be with her LORD, her son, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. She knew that she had to keep her sights on Heaven to be reunited with the LORD. I am sure it was very hard at times, but she was chosen for a reason. She was probably very strong-willed and that made her the perfect mother for Jesus. I have a strong-willed child myself and she has a great purpose in this life. I can't wait to watch it unfold. May GOD be with all of us and we praise Him for sending His only son, our LORD!