Sacrifice of Love

Do you ever think about what it would have been like to have lived in the time period when Jesus walked on the earth?  Easter weekend, now a time of great celebration for followers of Christ, was the greatest moment of grief and confusion.  Those who had walked closest with Jesus watched in helplessness as the Romans guards nailed him to a cross and sentenced him to die a gruesome death.  How upside down and backwards their whole world must have seemed.  For though they had walked so intimately with Him on earth, they still did not comprehend God's plan of salvation.  Jesus's body, beaten and bruised, devoid of any life, was wrapped and placed in a stone tomb.  The rock sealing the tomb tightly so no robber would steal his body.  Guards placed to further assure that no one would take His body or cause any more chaos.  And just when all seemed hopeless, God revealed His  plan for humanity.  Jesus had not been taken from them, He had laid His life down willingly.  A sacrifice of Love.  A sacrifice to conquer death and sin.  A sacrifice to provide each of us with a gift, a gift of salvation, a gift of freedom.  The story did not end with the cross.  The cross was more like the beginning, a new beginning.  Humanity's sin covered. The price paid.  The ultimate sacrifice gave us all the ultimate gift.  

The enemy defeated and each of us given a way to escape his claws of death.  And while Jesus died for every person who will ever breath life on our planet earth, God did not make us into robots because a robot cannot love.  True love will always be entangled in sacrifice, otherwise it is meaningless.  What are we called to sacrifice?  Our ugliness, our rejections, our burdens, our mistakes.  We must lay those down at His feet, acknowledging that He alone is God and we are not.  To accept His forgiveness and walk in surrender to His Lordship.  It is truly amazing that in place of all my junk, God gives freedom and a life filled with His love.  What a wonderful Savior!   What a loving  Father, who did not leave me as an orphan, but ran to rescue!!!  Oh, worship the King!  He is risen, just as He said!!!!