Good Friday.
What a horrid day, to be called Good Friday.
The culmination of 33 years of life, to be ended, not for the end of one person, but for the beginning of life for all people.
To be born Man, to feel pain, hunger, sadness, sickness, pettiness, selfishness, happiness, content, all aspects of human life.
.jpg)
To give His all for the very people who were killing him.
To feel betrayed at the end.
But to do this for all who came before, for all who were alive at that time, for all who came after.
33 years of knowing that, no matter how much happiness and peace he could spread, he was still going to die so painfully, after such betrayal.
To be tortured, hurt, scourged, whipped, must have hurt, but to be denied by the people he was born to help, by people he helped, he ate with, he talked with, he taught, he listened to, how much more painful was that?
Christ falling on the way to Calvary - Raphael
He is dead today. some 1,990 years ago.
But more is to come.
He is my savior, the Son of God.
ReplyDeleteYes, He is. Thankfully.
DeleteThank you for posting this set of artwork Beans. Thanks to the artists for their creations from our long past to be relevant then, today, and into the future.
ReplyDeleteFranknbean
You may have noticed that I really like Raphael. Good painter.
DeleteAnd Michelangelo's La Pieta? That, that might be powerful enough to actually get me to travel one day. The photos of it are amazing.
Amazing love...
ReplyDeleteYes. Kind of the ultimate example of a man to emulate. Live, survive, sacrifice for those you love.
DeletePowerful sermon, Beans. And thank you for the artwork.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome on both comments. It's a powerful subject that some people just don't get. To be born knowing you are going to have such a horrible end to a short life. That's got to be horrible. But He did it. For all of us, believers and unbelievers, devout and denying.
DeleteFor which we MUST be profoundly grateful - and humbly so.
DeleteBoat Guy
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
ReplyDelete"...Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
Yes.
DeleteAmazing that people can't understand that simple concept. So simple that it's a difficult task to follow, a very difficult race to run.
But it's the trying that is what matters. He has a big heart, He has great compassion (unless you're a Calvinist, then, eh, this world is literally Hell on Earth.)
Amen.
ReplyDeleteIn the Catholic Church, we have a three-line response.
DeleteChrist has died
Christ has Risen
Crist will come again.
Today, Christ has died.
What a succint way to summarize all of His life on this mortal Earth.
“Greater love has no man than this….”
ReplyDeleteAnd such a greater love for we mere mortals to emulate.
DeleteSomething that I think about late at night or when alone in dark times.
Johnny Hart said it better than me: https://www.facebook.com/cfbctoday/photos/a.415172528585192/2337545573014535/?type=3
ReplyDeleteYep. Good for us, not so good for Him.
DeleteI'll next talk about the other guy hung on a tree.
Very nice, Beans!
ReplyDelete