Today we gaze upon the
humility of God. Our relationship had been shattered when we sinned against
him, so God fixes it by sending his only Son to die.
What an incredible humility.
Someone mentioned to me
recently that it would be like one of us dying on behalf of the billions of
ants that wonder around on the ground.
I said it is much greater
than that. God is so much bigger than us that when He came here it was such a condescension
that we really cannot understand it.
It would be like us becoming
a small micro-organism which one cannot even see with the human eye. But even
that doesn’t compare. So great was the humility of Him taking on our flesh.
But not only did he do that,
he then allowed himself to be brutally tortured by us.
Christianity is the only religion
in the world which proclaims that God died for love of us.
All other religions have a god
or gods which would never take the guilt of our sins on his shoulders, but our
God, the one true God, loves us so much that he allowed himself to be crucified
for our indifference, our pride, our selfishness, our vanities, our lusts, our
greed.
So that we might understand
the price of our rejection of God, he submitted himself to a brutal crucifixion.
He became the sacrificial lamb and we must eat this lamb and drink of this
chalice too. Our suffering is His suffering, and His suffering is ours.
This is a love which we can only
begin to understand here and will perfectly understand when we are in His
presence in His Kingdom.
Look at the humility of God.
Look at our savior hung and nailed to a cross for our salvation. If he didn’t
do this, then we would have no hope of redemption. But He did this, he made the
cross our only hope.
We kiss it because it is by
the cross we are saved.
Let us also remember that Mary
suffered too. She held Jesus as a baby, she fled to Egypt with Joseph, she felt
frightened when she thought she had lost him in the temple, she raised him,
laughed with him in his joys, cried with him when he was hurt, she marveled at
the miracles he performed and the saving words he spoke, and she felt his
rejection when no one seemed to care.
When his friends abandoned
Him in his hour of need, she stayed with him by his side, walking with him as
they beat him, spit on him, mocked and insulted him, and as they nailed him to
the cross. She was there when he said, “It is finished,” and she died with him
right there as she held her bloodied son in her arms.
We tell Jesus we are sorry
for what we have done to him, but we need to tell Mary we are sorry too. For
because of our sins, our mother had to watch her only son be killed, and it was
our fault.
And yet, she knew that what
he was doing he did for love of us, a perfect act of love, the greatest love we
will ever know.
Jesus help us to not be indifferent
anymore. Take away our shame from the grace that comes from the cross and teach
us to be humble as you are humble. We are sorry for what we have done, and we
apologize to your mother too.
We offer our hearts to you
for it is all we have to give. Take us and do with us as you will.
