With Easter coming next weekend I want to take a detour this week. I want to look at 2 Cor 8:9.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
I know the context of this passage relates to giving but I want to focus on the sacrifice Christ made for us. What does it mean to you? Meditate on this verse this week and share your thoughts with the group during the week.
These weeks before we celebrate Easter are always humbling for me. I find my emotions swing from sorrow and humility to thankfulness and joy. I stumble upon something new every year that gives deeper meaning to what Christ did for me.
ReplyDeleteToo frequently I have a "romantic" view of the cross. It seems pleasant to speak of the love He showed me by dying for my sins on the cross. Sometimes I forget that He was fully human and therefore experiencing the same pain and emotions that we would feel. Matt 26:38-39 Jesus says, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." ...he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My father if it is possible take this cup from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." These are real human emotions.
I have read these words many times but this year they became real in the sense that I could sense the pain in his prayer. He was "rich", the King of Kings, and yet willing to die for me. And even worse, suffer so much before his death. He became the least of the least,beaten, spit on, humiliated, betrayed, and finally nailed to a cross to suffer more before he died. All so that I, through his poverty of those few days, may become "rich" for eternity. This is love. Love that stretches me to give up my selfish needs so that I can better serve Him.
Thinking about God's sacrifce for me makes me wonder how he did it. I think about my own children and what it would mean for me to sacrifice them for someone or something. There is no way in the world that I could even consider doing what God did for us. God let his own Son suffer and die on the cross so that we could be forgiven. Thank you Lord for your sacrifice and love. Thank you for loving us and forgiving us!
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