Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this he breathed his last.
Luke 23:46
Luke 23:46
The spirit of Jesus was the last thing he had to give. Having been given a mortal body, this awful death had to play out to the last breath. Who can follow such a man and be indifferent to his personal loss? Had he not done enough to be spared this final agony? In our economy of things that are important, he had certainly deserved better. Can we now not revisit this scene without railing at the injustice of it all; have we got so used to the story that it has become mere religion, something we can gloss over without entering the grief?
Jesus death was a loss. The fact that it led to great gain for all mankind does not diminish the wrongfulness of it. Were he to have avoided the cross, it is true that our own story would have ended differently, but surely his story, his life, deserved to be spared. The trade-off was so huge that we must not move past it without a second thought.
We will have many opportunities in this period of “lockdown” for the Covid 19 pandemic to offer our own spirits to take a back seat too, for the sake of others and the greater good. There will be some in their bubbles whose needs are greater than ours and whose stress-levels will be higher. Can we muster a spare thought for the agony of others while safe in our own cocoons? We may be spared of the many deaths experienced in other countries, but we will not be immune to the fallout. Lives will undoubtedly be changed, some perhaps for the better, but most others for the worse.
When we calculate the final tally of loss caused by this global event, we need to factor in the untold moments of grief, big and small, through our own loss of one kind or another. Perhaps this Good Friday we can take a moment to take the weight of all that distress, and put it beside the broken body of Jesus. Not only will it give us some perspective, it will place it where it can find healing.
Barry Struthers
Jesus death was a loss. The fact that it led to great gain for all mankind does not diminish the wrongfulness of it. Were he to have avoided the cross, it is true that our own story would have ended differently, but surely his story, his life, deserved to be spared. The trade-off was so huge that we must not move past it without a second thought.
We will have many opportunities in this period of “lockdown” for the Covid 19 pandemic to offer our own spirits to take a back seat too, for the sake of others and the greater good. There will be some in their bubbles whose needs are greater than ours and whose stress-levels will be higher. Can we muster a spare thought for the agony of others while safe in our own cocoons? We may be spared of the many deaths experienced in other countries, but we will not be immune to the fallout. Lives will undoubtedly be changed, some perhaps for the better, but most others for the worse.
When we calculate the final tally of loss caused by this global event, we need to factor in the untold moments of grief, big and small, through our own loss of one kind or another. Perhaps this Good Friday we can take a moment to take the weight of all that distress, and put it beside the broken body of Jesus. Not only will it give us some perspective, it will place it where it can find healing.
Barry Struthers
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