2021 Daily Devotion - Day 374

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Good Friday

An old Christian drama depicts a little boy working in his parent’s carpentry shop in first century Jerusalem. He protests his chore, which is to assist in building a cross. The parents insist that he help because Rome has given them a contract for the construction of crosses.

In another scene, the boy is weeping. "What is wrong?" his parents ask. He responds, "I went to the market place and I saw Jesus of Nazareth, the Man we love to hear preach, and He was carrying my cross! They took Him to Golgotha and nailed Him to MY cross."

The parents insist, "Oh no, son, that wasn’t your cross. Other people in Jerusalem build crosses. That wasn’t your cross." "Oh yes, it was! When you weren’t looking, I carved my name on the cross I was making. When Jesus was carrying His cross, He stumbled right beside me, I looked, and my name was on His cross!"

This little boy felt responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus. The truth is we are all responsible for His death because of our sin and brokenness. This is how the Prophet Isaiah explains it:

He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Pray with me:
Lord Jesus, thank You for taking our place and paying our debts. Help us to respond with gratitude and thankfulness. Empower us to live lives which reflect Your sacrifice for us, through dedication and service to You and Your purpose in the world. In Your holy name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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