Day 19 | Jesus' Prayer From the Cross
AND HE SAID, “JESUS, REMEMBER ME WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM.” AND HE SAID TO HIM, “TRULY, I SAY TO YOU, TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.” LUKE 23:42-43
WHEN JESUS HAD RECEIVED THE SOUR WINE, HE SAID, “IT IS FINISHED,” AND HE BOWED HIS HEAD AND GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT. JOHN 19:30
In the most horrific act of torture to be crucified on a Roman cross with other criminals, your prayer to your Father was to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. Instead, you looked to the penitent thief hanging on a cross next to you and promised that he would be with you in paradise.
In all your pain, you saw your own beloved mother and made sure she would be cared for by your beloved disciple as his own.
You cried out to Our Father, forsaken as the scapegoat who received the sins of a nation and was led out to the wilderness and separated our sin from us far as the east is from the west.
Fulfilling the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, you died in my place. In your obedience you became my Issac willing to be my sacrifice. You are the Lamb that came to take away the sins of the world. You finished the race that was set before you, were buried in a borrowed tomb, and rose three days later from the dead to demonstrate your victory over hell, death, and the grave. Let the trumpet sound, and all will be changed in a twinkling of an eye to be like you forever in your Father’s home. Amen.
