Look and see Him suffering upon the cross…
Mark 15:33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
(NIV)
We avoid many things in our lives. We avoid pain and suffering, We avoid threats to our
safety. We avoid eating the wrong kinds of food. We avoid painful and unpleasant thoughts.
However, there is an event we must not avoid. We must not avoid looking at our Savior upon
the Cross. No matter how painful it is for us to look, it was infinitely more painful for
Him to endure. In our quest to do our jobs, pay our bills, raise our families, meet our
friends, do our things upon things in life, we do not look at Him. We do not want to look.
We do not want to see Him hanging there. Even the thought of His suffering for us can rip
our hearts open and the searing pain comes in. However, we must look and we must never
forget. For if we quit looking, if we quit standing at His Cross, if we quit kneeling at
His Cross, we will most certainly slide away into the tempting darkness. We cannot know
the depths of the pain He bore. We cannot know many things about that day. However, we can
know one thing. He died because our sin was upon Him and He took our sin because He loved
us. It is because He died for us that we must not look askance or avoid this horror in our
minds, hearts, and souls. For if we look, our hearts are torn open, and His love floods
in.
