My Day
It's the day of our Lord's crucifixion, so my friends and I got up extra early for service today. We fought our flu and managed to make it in to church on time. The sermon was powerful and there was supposed to be a showing of The Passion of the Christ this evening. However I was so exhausted that my short nap turned into a long one and I ended up missing it :( Not to worry, I watched it at home.
Bar some rather unnecessary embellishments, not a bad movie at all. It really captured the brutality of Roman torture and crucifixion. Not for the light hearted I tell you. It got me thinking though...
The Romans
They were brutal!! Floggings that peeled flesh off bones, smashing of knees, dislocating of shoulders, the whole 9 yards. The men responsible for all of that were either seriously touched in the head to start with or became like that after years on the job. It just doesn't seem natural.
Pontius Pilate, Peter & Judas.
Sounds like the name for a pretty nifty Indie-Rock band.
After a short conversation with one of my friends tonight I came to the following conclusions.
It's the day of our Lord's crucifixion, so my friends and I got up extra early for service today. We fought our flu and managed to make it in to church on time. The sermon was powerful and there was supposed to be a showing of The Passion of the Christ this evening. However I was so exhausted that my short nap turned into a long one and I ended up missing it :( Not to worry, I watched it at home.
Bar some rather unnecessary embellishments, not a bad movie at all. It really captured the brutality of Roman torture and crucifixion. Not for the light hearted I tell you. It got me thinking though...
The Romans
They were brutal!! Floggings that peeled flesh off bones, smashing of knees, dislocating of shoulders, the whole 9 yards. The men responsible for all of that were either seriously touched in the head to start with or became like that after years on the job. It just doesn't seem natural.
Pontius Pilate, Peter & Judas.
Sounds like the name for a pretty nifty Indie-Rock band.
After a short conversation with one of my friends tonight I came to the following conclusions.
- Judas' betrayal, Peter's denials and Pilate's decision to exempt himself were all necessary in Christianity's journey. Without them in some ways there would be no cross, although God's word is still Ye and Amen.
- Unlike Peter, it seems Judas and Pilate made the mistake of (to the best of knowledge) not giving themselves a chance at redemption. Yes they sinned but if they had asked for forgiveness like Peter and devoted their lives to the mission of Christianity it would have been a slightly different story.
- Pilate was politically between a rock and a hard place so in some ways you can understand his decision. He gave the crowd a choice between terrorist/mass murderer Barabbas and Jesus and they still condemned Christ. However as Christians this doesn't mean we get to fold our hands and watch morality destroyed. In fact as people we really ought to know how and when to stand up for what we believe in.
- Judas learnt nothing from his time with Christ. Zilch. Zero. Nada. He should know better than to think that there is no redemption for him after sin.
- We shouldn't give our sins and past mistakes power over us. Yes we have sinned and it is wrong but in order to move forward we need to cast it off and look to God for mercy, salvation, insight and strength to resist future temptation.
Barabbas and the thief on the cross.
They were the first examples of salvation through the cross. Barabbas who was awaiting death had Jesus take his place quite literally on the cross. As for the thief to the best of our knowledge he sits with our Lord Jesus in heaven as he was brave enough to recognise the Messiah even on the cross. Not many of us would do that in a similar situation. In fact too many of us fail to do that even today.
I don't know if there is a moral to all of this. I just felt like sharing my thoughts with you. For those who are already Christians I hope you're having a wonderful Good Friday recognising the sacrifice made on our behalf. For those yet to recognise it, I hope you do soon. I'm not perfect but in Christ I can seek perfection with the hope that through Him it can be achieved.
Stay Blessed.
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