{"id":710,"date":"2015-03-29T13:08:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T18:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=710"},"modified":"2015-04-12T23:36:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T04:36:49","slug":"suffering-with-jesus-our-own-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=710","title":{"rendered":"Suffering With Jesus- Our Own Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday<\/span><\/h2>\n

Mark 12: 12-16; Is 50: 4-7; Phil 2: 6-11; Mak 15: 1-39<\/span><\/h2>\n

Deacon Larry Brockman<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s difficult, isn\u2019t it, listening to such a gruesome account of Jesus suffering and death?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The movie the Passion of Christ a few years back was so vivid in the depiction of the horror of these events; <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>it too was hard to bear.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And yet, these images come to mind as we hear the yearly proclamation of the Passion.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They are reading a much longer version in our Churches, you know. <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>This one is abbreviated in the interest of time.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But we all feel the horror of the suffering Jesus went through, even with the shortened version and it is difficult and uncomfortable for us.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We are all told that Jesus carried the sins of all of us in his suffering and death.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And indeed, when we read the book of Revelation, there are multiple references there to those who are saved having been washed in the blood of the Lamb- the Lamb being our savior Jesus Christ.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>So yes, the events we just heard describe how Jesus suffered and died a horrible death and shed his blood for all of us.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But you know what, God\u2019s primary motivation for sending Jesus was love, not some super accounting scheme to send Jesus to remit our sins so we could all be saved.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, we need to understand what the love is all about.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>God so loved us that he sent his son to show us the way.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And the way involves suffering and death, not just for Jesus; not just for some of us; but for all of us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>All of us must seek out and find God\u2019s path for us, and then bear with the suffering that is part of our lives.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

God loved us so much that He sent His son to live that message.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus was not spared his lot of suffering; in fact his plate was full.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But if we understand that Jesus is God, and that God doesn\u2019t have to suffer; and yet He was willing to bear human suffering for the sake of all of us, then we get the message.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is a message of love; the same kind of love that engenders forbearance of suffering for those who care for a loved one; the same kind of love that sacrifices self for the welfare of children; and the same kind of love that motivates a man to work tirelessly to support his family.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Only it\u2019s an infinitely pure love, a love that most of us can\u2019t really conceive of.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s love of mankind even when they ignore their God; defy their God; persecute their God; torture their God, and even kill him.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, let us reflect for a few moments on that kind of Love- the love Jesus had for us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s the kind of love all of us are called to practice in this world.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday Mark 12: 12-16; Is 50: 4-7; Phil 2: 6-11; Mak 15: 1-39 Deacon Larry Brockman It\u2019s difficult, isn\u2019t it, listening to such a gruesome account of Jesus suffering and death?\u00a0 The movie the Passion of Christ a few years back was so vivid in the depiction of the horror of these events; \u00a0it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155],"tags":[341],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions\/719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}