April 02 – BEARING HIS CROSS!

“And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha” (John 19:17).

God descended to the earth from Heaven for your sake. He took the form of a bondservant for your sake. He carried the cross for your sake. Generally, a person cannot lift such a heavy cross. Even if one can lift it, it is a still harder task to climb a hill carrying it. On one side, Jesus was suffering from hunger, thirst and loss of sleep, and on the other side, He suffered from body pain caused by the whip logging. Jesus was under such a sorrowful situation, but even then, He walked through the streets of Jerusalem towards the hill of Golgotha, carrying the cross.

Some years back, a terrible dictator named Idi Amin ruled the country of Uganda. He tormented and killed even the innocent people mistaking them to be his enemies. Once, based on his doubt, he made three hundred persons stand on a line with the intention to shoot them down. After shooting, for burying the bodies, he followed a peculiar way.

One person alone will have to stand before the wall to get shot. Once a soldier shoots, another person will run to the wall, carry the body, bury the same nearby and come back and stand before the wall to get shot. When the soldiers shoot him, the next person will have to do what his predecessor had done.

Think a little about this incident. What the person  who carried the dead body of the shot  man and buried him would think. A person will have to bury the body and come back for getting shot. Actually, what will he be thinking while carrying the body? He will be shivering over the ghastly killing which he will face in the next few minutes. Is it not? In the same way, when Jesus was walking carrying the heavy cross, His prophetic eyes would have foreseen all the sufferings He was likely to undergo a little later.

But, He neither feared nor worried over those things. His eyes were looking only over all the glorious things which were ahead of the cross. He did not mind over the sufferings of the presence. He looked at the joy of Resurrection and the glory of eternity alone. “…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Dear children of God, look up to that Saviour, who carried the cross for your sake.

To meditate: “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).