4-21-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we awoke this morning my wife asked me about the \u201cto-do\u201d list I had scribbled out the night before. Oh yeah. Let me see what was important last night and what I somehow forgot to remember but needs attention. Sometimes that happens to all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually I can check several to-do lists, because I seldom throw things away. Sometimes I find old scraps of paper and notes like that. Oh, here\u2019s one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n After breakfast, clean up yard, take kids to game.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Noon. Join friends to watch the Savior of Humanity be nailed to a cross at Golgotha. Mock Him. Watch Him die. Of course I am not quite that old, but this could have been my to-do list for that first Good Friday. It probably describes how many people spent that day. Sometimes I come face-to-face with the likelihood that the previous week I would have recorded that my activities, planned or unfolding, would have included praising this gentle Jesus as He entered Jerusalem, laying down palms and garments; watching as He rebuked money-lenders outside the Temple and challenged the religious Establishment; become convinced that He was dangerous and needed to be\u2026 executed. Watching Him be whipped until nearly dead. I would have spat on Him as He dragged His own cross to Calvary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes I realize that of course I would have done those things. Everyone else did that Week. Am I any different? Are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I had kept a diary, some notes after the Crucifixion might have noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watched Jesus be nailed through the wrists and feet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Watched the soldiers slam the mocking crown of sharp thorns on His head.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Heard Him moan in agony. Heard Him ask God to\u2026 forgive the soldiers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Heard Him ask God to forgive me\u2026 all of us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saw Jesus look down through His sweat and blood and tears\u2026 at me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes I know that is how my diary would have read. Because He did<\/em> look down at me. Not a 2000-year-old story-version of me\u2026 but me<\/em>, today, now, here. God\u2019s only Son looked down on all of us in those moments, supernaturally at us all, in that crowd, across Jerusalem, around the world, through time to today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus suffered and died for all of us. Yes, He made eye-contact. He knew us. He knows us. He loves us. To those who believe He was and is the Son of God, and that He would be raised from the dead to conquer sin and death \u2013 Oh, what a to-do list and diary entries for Easter Sunday would have been like! \u2013 He promises eternal life with Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well. Back to the present. Despite the truth, not a story, the Salvation experience does<\/em> compress time and space. The Bible tells us that the pre-incarnate Jesus was the Person by whom the universe was created; that God is the Great \u201cI am,\u201d not \u201cI was\u201d or \u201cI will be sometimes\u201d; that Jesus is the same \u201cyesterday, today, and forever\u201d (Hebrews 13:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only thing that changes in these realistic stories is me. Oh\u2026 and you: the everyday folks who plan their days, go about their business, take the kids to games, and casually watch the Savior of their souls be mocked, tortured, and killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How would your <\/em>diary entries read?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would your<\/em> to-do list be like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two thousand years ago, or now, you still can fill out your to-do list. You still have things to do.<\/em> If they include meeting His loving, forgiving gaze, and responding to Him\u2026 do<\/em> that item on that list. Think on these things this weekend. Sometimes it causes you to tremble. Or it should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWere you there\u201d when they crucified our Lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evening. Have dinner with friends.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n