I’m watching from the sidelines. There are so many people around, yet, it’s like my vision is set only on him. All other sound and sight is blocked out.
He is bloodied and beaten. Thorns dig in to his head and skin is ripped from his body.
And he walks, hunched over by the weight of the wood on his shoulders. He carries the place where he will die. Not at home in bed, with dignity. But cruelly nailed to a tree. Displayed on a hillside where travellers pass by and abuse him.
My vision is set only on him, and then his gaze pierces me to my very soul. He looks in to my eyes and he knows me. His lips aren’t moving and yet I hear him whispering... ‘place your burdens on me. Your struggle is my struggle, your burden is mine’.
How many others have heard the same whisper? How many have focussed on him long enough without shouting for him to be crucified. How many have felt the almost physical shock of his gaze and the overpowering love that comes with it.
He will hang on the cross carrying the burdens of many, mine included. He will cry out in pain as he feels the hurt that is felt by those who trust and follow him.
I’m not sure if I feel better knowing he has taken the burden, or guilty as I will watch him suffer.
But I hear that Easter is coming. That the pain and darkness will give way to light. And he will still be holding all I have handed over to him.
He will die for me today. Life isn’t always easy but I must live my life for him. Radiating his love and light so that others might come to know him. When darkness comes I will hold on to the thought that light is coming. When it is light I will remember his face in the darkness. And I will thank him. Thank him for loving me so much that I had to watch him on that road, walking the path to death for me.
He is bloodied and beaten. Thorns dig in to his head and skin is ripped from his body.
And he walks, hunched over by the weight of the wood on his shoulders. He carries the place where he will die. Not at home in bed, with dignity. But cruelly nailed to a tree. Displayed on a hillside where travellers pass by and abuse him.
My vision is set only on him, and then his gaze pierces me to my very soul. He looks in to my eyes and he knows me. His lips aren’t moving and yet I hear him whispering... ‘place your burdens on me. Your struggle is my struggle, your burden is mine’.
How many others have heard the same whisper? How many have focussed on him long enough without shouting for him to be crucified. How many have felt the almost physical shock of his gaze and the overpowering love that comes with it.
He will hang on the cross carrying the burdens of many, mine included. He will cry out in pain as he feels the hurt that is felt by those who trust and follow him.
I’m not sure if I feel better knowing he has taken the burden, or guilty as I will watch him suffer.
But I hear that Easter is coming. That the pain and darkness will give way to light. And he will still be holding all I have handed over to him.
He will die for me today. Life isn’t always easy but I must live my life for him. Radiating his love and light so that others might come to know him. When darkness comes I will hold on to the thought that light is coming. When it is light I will remember his face in the darkness. And I will thank him. Thank him for loving me so much that I had to watch him on that road, walking the path to death for me.