Sometimes the bloody violence of the Cross makes me want to hurry past the details of Your suffering. The brutality of Your experiences are not scenes I want to visit. I attest to the power and necessity of the Cross but I hesitate to linger at the savage places of Your Sacrifice; horrified at what You faced because of us. Because of me. But Your Spirit beckons me to tarry at these darkest moments.

I read how  the whole garrison surrounded You (Matthew 27:27) and it makes me sick. The thought of depraved bullies ganging up on a scourged, bleeding, weak, solitary Man is nauseating. Most likely they urged one another on in their cold blooded actions. I hate to think of their cruel hands as they stripped You to place a scarlet robe on You in mock royalty. I recoil at the image of them brutally forcing the crown of thorns into Your beaten Head. They spit on You, slapped You and beat You with the reed they had given You to hold in Your Right Hand. Did You even have the strength and eyesight to dodge the hateful blows? You were so mercilessly abused that when the heavy Cross was placed upon Your battered Body, You were not able to carry it alone. The torture continued as the soldiers ruthlessly drove nails into Your Body. And as You hung, naked and bloody, the jeers didn’t cease. “He can’t even save Himself!”; just one of the many insults shouted at You in defiant, ignorant blasphemy. And You took it all. You did not call upon the revenge, power and deliverance available to You. You would not even take a tiny taste of sour wine; not allowing Yourself to lessen, in any way, the excruciating pain. You fully experienced every second of physical agony as well as the torment of being torn from Your Father, Whom You love beyond description, as our sins dragged You to hell. You endured the darkness for us. For me.

The magnitude of Your Cross defies containment. Words seem a mere gateway through which our spirits pass to view in utter amazement all that You suffered for us. For me.

Help us, please, not to hurry past the tomb, so that we might grasp Your painful and complete sacrifice which frees us from the power of darkness. Let us not hurry past the blood, so we might truly realize the agony You willingly accepted in order to grant us free and intimate entry into the Presence of the King of Kings. Let us not run past the misery, so we might really comprehend the torture You lovingly endured so we may join You and the Father, through the Spirit, forever! Do not let us hurry past any aspect of the barbaric anguish lest we miss any facet of what You did for us. For me.