This one lonely God-forsaken death

Jesus Christ, a righteous man who never once sinned in His entire life, willingly gave His body to be beaten beyond recognition, for nails to be driven through His wrists and ankles, to die a horrible death.......He gave His soul over to be tormented by all your sin and mine, to be completely separated and cut off from God His Father......

FOR US.

WHETHER WE CARE OR NOT.

Does it seem to you that at as the river of blood flowed that day at Golgotha, a choir sang to encourage Him? That a stirring sermon drew the hearts of the audience? That a fasting vigil was maintained by people appreciating His sacrifice? That Jesus died with loved ones standing by and marveling? Like in an impressionist work of art? NO!!

There was no one.

It was a lonely, grisly death, in horrible pain and agony, at a lonely place in (literally) a God-forsaken corner of this world. Just one more death in the never-ending cycle of death and life. Just one more breathing body just snuffed out in the most macabre way possible. No one came to sing, offer consolation, grieve, shed tears or commemorate. There was no memorial service.

He died alone......whether we care or not.

Today we go to church. We sing about Him and that day. We pray. We remember. We glibly mouth our 'thanks'. We preach it. Teach it. Hang it round our necks, some of us. Fast. Momentarily forgo our hideous appetites for pleasure. All the time, we think, perversely and ill-judged, of 'paying back'.

But that day.....there was no one to share His crust.

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We will not always have Good Friday with us. Warm singing, solemn preaching, a few crumbs of pleasure sacrificed during a few days a year. Whether there is a Good Friday or not......He still died alone one day for you and me.

I cry out to myself...BE REAL FOR ONCE!!! This is no joke. He'd never have to die if not for me. And because He died, and only because He died, there's just a chance that I might live forever. This has nothing to do with observance of seasons or mundane ritual. This is life or death. And I have to decide. ALONE. Without the songs, without the sermons, without church, without family or friends standing by, without Good Friday, Easter or Christmas. In utter silence, in the immensity of eternity. Just like He died alone.....I MUST DECIDE ALONE.

I must decide whether I really care; and what I must do if I indeed care. I must decide whether I forget this man, His lonely death, and shut the story out; or, let it in. Come apart, be undone, crumple into a broken mess at His feet. And live with its shadow all my life.

I must decide whether it matters to me that one person in this entire world really cared for me enough to subject Himself to this lonely death.....and He did it whether I care or not. If I never cared, and I was the only human being, He'd have done it anyway. I need to know whether I can continue to live......knowing this, or whether I should just die and let Him put me back together again and do as He wishes with me.

Walk away from this one lonely death if you will. I dare you.

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And one day, my dear friend.......again, there will be no one.

When this our earthly sojourn ends, there will again be no one with us in the dim, clean, antiseptic corridors of death. We will walk alone.

The songs will have ceased, the sermons over; there will be no one to tell us anymore of this one lonely death at Golgotha.

Who will take us through?

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Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."