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33 at 3 by Karen Young
Jesus was thirty-three years old when He died on the cross at three in the afternoon on Good Friday. Leaders charged Him with crimes He did not commit. He faced ridicule and insults from the very people He came to save. Yet He stayed silent through it all. This fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth.” In this way Jesus took our place out of love and paid the price for our sins.
In His thirty-three years on earth, Jesus knew physical and emotional suffering. But on the cross He experienced something far deeper—spiritual separation from God the Father. After hours of pain and mocking from the crowd below, darkness covered the land. In those hours He carried the full weight of our sin.
Jesus chose the emotional pain of an unfair sentence for you. He chose the physical agony of the cross for you. He chose the spiritual pain of being forsaken by the Father for you. He did all this so we would never have to face separation from God. He accepted and endured pain that was not fair to Him.
It was nine in the morning when they crucified Him. The sign above Him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. Mark 15:25-26 NIV. At three in the afternoon Jesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34 NIV. I did not know that the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. were the same hours when lambs were sacrificed in the temple every day. Jesus, the true Lamb of God, was lifted up and died right on God’s perfect schedule.
Jesus carried everything that could keep us from God—our sin, our shame, and our guilt. He did this because of His great love for us. He stood in our place so we could be forgiven.
Then He said, “It is finished.” These three words meant everything. In the original Greek this word is “Tetelestai,” which means the debt is paid in full. Sin no longer holds us. Because of what Jesus did, we can now live in the freedom His sacrifice purchased and enjoy closeness with God. God had to reveal something important in this tragedy—His great love and the way to forgiveness.
Today take time and reflect on all of the suffering that God went through for you. Today is a good reminder that only through pain and suffering do we actually grow, increase our faith, and mature. Growth comes when we push through hard times, because there is no real gain without some pain. Because of Jesus and His finished work on the cross, your pain is never wasted. Let His sacrifice give you fresh strength and hope today to keep growing closer to God and becoming more like Him.
Lara Logan@laralogan
Good Friday.
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