We have come to the end of another Lenten Season. For many of us, it is a special time when we reflect upon the life and death of Jesus.

I recall many years ago when my husband and I taught a church school class and the quarterly lessons spoke about the ‘human’ side of Jesus. We sometimes forget that for the first part of His life He lived as one of the ordinary folks in his town. Even after His ministry began, He became hungry and thirsty. He was tempted. He was tired. And, I would think sometimes in spite of the crowds, lonely.

Our adult church school class has been studying a book called “24 Hours That Changed the World.”

It deals with the last 24 hours of Jesus life, the last supper with His disciples, His praying in the garden, the betrayal by Judas, His arrest, Peter’s denial, His appearance before the Sanhedrin (where He is judged by the Jewish religious leaders), His appearance before Pilate, His beating, torture, and ultimately His death upon the cross.

I’ve always wondered when they ate that last meal together, how many of those disciples realized that it really was ‘the last supper’ they would share with Jesus.

As we discussed Jesus praying in the garden, we tried to imagine knowing what was ‘coming’ and the human side of Jesus knowing the pain that would be incurred, struggling with His surrendering His will to God’s will.

Somehow, for me at least, his asking, “let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done” is almost incomprehensible. Can any of you imagine being able to walk away from such a horrendous death and yet, surrendering yourself, body, mind and soul unto God’s will?

We discussed what Judas must have felt when the ultimate betrayal took place and he received his payment. He must have felt remorse or why did he hang himself?

And we have the devoted disciple, Peter, who vows he will never forsake Jesus. But what happens? Before that cock crowed three times, it was just as Jesus predicted. Peter denied Him and fled.

But we learn that Peter is filled with remorse and sorrow and in later years preached and taught the gift of salvation through Jesus. He himself died a horrible death.

Many years ago when I was a child, my church school teacher gave all of us a small paper cross and on the back she had written the seven times Jesus spoke from the cross.

I still have that battered little cross and it reminds me of my childhood and my early journey into faith.

Jesus suffered terrible physical abuse and pain…beyond what most of us can imagine. But do you wonder what He felt emotionally? Where were all those hundreds of people who waved their palm branches such a few days previously and hailed him with their ‘hosannas’? Did He know they would all fade away in the face of danger?

I think He realized that what was to come for Him was something most could not begin to comprehend.

Why then would He follow this agonizing journey through terrible pain to an agonizing death?

I know it sounds simplistic but I think it was because it was the only way that God could show His love for humankind. Jesus suffered because of people just like you and I.

If we had lived in that time and place, would we too have fled because we were afraid? Would we have deserted the one who had fed the multitudes, healed the sick, offered love and acceptance to the sinners?

As we read the accounting of that last week, perhaps we are inclined to judge the disciples and followers of that time without putting ourselves in their place.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Easter. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. We who live today know that He suffered and died for folks just like us, but we celebrate the ultimate victory…death could not ‘claim’ Him.

And so we will sing with gusto, “Jesus lives and so shall I”. Sometime during this Lenten season we may have sung, “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”

You and I have been given the gift of salvation through the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus the Christ

I attended a class long years ago and one of the things we were reminded of is the fact that we all sin. Some are sins of commission and some are sins of omission. But once we acknowledge our failures we come to a very important step in our lives…submission.

When we give our lives to God and ‘try’ to live as He would have us live, when we are truly repentant and really, really accept the gift of salvation that Jesus horrendous death offered each of us, our lives can change.

I’d like to close with some words from a musical one of my daughters was in many years ago. The musical was one of the Gaither offerings.

The musical included the song “Because he lives I can face tomorrow…and life is worth the living just because He lives.” This song brings hope, inspiration and challenge. It is a favorite of mine.

But the simple little song that has remained in my mind and heart all these years says this…

“Something beautiful, something good…All my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.”

May you have a blessed Easter and may we never forget the gift of salvation that came to us through the sacrifice of our Savior on that long ago Easter morn.