This is the second devotional for the week of March 26 to March 29.
Look and Be Quiet
Read: Luke 23:44–49
Luke 23:44-49 New International Version (NIV)
The Death of Jesus
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”[a] When he had said this, he breathed his last.47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering . . . ? Lamentations 1:12
In the song “Look at Him,” Mexican composer Rubén Sotelo describes
Jesus at the cross. He invites us to look at Jesus and be quiet,
because there is really nothing to say before the type of love Jesus
demonstrated at the cross. By faith we can imagine the scene described
in the Gospels. We can imagine the cross and the blood, the nails, and
the pain.
When Jesus breathed His last, those who “had gathered to witness this sight . . . beat their breasts and went away” (Luke 23:48). Others “stood at a distance, watching these things” (v. 49). They looked and were quiet. Only one spoke, a centurion, who said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47).
Songs and poems have been written to describe this great love. Many years before, Jeremiah wrote about Jerusalem’s pain after its devastation. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12). He was asking people to look and see; he thought there was no greater suffering than Jerusalem’s. However, has there been any suffering like Jesus’s suffering?
All of us are passing by the road of the cross. Will we look and see His love? This Easter, when words and poems are not enough to express our gratitude and describe God’s love, let us take a moment to ponder Jesus’s death; and in the quietness of our hearts, may we whisper to Him our deepest devotion.
When Jesus breathed His last, those who “had gathered to witness this sight . . . beat their breasts and went away” (Luke 23:48). Others “stood at a distance, watching these things” (v. 49). They looked and were quiet. Only one spoke, a centurion, who said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47).
Songs and poems have been written to describe this great love. Many years before, Jeremiah wrote about Jerusalem’s pain after its devastation. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12). He was asking people to look and see; he thought there was no greater suffering than Jerusalem’s. However, has there been any suffering like Jesus’s suffering?
All of us are passing by the road of the cross. Will we look and see His love? This Easter, when words and poems are not enough to express our gratitude and describe God’s love, let us take a moment to ponder Jesus’s death; and in the quietness of our hearts, may we whisper to Him our deepest devotion.
Dear Jesus, as I look at Your cross, I have no words to express my gratitude for Your perfect sacrifice. But I thank You for Your love.
Look at the cross and worship.
INSIGHT
Can you imagine being personally responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus? Luke tells us the Roman centurion saw something that led him to conclude that he had just overseen the execution of an innocent man (Luke 23:47). Matthew adds that as the officer and his soldiers felt the earth shake violently under their feet they became terrified at the thought that they had just executed “the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).In their world, Caesar was known as the son of God. But these Roman soldiers suddenly realized the emperor they answered to was nothing like Jesus. Entrusted with all power and authority in heaven and on earth, His death revealed the loving heart of His Father.
Imagine being the centurion reading what the apostle Paul later wrote to followers of Jesus in Rome. By this time, Jesus’s death was being proclaimed as good news to everyone (Romans 1:15–17). Paul described Jesus’s suffering and death as evidence of the God who continues to groan with us in our wrongs against Him, one another, and ourselves (Romans 8).
Can we see ourselves kneeling with this Roman officer in grateful worship?
