(Continued from last month)

Then Jesus rises from prayer in Gethsemane and awakens his disciples to face his destiny. “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane is explained by his lonely cry at Golgotha: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” recalling the beginning words of Psalm 22, an amazing psalm that prefigures many of the events of the cross.

Jesus’ final words from the cross, however, are words of hope. The sixth word is: “It is finished.” We have done it, Father, at huge cost to both you and me. It is finished. The ransom is paid, the stain of sin is borne away from the people we love. It is finished.

His seventh and last word also looks forward in hope, in faith: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The Father’s hands are strong enough to hold both him and us, even in our most devastating moments, even when we don’t feel his presence at all.

Saturday is quiet; it is Sabbath in Jerusalem. But Sunday morning, all heaven breaks loose, and the Son of God steps out of the grave. His body that has born our sin is recognizable by the scars, but the stench of sin and death are gone. He is risen! Hallelujah! And his resurrection is our confidence that God has both accepted his sacrifice for sin, and flooded us with his healing, life-giving power. Hallelujah!

Long before you ever needed a Savior, your Father so loved you — and “the world” and “the many” — so that he sent his own Son to bear your sins, so that you no longer have to bear them. He was laid in the tomb bearing your sins. But on Easter Sunday his body was changed and set free and victorious. And so are you in his loving hands. That is grace — God’s unmerited favor for us who are so loved by him.

That is the message of Gethsemane and Golgotha and the Empty Garden Tomb. Hallelujah! He is risen!

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

~ Pastor Dennis Krueger