Today some kind friends took me to a dental appointment. I told them not to wait for me, that I would walk home.
Well, maybe what the dentist had injected in to me was the problem, but I found that the walk home seemed to be much longer and wearisome than I had expected. I can't describe how thankful I was to finally set my foot on what is "mine," a bit of land that I could call "home."
Then I thought of what Jesus said in Matthew 8:20 that "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head."
After that long and wearisome walk home, I was so thankful to find a spot of earth that I could call "home" or "mine" where I could lay my head and rest a bit. And at the same time I thought of our Lord, our Creator, our Redeemer, who while He was with us here on earth could not call any square foot of land "His."
Finally, "they" [which means all of us!] gave Him a tree to be His--a cross.
That is all that He ever had on this earth! He, the Son of God, our Creator, our Redeemer. The Prince of heaven.
And on that cross, that tree that they gave Him, the Son of God "poured out His soul unto death" (Isaiah 53:12). "Poured out" means like when you empty a bottle, you turn it upside down to draw from it its last drop.
Jesus held nothing back in His sacrifice of Himself; the death He died on that tree "we" gave Him was our second death; we are not to think of the death of Jesus as being a "sleep" for a week-end (He did rise again the third day!); if any of us had suffered the physical torture of being crucified (you don't die the first day--you might linger on for a week or more) you would be grateful to sleep for a week-end, just to slip into unconsciousness.
But that is not what Jesus endured; He entered hell itself--the unending, eternal hell; the fact that He was resurrected the third day did not lessen the magnitude of His commitment. As He hung on the cross, He could not see through the portals of the tomb, we are told by one who knew.
Our hearts are too shriveled up, too tiny, too earth-bound, to appreciate what Jesus did, and what His commitment meant to Him.
Peter tells us that the Father would not leave His soul in hell: "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption" (Acts 2:31).
Oh Father, grant us an "enlargement of heart" (cf . Psalm 119:32) to appreciate the sacrifice of our Savior!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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