The first word from Jesus’ lips on the cross: Father. This is deeply intentional. It is true that one of the First things that seems to get challenged when we are going through difficulty or suffering is the confidence of our standing with God. Jesus declares, even in the unthinkable, His unshakable confidence in standing as God’s Son.

Can you begin this day declaring your confidence and strive to end the day still resting in His deep, deep love for you? Let not the challenges of the day shake this confidence.

Much like Jesus’ instructions in the Lords’ prayer, right standing with God requires the necessary and deep work of releasing the actions of others into God’s hands alone. Forgiving others is the gateway to God’s movement and blessing.

Are there hurts you currently carry that are waiting to be surrendered?
Consider asking God to give you strength to forgive.

Forgive.

It’s not only true that Jesus prayed that those mistreating Him would be released, He chose to carry a “new view”. “They know not what they do” is deeply generous! Jesus chooses to carry only the best view and expectation of the people persecuting Him.

How can I carry that kind of perspective today? Are there people that I carry a low view of? How can I practice a Jesus view of those around me today?

What a strange word! Do we see that even on the cross - Jesus was distinguishing between right and wrong, valuable and invaluable - priorities!

What is “truly” today? Truly important? Truly necessary? Truly eternal?

We live in a world of distractions. We are tempted to work for, fight for, and expend energy on things that endanger not only our relationship with God, but others as well. What is truly important today? How can you stay focused today on the eternal?

John 17:3 tells us that life, eternal life, is experiencing Jesus’ presence. Psalm 16:11 reminds us that real joy and purpose is found in experiencing God’s presence.

If His presence is my purpose, how can I experience that presence today? What can I do today to maximize presence? What kind of posture or practice should I carry into my day?

Heaven is real. Jesus promised in John 14:2-3 that His current mission is preparing a place for me. Jesus also told us that if our treasure, focus, hope is set on heaven - that is a hope that  NEVER disappoints! 

How is heaven hopeful to you today? How would you live differently today if your hope was set on our home ahead?

Again, what is striking on the cross is Jesus’ intense focus on others! Jesus shows that even in the most difficult and significant moment in history, he cares for us. He sees us!

In Matthew 10:29 Jesus clarifies that if His eye is on the sparrow, His eye is definitely on me!

When Jesus directs Mary to now turn her attention to John, Jesus is highlighting the new family that is birthed on the cross. The purpose of Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection was the redemption of souls to The Father AND people to His church.

It’s not only that Mary has a family. It is that John has a blessed responsibility. Jesus is here, even on the cross, calling us to look around at the needs of others and take their needs on as our own.

As the NT would later clarify: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2

The Fourth Saying from the cross is filled with complexity, faith, and beauty. Additionally, this is a direct quote from Psalm 22! 

In Jesus’ greatest hour of need he is not asking if God has forgotten him, rather He is reciting scripture! Psalm 22 is prophetic and Jesus is certainly calling all to recognize the fulfillment of scripture. But, Jesus is also modeling the power of scripture in our greatest need.

Consider Psalm 119:105:
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

What is a passage you should hold on to today? Consider writing it on a card or a post-it to keep it in front of you today.

While "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is a direct quote, it is also a question. God invites our questions and our listening ear to His response.

Before you hurry today to the myriad of duties, responsibilities, and distractions, pause.

While you pause, bring the question to God in prayer and create enough time to wait on His reply.

Matthew 7:7

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

It feels uncomfortable and confusing to hear Jesus ask if He is “forsaken”. Yes, it is a direct quote from the Psalm 22, but does it mean that Jesus questioned the love and favor of God while He was suffering? 

Suffering is not a subject ignored in the NT nor is suffering an enemy of faithfulness. It feels that way, particularly from our human perspective.

Interestingly, in Psalm 22, suffering is not a sign of God’s abandonment or God’s perceived inability to win. Psalm 22 is a victory Psalm declaring that suffering will eventually end in victory.

Psalm 22:22 

I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you.

A few verses later:

Psalm 22:27-28 

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.

How might God use this difficult season in your life to bring about great victory?

When Jesus declared His thirst, this was more significant than it might seem on the surface. This certainly gives confirmation to the prophesy of Psalm 22:15. Jesus’ thirst also drives home the reality that Jesus, like me, is fully human. He is fully God AND fully human. 

Hebrews 2:17

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Jesus’ thirst is a reminder that He became like me, for the sole purpose of me becoming like Him! His payment on the cross opens up my freedom to everything beyond this life.Thank God for His INCREDIBLE mercy!

Limits. We all hate limits. We learned to hate them as children when there were things like “bedtimes.” We often feel shame and frustration about our limits: “I’m so sorry I don’t have the time.” 

Notice that Jesus offered no apology for His Limits - His thirst. Limits are in some ways God given. For it is in the limits that we get to invite a LIMITLESS God to do that which only He can do. This begins with knowing and identifying your limits. What are your limits? 

Consider without guilt identifying your limits today.
Once you have identified them - now ask God to work within and through them.

Asking for help.

Jesus had a need, and asked for help. It is not a sign of weakness, failure, or God’s absence to have a need in my life. It may be a sign that God is actively at work and getting ready to do something amazing in and through my life.

John 14:14

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

What we learn from the cross: Needs are not the lack of faith, rather an opportunity for God to do something that may not be fully understood, but will bring great glory to Himself. My job: identify the need and faithfully ask.

Take a moment to ask in faith.

In the world of sports there is likely no greater insult than to be labeled a quitter. Whether it is dropping the ball before the end zone, celebrating before the finish line, leaving the game early, or simply just walking through the motions in the last quarter of a game - quitting is shameful.

However, everybody quits. Everybody stops running, everybody heads to the locker room. What is the difference between a quitter and a victor? Simply, knowing where the finish line is drawn.

Jesus knew His God-given mission. What is yours? If you are tired, frustrated, and thinking about quitting you are not alone.

But when is it ok, even godly to “let off the gas”? When the mission is complete and only then. 

And that is something only God can answer.

Cliffhangers are enjoyable when it’s a temporary delay in a movie. However, stopping a conversation mid-sentence, leaving the table before the meal is over, or simply stopping anything before it is finished is incredibly difficult.

Can you imagine the weight of mission that Jesus navigated on a daily basis? The number of people that could be impacted with just “few more minutes” likely weighed heavy on Jesus. How did He boldly declare: “It is finished?” Jesus trusted God. He trusted God’s purpose, timing, and even with the future.

What do I need to entrust into God’s hands today?

Finished? Jesus knew God’s call was redeeming people from the consequence of sin. On the cross He finished it. This was a declaration that not only Jesus’ work was complete - but THE work is complete forever.

 What does this mean? It means we can not do the work ourselves, only savor and rest in the work He has alone completed. It means: I am actually and completely purified because of Jesus. 

It means I am literally free. Today, now and forever.

How can I live differently today knowing I am free?

Jesus committed, or maybe better translated: “entrusted” Himself, His life, His spirit into the hands of God. This declaration in no way means this is Jesus’ first time entrusting His life in God’s hands, rather a declaration or an exclamation point on a life well lived. 

Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

A life well lived is a life surrendered to Jesus’ leadership and Lordship of our lives. This is central to the gospel life!

Luke 14:27

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Who do you entrust yourself to?

While it is for most of us the greatest fear, the thing we avoid, seen as “the end.” For Jesus it is victory. Like a “welcome home” embrace, Jesus leans into the Father’ arms. Because of His incredible work on the cross, death is no longer our enemy either.

This interaction happened less than 24 hours before:

John 14:1-6

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Jesus’ embrace by the Father beyond the cross, paved the way for our embrace beyond our crosses.

Let us not stumble toward, resist, or dare run from - but let us run towards our eternal home and His waiting embrace

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.