JESUS ACCEPTS HIS CROSS
MATTHEW 27:27-31, JOHN 19:17
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him… and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
QUESTIONS
What do you see? What stands out to you and why?
Jesus' embrace of death is ultimately what leads to our life. What must you die to in order to find life?
Jesus accepted the cross without self-pity. What would it look like to follow his example?
PRAY
O Lord, forgive me for forgetting that in my weakness I am driven to trust in you, and that in such trust my weakness becomes your strength. Forgive my attitudes of self-pity that make me more repulsive than loving. I do not ask for crosses to bear. But when they come, give me the strength to bear them as one who follows your example.