Snapshots from El, Inc.

Black History

It's never been more real for me. Tonight I was hit as with a sledgehammer with the realization that 2000 years ago (and counting), something so real took place - the Son of God, the Godhead in flesh, was betrayed, beaten, scourged, nailed, murdered.

Tonight I watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ as part of Good Friday. "Do this in remembrance of me..."

I wept.

"See, mother, I make all things new..."

"Father, forgive them..."

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

"It is finished."

As he was beaten, bruised, as the flashbacks filled the screen with images of the Lord with His disciples, washing their feet, teaching...I wept. I wept as I watched the blood stream down his broken flesh, as the crowds railed at him, the soldiers mocked him, beat him, spat on him...

How long it must have been. We read in the Scriptures the account of that Black day in scarcely 15 minutes. How long it must have been, those numberless hours that passed for our Lord as he went through betrayal after betrayal, beating after beating, intense, merciless, blinding pain...

He was fully man and fully God. Think of the thoughts that must have tortured his mind as his body ebbed away. Beyond the pain of his flesh, think of the agony - the memories sparked by the water, the ground, the passageway - thoughts of his mother, his disciples, memories of tears and laughter shared, sick healed, sins forgiven...

Jesus...Yeshua...

If I was there that night, what would I have done? Would I have been like Peter, swayed by raw fear into denial of the Lord? Would I have been like John, staying close for one last glimpse? Would I have run with the disciples from the swords of the mob, like so many beaten dogs?

"Before the cock crows, three times you will deny me..."

Or,

"This day you will be with me in paradise."

Irony. The condemned thief, shunned by society was given eternal hope of paradise from the lips of the Master Himself. And Peter? What of Peter?

Oh, that these images, these thoughts, this will...would last beyond the mere moment that is tonight. Would that I would submit now, repent, never turn back, press on for the Glory and Smile of the King that laid down His life for me.

And for you.


Good Friday is about to pass. As we remember the sacrifice of our Lord, that real event that shed Divine blood on the soil of Skull's Hill...
Let us pray, and move. Move our limbs, lips, heart, mind, to embrace what He gives - life everlasting, forgiveness, and power - incredible, irrepressible power to forgive, to love, and to live.

posted by Joel Chan @ 9:04 PM