Portrait of Jesus

On the walls of our living hang pictures.  Not just any pictures or pictures of people we don’t know but pictures of my family.  My Mom and Dad are there, my Wife is there, my children are there and other extended family members.  This wall is dear to me.  Not because it holds up a portion of the house that houses my tv, but because within these pictures is captures a moment frozen in time.  A moment in which my family are smiling, looking silly, perhaps with teeth still missing as kids, but moments that have come and gone.  Sweet moments, joyous moments and I treasure them in my heart every time I see them. 

 

Today is Good Friday.  Probably not exactly a joyous moment when we reflect on Christ on a cross, bloody, beaten and dying.  It’s not a pretty picture to behold.  We probably don’t have pictures of Jesus this way on our wall, in full color naked and bleeding on the cross.  Perhaps you have some crucifix’s a portrait or two that resembles his death on the cross, but I doubt that it’s an unedited portrayal of his actual death scene…which I imagine was extremely grizzly to behold.  Yet there is something joyous within this moment in our Savior’s death.  It’s not that He suffered, or that finally they caught those two criminals hanging there next to Jesus, but it’s the fact that sin and death were nailed to the cross with Christ.

Our sin, our eternal death was taken from us by Christ on the cross.  With the shedding of His blood, which was perfect, we now can call on His name and our sinful ways can be atoned for.  We have one who intercedes for us before the Father.  This portrait is the best we have ever received…ever!  Eternal life is ours, death conquered, and hope available to the entire world all because of Jesus.  

My photos on the wall are awesome, I love my family and I love my kids…but this life we live has been extended and eternal life granted to us, including my loved ones because of what we celebrate today…Christ crucified.  

Question:  Do you identify with this crucified Christ?  

I hope and pray you do, if not perhaps it’s time to consider what life is about, where you’re going at the moment and if there is meaning to what you are doing today.