| Crucified What happens when Heaven walks around on earth, giving, loving and healing every man, woman and child He touches? What happens? We kill Him. Can you figure that one out? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, now does it? A bunch of "religious" men get together, they watch Love speak and limbs grow back right in front of their eyes. The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf can hear again. God reaches out to His people and they drive a nail in His hand. I learned a lot about dealing with my own anger at the foot of the cross. That's how they killed Him, you know - on a cross. It's one of the worst ways you can go. It's a long brutal death. It takes hours to die that way. Hours. I watched Him suffering. I saw the blood pour out of His wounds and roll down that long wooden beam and disappear into the mud. The Romans had beaten Him so badly; He hardly looked like a human being anymore. I watched His mother crying as one of His disciples held her with this stunned look on his face like, "How can this be happening?" The sorrow on that hillside was so thick it pressed us to the ground. I couldn't move under its weight, or else I think I would have tried to kill every Roman soldier I could lay my hands on, every smug religious man I could fine; and if I had known that Judas was somewhere in that crowd throwing his blood money into the dirt, I would have tried for him too. My tongue was swollen and dry so I couldn't shout - "Why!? Why are you doing this to Him, He’s an innocent man! All He ever did was love, is that a crime in this world? How can you claim to be the gods here and pass judgment over this man's life when you’re so evil! He's an innocent man! You're taking every pure gift, every beautiful thing this world has ever known and you're grinding it all under your feet! You’re the ones who deserve to die, not Him!" You see, at the moment in my anguish, I had forgotten why He had come. I had forgotten a lot of the things He had said. I'm sure looking down from His hellish perch, with His eyes swollen with blood, all of us looked the same from where He was - just one big, dark figure trembling on that hillside in the shadow of His cross. And He looked down at all of us and I heard Him say, "Father, forgive them." And my self- righteous anger fell before Him - crucified. |