Good Friday

This past week, I was particularly struck by a comment made in a sermon last week, that Jesus took on the stigma of a common criminal when he was arrested and crucified. We, as Christians, always hear about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, but to look at it in this slightly different way was eye-opening for me. Jesus was an innocent man/God(!), yet he didn't defend himself or try to get himself out of the situation, other than when he asked God to save him from it, if it was God's will. Jesus took on every sin that all people in the past and the future had done or will do, as his own. When I think about how significant that is, it is mind-boggling. Jesus was a really good guy. For him to take the punishment for what everyone else did is so humbling. In my own life, I try to live in a way that pleases God and others, and I actually like to be a "good girl". I have to admit that to think about taking the blame or the punishment for someone else's wrong-doing would be pretty hard for me to do. On the other hand, I couldn't live with myself if someone else took the blame for me, if I did something wrong. And that's just small beans next to the burden that Jesus took on Himself.

This led me to to think about my own shortcomings and failures that are a part of this whole deal. Believe me, I don't think I'm perfect, but like I said, I like to be known as a good, nice, kind person...which could lead to self-righteousness and pride....which isn't good! I think self-righteousness and pride, while not seeming to be as serious as, for example, abuse or killing or stealing, is something that most of us have a problem with to some extent or another or in one context or another, and is hard to stop. For myself, in a couple of contexts, I continually have to remind myself that the "other" is just as much a creation of God as I am, and is loved by God just as much as I am. While it's good for me to have my own faith and moral code and be firm in that to some degree, the other is probably quite convinced of their own faith and morals too. It's hard to express precisely how I was thinking about all of this. Basically, I think it's really important for me to continually examine myself for those supposedly little things that I might not even realize are not in line with what God wants for me, and are not measuring up to my goal of living like Christ.