Photo courtesy Photobucket“...Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Matthew 22: 37 – 39)
Photo courtesy PhotobucketThe suffering He endured illustrates how imperfect and cruel the world can be.
“Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified…’”
(Matthew 20: 17 -19)
His crucifixion shows us God’s unconditional love.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
“In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him, ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
“From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ –which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
“When some of those standing there heard this, they said, 'He’s calling Elijah.'
“Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”
(Matthew 27: 41 – 50)
Photo courtesy of Photobucket“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen…”
(Matthew 28: 1- 6)
Jesus lives! He's with us today!
“Where, O death, is your
victory?
Where, O death, is your
sting?"
I Co. 15: 55
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