The long suffering started around the third hour of the day. It was a horrible day for the devil but a glorious and marvelous one for God’s children. The day when, Jesus made a public show of Satan and seized to death his power to take away souls, and gave it to those who will diligently follow him.
All started by the betrayal of one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. Jesus was then arrested and later sentenced to death by crucifixion. When they brought Jesus to Golgotha, the soldiers offered him sour wine to drink mingled with bitter substances in order to lessen the suffering. The Lord, when he started it, didn’t wish to drink it. He didn’t want to lessen the suffering he was going through. This suffering, he took upon himself voluntary for the sins of all people; thus, he wanted to bear it consciously to the end. He was beaten by Romans soldiers, scourged, stripped and nailed to the cross. When all was ready, the soldiers raised the cross and crucify Jesus Christ with a little boldly written word and put on the cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Juives”. It was about midday, by Jewish reckoning- the sixth hour of the day that Jesus was crucified. When they crucify him, he prayed for his tormentors, saying: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”.
He was lonely, rejected just as an outcast, no one could appreciate his beauty, and no one could dare look at his face, full of wounds and blood. He took it on him, all our sorrows, pains, sicknesses, loneliness, shame, affliction, lacks and curses. What a load, what a yoke on just one innocent soul, the only righteous one.
“And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, with a loud voice, saying: “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabatchtani,” that is “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”.
This cry was the cry of all those who would have been abandoned by God, for one situation or the other. He was abandoned, in deep pains and long suffering for us to draw closer and nearer to God. “He then cried out again and yielded up his spirit” (Matt 27: 50)
Then, the devil realized the mistake he had made, to permit Jesus to die by the betrayal of Judas on a crucifix, making a two ways reconciliation by reconciling the heavens and the earth, and also creating an atmosphere of love and reconciliation among men. It’s at Calvary that Christ had brushed Satan’s head. Hades, the king of death, opened it black jaws to devour another victim, then too late, discovered he was the Savior, the King of Life, Jesus Christ, the only son of God, the holy lamb, going to preach liberation and freedom to those held captive in the darkness of hell. His lightning flashed into the gloom of the internal caverns. His glory shattered the reign of the king of terror. Jesus stormed out again in resurrection power, leading captivity captive. Death, which had the supreme power, realized there was a greater power, because it couldn’t hold Jesus in his jail, life being greater than death and love greater than hatred. The doors of hell were smashed an even the kingdom of death confessed that Jesus is the Lord.
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