read it. believe it.

Think about it like this.

Imagine someone coming up to you and saying "Follow me." You don't know this person, you don't know what on earth they are talking about, you just know that you are supposed to follow them. You can feel it in your gut. So you do. You start to get to know this person and you admire him very much, because he knows what he lives for and he knows his purpose. You see quickly that he has a mission, and he is going to accomplish it. He cares about nothing but His Father. He loves people like God loves them. He cares nothing about his popularity and making people like him. You get to know him really well. He is your best friend, but you also strive to be just like him. Imagine your best friend. You look like eachother, talk like eachother, act like eachother, and think like eachother. You complete eachother's sentences, and you might as well be siblings. This is what he is like to you. You love him more than you will ever love anyone else. You are truly his disciple. Then he starts to act weird. He talks about leaving and going up to His Father. He says you will deny him. How can he say that? You are his best friend! He knows you are his best friend! How could he think you would ever deny him? So you say, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!" But he is not convinced. And you wonder what is up.A few days later, he asks you to go with him to the olive tree in the middle of the night. He says he is really distressed and needs to pray. Then he asks you to keep watch. Soon he shakes you and you realize you have fallen asleep. You didn't mean to. Soon, soldiers come and take your best friend away. He is put on trial. You wonder why your best friend, whom you have followed most of your lifetime, is being accused of things he would never dream of doing. Later, you learn he is going to be executed. Your heart is full of grief. You want to die. How can this happen? Your best friend, who you know better than ANYONE, and who knows you so intimately, and who you want soo badly to be like, is going to die? You will never see him again! Now what will you do? You have spent your whole life learning from him, and now he is going to be gone forever? Who will teach you now?You rush up to the place where He is facing death. You watch as the soldiers spit on him and call him names. You wonder how they can be so cruel when all he did his whole life was love. Love well, and love everybody. Then you hear the orders for flogging. Your heart stops. It feels like it has lept up into your throat. You follow them. You watch as your best friend stands chained to a post. Then you have to look away as he is torn and broken. You see the one you have loved and followed your whole life, and you see them gruesomely beat him. You feel like you are going to throw up. These men have no mercy. Your best friend cries out in pain with every lash of the whip. He does not even look like himself anymore. You can't even see his face, because of the bleeding. This is your BEST FRIEND. Do I keep repeating myself? Maybe I'm trying to get it through your head that this is your BEST FRIEND. Not some distant, far-off man who you have never met and think "oh, that's too bad for him." No, this is your BEST FRIEND! Then he is brought back to Pilate. He wants to spare his life, but the angry crowd is screaming for a brutal execution. NO! How can they want that? How can they do this to your best friend? You look at him. You almost throw up. Your heart is not even beating anymore. You cannot believe this is happening. What on earth is going on? You feel like dropping to the ground and dying. Then he glances at you and your eyes meet. Something inside you, and the look in his eyes says ever so softly "it's gonna be worth it." You start to cry.Your heart starts beating at a rapid pace as the crucifixion is ordered. Crucifixion? What? Crucifixion is for criminals! Crucifixion is not for your best friend! He did NOTHING wrong his whole life! He loved everyone! You are completely confused and utterly distressed. WHAT IS HAPPENING! your heart cries. You barely make it as you walk up the hill. He is carrying his cross. He can barely make it. Your heart leaps into your stomach when you think of what will happen. The nails...you stop your mind from going there. Every time you look at him your heart drowns in more grief. Then you reach the top of the hill. Two other men are there with crosses. The crowd is uncontrollable.Now the dreaded time. You can barely watch, but somehow you cannot look away. You are already weeping heavily. Then the soldier takes the first nail. You are going to throw up. You just know it. This is BEYOND the WORST moment of your life, you can not imagine worse. This moment is beyond description. This has to be as bad as it gets. You watch the look of excruciating pain on your best friend's face, and sob even harder. He cries out with a tone that you have never even heard in his voice before. Your mind is numb. You don't know what to think, or if you will ever think again.You imagine what it would be like at home. He would be in bed, bleeding and barely breathing, and the doctor would be with him 24/7 until he got better. But this will not happen. He is going to die. The doctor will not come, and there will be no getting well. He is going to die. You let the reality sink in. The word makes your mind shut down completely. You cannot understand death. You are too full of despair to even ponder. You stare at him hanging there for 3 hours. Struggling to breathe, gasping, passing in and out of conciousness. Every time he does, you are sure he is dead, but he awakens to more suffering. HOW MUCH LONGER!your heart cries out. WHY MUST HE SUFFER SO MUCH! You feel like you are dead.Then, finally, you are filled with relief. He cries out to his Father, and then he goes. Finally. Finally. Oh, hallelujah. The suffering is done. But then you remember: he is dead. You will never see him again. Ever. This hard truth makes your soul beyond lower than the lowest despair even comprehendable. This is what you will feel the rest of your life. This feeling of dread, distress, sorrow, grief, anger, faliure, hopelessness, desperation, and indescribable pain. This is how you will live. You will feel this for the rest of your life. Because he is gone.I'm going to leave it at this, because for three days, this is how they felt. We often rush into the resurrection to get our minds off the truth. But imagine really being there. This is how they felt. Do you really know how much glory he left to become one of us? No, you don't , and I don't either. None of us do. Because we are human and we cannot go that deep. Only when we are with Him forever will we really know. Imagine this: your best friend is HORRIBLY and BRUTALLY and VIOLENTLY wounded, beaten and bloody. You cannot imagine such suffering could ever be dreamed up in the minds of men. But this has happend to your best friend in the world. Now imagine emergency people rushing your friend to the critical care hospital. There is hope that your friend could live. They do all they can. But your friend dies. Your best friend is dead. Their body could not sustain such pain. It was too much. They are dead. Let that word really sink in. DEAD.Now do you finally see, a little bit? He DIED for you. We toss this statement around SO lighty and so flippantly. We say "Jesus loves you! He died for you!" And we don't even stop to think about what that really means. HE DIED! Do you KNOW what this means!!!! I hope you finally see! Do you know that He LOVES you? You think "oh, that's nice." NO! You don't UNDERSTAND what that means! Do you KNOW what He gave up? Do you KNOW how glorious and righteous and holy God is? THAT'S WHAT HE GAVE UP! Do you KNOW what the human race must LOOK LIKE to such HOLINESS???? I'm about to get really blunt here. We are dirty, filthy, disgusting things. We are gross. We have like a 70 year limit on life. We struggle SO MUCH with SO MANY things. We are COMPLETELY selfish. We get sick. We bleed. We have health issues. We are almost always operating in the flesh, giving in to our fleshly desires, lusting, being selfish, WANTING, being greedy, on and on and ON. Compare all this to the HOLINESS of GOD. And the righteousness, and the purity, and the glory. If you can get these two comparisons, you just might start to appreciate, and really understand, and really grasp, what Easter really means. And what the love of God really looks like.