Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). (Mathew 27:46)
I Really Don’t Need This – The Price of Calvary!
Late last night, My disciples ran away when I was arrested. Now since early morning I’ve been dragged back and forth between the Pharisees, Pilate and King Herod. It’s been a terrible few hours.
I don’t need this! The degradation of Roman soldiers making fun of Me as they throw a king’s robe around Me. I don’t need them shaping a crown of thorns – piercing sharp thorns – that puncture My scalp and make My head feel like it is going to rupture from pulsating pain. I don’t need to endure the guttural sounds as those soldiers clear phlegm from their throats and spew it with disgust into My face and eyes. I am a king. I could strike them down with one word.
No, I don’t need this! All of you in the crowd who are laughing and swearing, screaming with sadistic pleasure as you watch Me being tortured by the soldiers. I hear your humiliating words and see your vulgar gestures, even as I am dragged about the courtyard with blood pouring down My face and the rest of My body onto the kingly robe. I am the king of heaven and angels once bowed before Me with adoration and songs of praise, honored to be in My presence.
And I don’t need this! The heavy cross that I can no longer drag on My shoulders because of sheer physical exhaustion and the horrific pain from the courtyard torture I just suffered. I don’t need to lie here in the dirt, crushed beneath the weight of the cross only to turn My head upward and to see you laughing at Me, calling Me a weakling and kicking Me in the side to get Me standing again. I am all-powerful. I could get up and with one word suspend a thousand crosses in the air.
I really don’t need this! Submitting humbly to Roman soldiers as they throw Me to the ground, then roll Me onto the cross, putting huge spikes into My hands and feet and pounding them in as every muscle fiber and sinew screams with excruciating pain. Then feeling the pain exploding from deep within as they shove the cross forcefully into the ground. And hanging there almost naked as you look on and ridicule Me. Then seeing the heart-wrenching sight of My mother held up by John, as she cries uncontrollably. But I am all-merciful. I give My mother to John to care for her. And I ask My Father’s forgiveness for you who mock Me.
And most of all, I don’t need this! To be enveloped in the blackest blackness and to feel I have lost the relationship that I’ve had with My Father since eternity. To cry out and ask Him why He has forsaken Me and to feel like He has withdrawn His love from Me. To think He sees Me only as sin, complete and total sin, in all its ugliness. To believe He has turned His back on Me and will never accept Me again because sin is the antithesis of God and cannot stand in His presence. I was the Son of God but now I am sin. I am lost. I am without hope. I am nothing. I really don’t need this!
Oh Yes, I Really Need This – The Rewards of Calvary!
I don’t need this… but you do! You needed Me to come as a baby, to be teased as a child, to be rejected as a man, to face a death that no-one could even imagine. You needed this… what I endured… you who face the despair of this world without the hope I offer, you who have nothingness beyond the grave without the eternal life I promise.
And because I love every one of you who need this, then I really need this too.
Oh yes, I need this because My heart is bursting with love for the creations I made. I need this because you are My brothers and sisters and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I need this because I want to show to the universe that My Father God is a God of justice and righteousness, a God to be honored above everything because He is the epitome of love in its purest form. I need this because eternity wouldn’t be the same for My Father, the Holy Spirit, or Me if I didn’t walk to Calvary to make it possible for you to be part of that eternity.
I need this because it taught Me, as I hung on the cross, what it felt like to be eternally separated from My Father – when I cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Those few moments in time made Me realize even more than I could have ever imagined that My Father, I and the Holy Spirit are One. The sense of separation I endured was like a ripping apart of the very fiber of Our beings as it felt like My Father and the Spirit were moving swiftly away into an eternity where I wouldn’t be a part of Them any longer. And I didn’t want you to feel that sense of separation from your Maker too, which comes as a result of sin.
I need this because now that I am back with My Father and the Holy Spirit in the celestial center of the universe, I can speak on your behalf to My Father. I can speak of the men, women and children on Earth who struggle, who fight battles because of the enemy that never stops the barrage against them. I can talk to My Father about you and all the pain you endure, the struggles you deal with, the times you fail and the times you succeed.
And You Need This Too – The Blood of Calvary!
And always, I can tell My Father, she is My sister, he is My brother. For them, I wore the spit as it landed on Me and slid down My face. For them, I wore the piercing thorns in the crown on My head and the raw open wounds from the beatings and whippings I endured. For them, I wore the robe of mockery and bore the weight of the cross on My shoulders until I could carry it no more. For them, I felt the physical torture when the nails went into My hands and feet and as I hung there with My body physically ripping apart. For them, I felt the humiliation as people screamed at, swore at, and taunted Me hanging there physically exposed. For them, I felt the isolation as My followers deserted Me and the despair of total aloneness as You, Father, remained hidden in the blackness of the cloud.
And because of all that, My sisters and brothers who believe in Me have told Me they are willing – ashamed but willing – to let Me speak before My Father on their behalf. They said they will let My blood be their blood. They said they will let My sacrifice as the Lamb of God be their sacrifice. They said they want Me to stand as both their lawyer and their judge to plead their case for forgiveness and to grant forgiveness to them. They said they want My pure white robe to be their robe to show their purity through Me to the Father.
So yes, I really need this and you need this too. My blood, My sacrifice, My life, My death, My resurrection, gives hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to those who don’t believe they deserve it, and eternal life to all those who say, “Thank you for taking My place, Lord, I claim your blood. Thank you for taking that walk to Calvary.”
And that simple thank you from YOU is worth every tortured step I took. Yes, I really need that too!
