Easter Reflections: Scene Two. “I Thirst”

Narrator 1

The people were not satisfied that Jesus’ body was now so badly beaten that his face was unrecognisable and his skin was torn to shreds.

He was made to carry his heavy cross all the way to a place called, “Golgotha”, which was like a rubbish tip on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

On his way there, he collapsed and a man called Simon was ordered to take the cross the rest of the way.

Jesus was then nailed to a rough wooden cross and while his life was ebbing away, the soldiers mocked him, telling him that if he was really God, he would have the power to come down from the cross. They said, “He saved others, yet he cannot save himself.”

What they didn’t realise was that by remaining on the cross, he was making a way to save us all.

He had the power to jump down, heal his wounds and slap them all across the face. He had power to take revenge and kill them all with one breath. Yet if he had done so, there would not have been any atonement for our sins.

“Atonement.” What does that mean? It basically means that Jesus took away our sin by dying in our place. Another big word is, “Redemption.” This means that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. Our sins costs more than billions and billions of bank notes and that’s a very large number. It would take us more than 5 lifetimes to pay back so much as a quarter of that amount of money, so it is virtually, impossible.

So, Jesus stayed on the cross and endured the agony. He did it to pay for our wrong doings if we accept him into our hearts. He saved us from the punishment of sin, that is why as Christians, we refer to ourselves as being, saved.

How lonely and frightening it must have been up on that rugged piece of wood! He did not even know how long it was all going to last.

Narrator 2

I thirst.

My throat is so dry.

The sun is beating down on me

As vultures hover in the sky.

I thirst,

And it makes me think,

This thirst is much stronger

Than just wanting a drink.

It’s for the souls of those men,

Cursing my name.

They are the reason I’m dying.

They are the reason I came.

Oh, Father, these I pray for

As I’m hung up on this cross.

It hurts so much to die on here,

But I know it’s worth the cost.

They don’t know why they do these things

Or who they are doing it to.

I would gladly suffer,

So that they might know you.

The hatred in their eyes,

Makes me love them all the more.

I thirst for their souls.

It’s them I’m dying for.

Forgive them Father.

I love them.

I thirst.