Monday, March 12th. The 20th day of Lent.
Station Thirteen: Jesus dies on the cross. Luke 23:44-46
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.
Jesus, my ending, the jolt of these stark words never ceases to startle me. “He breathed his last.” You died. Our brother Paul says you were obedient, even unto death. But I don’t want to look death in the face. And I don’t like that you called me to take up a cross of my own. You called me to die to myself, but I want to hold onto my life. This is your hardest commandment. So this is my prayer: that you create something new in me, a presence of the Spirit of God that could help me face even a cross for you. Even death for you.
