Mark 14:22-40 (excerpts) They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see that each would get. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

If you have seen Jesus of Nazareth or The Passion of the Christ you may have some inkling of what death by crucifixion means. And yet, even those graphics do not fully convey to me the extreme price that was paid for me and for you. Greater love has no one than this; to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

In your quiet time today, contemplate such a gift that was freely given to you and me. think on the sadness and devastation Jesus’ followers must have felt when they buried his body and must have thought for sure that this was the end. (It wasn’t.) Meditate on the prospect of being separated from God. Is He not worthy of such meditation? Is there anything else that should demand more of our attention, our time, our resources, our ambitions, than our loving God?