(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Y32qCgRbCgrtvUjjDltDx)
Then they led him away to be crucified. (Matthew 27:31)
The cross shows us how much one man can take. Or not. And how those limits were pushed: ironically, not to show himself great or strong (compare with modern athletic feats), but to do so on behalf of others (when does a modern athlete perform on behalf of others?) His physical limits were tried and tested and pushed, all on behalf of others, and a host of others who wouldn’t care if he helped them or not, and who would in turn reject him. All of that feels like a separate weight and resistance. And that’s what physical limits test: how much resistance we can endure and overcome. He discovered it. It is hard for us to fathom the discovery process.
As I look at the cross this morning, I wonder, was Jesus thinking:
“I don’t know if I can endure those nails; I know they are coming; I’m anticipating the heavy hammer pounding those crude things into my hands and feet, and I’m not sure how much of that I can handle?”
“That so-called crown of thorns; not sure I can take it when they shove it down on my head—I’m probably going to pass out? (And how will that look!?)”
As they stripped him to beat him with the hideous torture whip, the cat of nine tails, was he thinking,
“I really am going to puke, I am going to pass out right here. This isn’t going to work for me. I’m going to scream and holler and make a fool of myself!”
Did any of those kinds of thoughts ever enter in? We are only rarely allowed access to what he was thinking, and this is not one of those times, so we don’t know. But we do know this: his personal physical limits were pushed to the absolute max by the cross and its accompanying horrific physical torture, and yet somehow he found the strength to endure…for us, for me. And for this, I am eternally grateful.
“Father, thank you for enabling Jesus to keep moving forward on his mission and purpose, even though he reached the physical limits of the endurance of pain.”
Freddy Boswell 