Lenten Pain

 

This past week was a doosy! Many difficult days. What was most difficult was hearing about so many people who were in pain. Some needed to face surgery to have relief of pain. For others, it was cancer, and they were facing surgery and treatments. Finally, there were others whose hope rests knowing they will be able to enter the gates of heaven. Friday night, as the week had ended and my emotions were drained, I cried. I know what it is like to have those types of surgeries, those types of diagnoses, and to lose those who entered the gates of heaven.

As I reflected upon my own times of pain, I remembered the exhaustion that went along with those times. Then I went a bit deeper in my reflection. Not right away, but a few weeks after the surgery, my pain was replaced with relief. The cancer was replaced with remission. And I certainly know that my loved ones who enjoyed the blessings of a life lived well on earth are celebrating their entrance into heaven.

I remembered that after the pain, there was goodness. After the exhaustion, there was rest. After the tears, there was hope. I remembered that the pain that I was suffering was replaced with the hope and peace of goodness. Today, as I remember all those people who may be suffering, I pray for their hope and peace. I pray that they will also find relief of pain and that goodness will follow them as well.

Today’s verse moves us past the Garden of Gethsemane and into the hands of Pilate. There, after the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him,” and Pilate released Barabbas in replacement for Jesus, the soldiers took Jesus and began the torture that was meant for all of us. These passages in the Bible that share of the incredible pain that our Lord endured bring such shame to me. As I read each verse, I fully understand it should be me with the crown of thorns embedded into my head  and the whipping against my back. It should have been me enduring the pain for my sins. Excruciating pain with no relief in sight.

The sacrifice our Lord and Savior made on that Good Friday is one that will always be on my heart. To know that He loved me so very much to endure the pain is a love that is incomprehensible. Yet, it is the love that Jesus gave to us so that we will see Him in paradise. His pain also turned into joy – the joy that He rose from the dead for all of us! His pain in the court, His pain on the cross, His pain for all of us because He loves us so very much, turns into the joy that He has when we turn to Him in forgiveness, hope and love.

All Jesus wants from us in return for all His pain is belief in Him! Our joy comes from that and so much more! As we continue to move through Lent, let us reflect on the pain we have felt and the pain of those around us. Let us understand the pain can move to goodness and joy. Let us live in the hope of seeing the face of Jesus, the One that endured horrible pain because He loves us.

Dearest Jesus, thank you for enduring horrific pain for us. May the pain that we have on earth be replaced by goodness and the knowledge that we will see your face in paradise. In your loving name we pray, Amen.