I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. John 6:53.

I look up to the mountains – does my help come from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth! . . . The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The LORD keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever. Psalm 121:1-2, 6-8.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 145: The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary. Psalm 102:1-11: Hear my prayer, O LORD! And let my cry for help come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call answer me quickly. For my days have been consumed in smoke, and my bones have been scorched like a hearth. My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away, indeed, I forget to eat my bread. Because of the loudness of my groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake, I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop. My enemies have reproached me all day long; Those who deride me have used my name as a curse. For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping because of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have lifted me up and cast me away. My days are like a lengthened shadow, and I wither away like grass. And, John 19:16-30: So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be”; this was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

The first Scripture verse above is hard to hear but as Dallas Willard explained in Hearing God, “If the good that Christ offers us in the redeemed life is to become real in ourselves, we must appreciate the literal character of the Scriptures that speak of Christ’s being in us. In what may have been His first attempt to make this plain, Jesus told His followers that they would “eat His flesh” and “drink His blood” (John 6:53-55)…He immediately explained that His actual flesh, when taken apart from His spiritual, personal reality, would do them absolutely no good at all (John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life – the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.) It was through His words that He literally imparted Himself while He lived and taught among the people of His day.”

What words had others taught in Jesus’ day, in every day before and now since He lived among us? How different were His words imparting the way to life with God! Such Good News for all of us if we have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts open to Him. And isn’t that what the Apostle Paul longed for for all of us, My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. Galatians 4:19. How easily we forget and turn away. What words are we listening to today? World leaders? Politicians? Influencers?

When we consider the way of this world today, really consider it – the way of hurt and anguish and fear; of sorrow and anger and hate; of power that destroys, just as in the day Jesus lived and walked among us – it helps to really look and see for all it really is – the way of death. But when we consider the love of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, and His truth and way of seeing and living that is life, how can we choose the way of death? We can choose life now. Life with Him now teaches us compassion for those suffering because we all of us are suffering and hurting and feeling anger and hate toward those we deem enemies. A vicious cycle. The real enemy is sin. Sin brings death. Creator God offers us life with Him and it is Good always!

***IN MERCY, FORGIVE – Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed. We have not loved You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In Your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be so that we might delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen. The Service for the LORD’S Day: Supplemental Liturgical Resource 1 (Westminster Press, 1984), 48.***