Good morning, my brothers!  We’re all familiar with the cross, but many of us have lost the weight of it. This week, let’s slow down and truly see what “For God so loved the world…” really meant. Let’s go! A 5-minute, 22-second read

Or listen to the audio version here:

He Chose For Us

There are moments that don’t just stay with you - they mark you. I remember one of those moments, sitting in my church a number of years ago.

I think it was a Good Friday service, as my pastor slowly walked through what Jesus actually endured before and on the cross. Not the version we’re used to hearing, not the quick summary…he took us into it.

The scourging. The mocking. The cross. The medical descriptions of what He endured. And I felt it.

But then he said something that hit me the hardest: the physical pain wasn’t the worst of it. What?

The physical pain was beyond comprehension, yet it wasn’t the deepest pain He endured. His deepest pain was separation from His Father. Excruciating. Unbearable.

I broke.

I remember sitting there, fighting to hold it together, tears quietly running down the side of my face.

I’ve taken the cross for granted.

What He Actually Endured

It started in the garden. Jesus knew exactly what He was about to go through, and my pastor began to unpack it in a way I had never heard before.

Not just the torture and gruesome death, but the full weight of all sin – mine, yours, everyone’s - on Him. He knew it all.

Luke tells us that His sweat in the garden became like drops of blood, a condition brought on by extreme anguish in which capillaries burst under pressure.

Before the cross, before the nails, He was already breaking under the weight of what He was about to carry. Then came the scourging.

The Romans perfected the process that led up to the crucifixion as a form of torture, designed to maximize pain and prolong suffering.

The whip used on Jesus didn’t just strike His back. It tore into it. Ripped it open.

With every blow, skin gave way to muscle, and muscle gave way to deeper tissue. His back became what medical accounts and Max Lucado describe as “quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh”.

Then came the crown of thorns.

Driven into His scalp, one of the most sensitive areas of the body, sending waves of pain through His head while blood poured down His face. Soldiers mocked Him, dressed Him up, struck Him, and spat on Him.

The King of Kings, The Creator, God Himself - stood there and took it. Silently. They tore the robe back off His back, reopening every wound…and He didn’t stop it. Why?

For God so loved the world…

The Cross Was a Slow Suffocation

We tend to think of the cross as a moment, but it wasn’t…it was hours. Six hours of excruciating pain.

Seven-inch nails were driven through His wrists and feet, crushing nerves and sending searing pain up His arms with every movement.

And then came the pain that most of us don’t think about - breathing. To inhale was possible, but to exhale, to actually breathe, was excruciating.

He had to push up on the nails in His feet and, as He pushed up, His shredded back dragged against the wood just to get enough air. Then He would collapse, only to push up again, then collapse again, over and over. For. Six. Hours.

Every breath cost Him something, and every word He spoke from the cross was fought for. And His incredible love still shone through.

Even as they were driving the nails and mocking Him, He was thinking about them. He was thinking about you. He was thinking about me. Why?

For God so loved the world…

The Pain That Breaks Us

As horrific as all of that is, it still wasn’t the deepest pain. Isaiah wrote about this centuries before it happened.

On that cross, Jesus wasn’t just suffering physically. He was carrying sin. Your sin, my sin, all sin. Past. Present. Future.

And the unthinkable was verbalized.

For the first time in all of eternity, the Son was separated from the Father. Not because the Father stopped loving Him, but because sin had to be judged.

On the cross, Jesus became the one carrying it all.

I don’t know that we can fully grasp the silence, the separation, and the weight.

The Father turned away, and the Son was alone. For the one and only time in all of eternity. That’s the part that broke me in that Good Friday service. The separation hurt the Son more than any physical pain He endured.

Because I realized He went through all of that, not just to die, but to be separated so that we never would be. This is almost unfathomable to me, until I remember His why:

For God so loved the world…

And We Take It Lightly

If we’re honest, we’re all familiar with the cross, but many of us are numb to it.

We sing about it, and we say we’re thankful for it, but how often do we actually stop and consider what the cross cost? How often do we live like men who understand the level of anguish and pain He endured for us?

I know for me, I don’t. I’m grateful, but I drift, and I believe it, but I don’t sit in it.

I talk about it, but I don’t let it shape me the way it should. And this week exposes that.

Because the cross isn’t meant to be something we glance at. It’s meant to stop us, to break us, and to wake us up.

For God so loved the world…

Don’t Waste This Week

We don’t need more information. We need a response. This upcoming week, Easter week, is an invitation.

Not to go through the motions or rush to Sunday, but to sit in what Jesus actually went through, for us. To let it hit us, confront us, and draw us into deeper intimacy with Him.

Because the truth is, He chose the nails, He chose the cross, and He chose the separation - for us. So that our sin would be forgiven, so that we would be set free, and so that we would never have to experience what He endured. Why?

For God so loved the world…

Let’s Dig In

Let’s not move past this flippantly. Let’s dig into it. Together.

This week, we’ve put together a 5-day guided study of the cross for you and me. To understand. To experience. To feel.

Not surface-level and not rushed, but real. Because this isn’t just something we want to know intellectually. It’s something we’re meant to live from. Download it for free, below, and let the Holy Spirit take you deeper into Easter than you’ve ever experienced.

Next Saturday, we’ll step into the silence of Saturday and the victory of Sunday. But before we get there, don’t look away from the cross.

Don’t rush past it. And whatever you do…don’t waste this week.

For God so loved…you.

-WIll