Sin

Sin is not the most popular topic in the world.

But I thought it was an appropriate topic to talk about today.

The day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

This is the day between "My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me" and "He is Risen".

Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection is all about sin.

Sin is what keeps us from having a right relationship with God, the Creator of all things.

Before Jesus died, animals were sacrificed for people's sins, and this helped restore the relationship with God.

Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.  He was the final sacrifice.  He was perfect, without sin, and Jesus took on all the sins of the world, so that we might have that right relationship with God once again.

Yesterday, I wrote about Tony Campolo.  Another message I have heard him share two different times, is about what was going on when Jesus was being crucified on the cross.  He died for our sins.  But those sins were not just the sins that had already happened.  They were the sins that were going to happen. 

Campolo explained it much better than I am about to, but what happens every time we sin....every time we take our choice over what God wants us to do....Jesus feels that on the cross.  He feels the pain of our sin...and did while He was hanging on the cross. 

That message has stayed with me since the first time I heard it, almost 20 years ago.

I never thought of it that way before, that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, but He experienced those sins, even though they were in the future.....but that is my future, not God's.

Tomorrow we celebrate what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross.

Today, I meditate on the fact that my sins were a part of the burden that Jesus was experiencing when He was hanging on the cross.