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Continued from // The Cross - Part I

As the procession neared Golgotha, a new feeling began to creep up on Jesus, a feeling He never felt before. Jesus began to feel the inconceivable weight of man’s sin. The feeling grew as He neared the crest of the hill. The Weight of Mankind weighed Him down so He could hardly walk. After a few more steps, the procession reached the crest of the hill. Finally Jesus could bear it no longer; with a cry He collapsed under the Weight of Mankind. Next to Him, Simon cried out and fell underneath the Cross and the two were pinned. Soldiers shouted and the Cross was lifted. One soldier jerked Jesus to His knees and drug him to the place where He was to be crucified. The other lifted Simon to his feet, and gave him a shove. “You are free to go,” the soldier grunted. Simon hesitated, looking towards Jesus and their eyes met. Jesus’ eyes were filled with pain and anguish, such that is incomprehensible to mortal man. Simon could not bear to look into those eyes, and with tears pouring down his face, Simon dashed down the hill back to Jerusalem.

When the soldier drug Jesus to the spot where He was to be crucified, he threw Him down at the foot of the Cross and jeered at Him. “Here is your doom. Today you will go down to the fires of Hell just like any other man.” Jesus made no reply, but got on his hands and knees and, to the astonishment of all who looked on, willingly crawled onto the cross. The soldiers murmured and looked at each other, as if unsure what to do. After a few moments, one of the officers cried out, “What are you doing? Get these men up on their crosses!” It was if time snapped back into motion and the soldiers went to their deadly work. Men bustled about each of the three crosses, readying them to be raised. One soldier seized a hammer and three nine-inch nails and ran to Jesus’ cross. He tossed two of the nails to the ground and held up the nail to drive it into Jesus’ wrist.

As the soldier raised the hammer, his gaze wandered to Jesus’ face. Jesus turned His head and looked into the man’s eyes and held them. The soldier stared back, his face a mixture of astonishment and horror; he couldn’t take his eyes from his Savior. The officer, seeing the man’s bewilderment, shoved him to the ground yelling. “Hurry up! We only have so much time! Nail that man to the cross!” Shaking himself, the soldier plucked up the hammer and nail from the ground. Again he placed the nail on Jesus’ wrist, and after checking to see if the nail was placed properly, shakily raised the hammer above his head.

Continued on // The Cross - Part III

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Imagine for a moment, that fateful day in AD 33. Imagine the day when the Son of God took upon Himself the burden of mankind’s sin. Imagine the enormous load He took when he willingly shouldered the yoke of our sin. Imagine the pain he felt when he was beaten, whipped, abused, and nailed to the cross. Imagine that fateful day in AD 33…

His breath came in gasps, blood dripped from His body, the weight of the cross bore down on Him. Pain wracked His body from the innumerable whiplashes, cuts, and bruises; He was hardly recognizable. He could barely force His feet to move; with each passing moment, the energy drained from His body. But His Will was set; nothing could keep Him from the task at hand.

As he crawled forward, one of the Roman guards yelled and the whip snaked through the air. As it came down, an ear splitting crack split the air. The whip made contact with the back of Jesus’ legs and He cried out in anguish and pain, collapsing to the rocky ground. The man on the other side of the cross grunted and came down to his knees. Simon gasped in pain and tried to stand up, but the weight of the Cross was too much for him. The soldiers yelled, whips cracked, and the crowed jeered. After a few agonizing moments, two Roman soldiers stepped forward. One of them seized Jesus and jerked Him to His feet; the other lifted the Cross. In His pain, Jesus groped for the Cross, grabbed it, and shouldered the burden again. With grunts and groans of pain, the cross drug forward again.

As they moved forward, two other men, each bearing crosses themselves, began jeering at Jesus. “Why are you so willing to take your cross? Are you so eager to face the pain of the Cross? Curse God and die now!” Jesus made no reply, but looked them each in the eye in turn; they fell silent after a few moments under His gaze. Gradually, wailing could be heard. He stopped and turned. Following Him was a group of women, mourning for Jesus’ pain. Through the pain and gasps, Jesus spoke to them in a raspy voice, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus turned back to His task and slowly, the ground began to slope upward and the city began to fall away.

Continued on // The Cross - Part II

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Trapped, and no way to run. In frustration, I scream and strain against the ropes holding me down, but to no avail. Panting, I look up at the rope dangling just within reach, that is, if I could reach out. Following the rope with my eyes, I glimpse daylight from a hole in the roof. Lowering my eyes, I look at the water that is filling the dark room. Yelling again, I throw my weight against the ropes, trying to grab the lifeline just above my upturned face. Some of the ropes begin to pop, and then a great snap fills the air, then another, the ropes are beginning to break. My heart filling with a new hope, I push even more and more ropes snap. Freed from those ropes, I stand up a little farther, closer to the rope to get out.

Suddenly a large crash rebounds through the closed room, followed by the clinking of a chain. Startled, I collapse, reeling from the blow. I look around, and a chain is now keeping me down. As I sit in the water, despair replacing the hope I had, the broken ropes fuse back together, like they never broke. Tears filling my eyes, I cry out in desperation to God. As the echoes of my voice die away, a breeze stirs the surface of the water, and I can just hear, or think I hear, a voice whisper, “Let go.” I scream in frustration, “No!!! Never! Why? No!!!” Sobbing I begin to plead, “No Lord, this is not the way You are supposed to do this! You’re supposed to save me with a miraculous life-changing event! One that causes these ropes to break! I created them strand-by-strand with my own hands; I would never let them go! Why?!? Save me Lord! Don’t make me let go! Take them away from me!” With that, I collapse into the ever-rising water.

Sobbing uncontrollably, I look down at the ropes and chains holding me down. Looking closely, each rope and chain has something written on it. Looking closer at one of the ropes, I see a single word, pride. Curious, I begin looking at the other ropes. Each one has a word on it, words like jealousy, idolatry, love, friendships, selfishness, lust, greed, over-confidence, excuses. Shocked, I realize that the countless cords all have similar words on them. Following the bindings to the floor, they are attached to a single bracket in the floor, labeled sin. Following the cords the other way, expecting to see them wrapped around a portion of my body, I realize they are not tied to me. Instead, every single one of them is being clenched in my hand.

Realization floods through me; all I have to do is let go. With a slight grin, I stand up, the rope dangling from the ceiling inches from my face. On it are two words, Jesus Christ. Suddenly I laugh and open my hands and the ropes and chains fall into the rising water with a splash. I grab onto the rope, still laughing. The instant my fingers close on the rope, the rope rises, pulling me out of the water and darkness, and into the light.

//Bring it World
-Brian Purkiss

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