I Remember You...

I remember You,

Precious Jesus,

I remember You.

Healer of our hearts.

Lover of our souls.

The words of a song have been playing through my head all day.  Yesterday too.

A simple tune...

Perhaps it is recalled now because of where I've been in the Scriptures recently.  Getting into the later chapters of Luke...

Communion with the disciples.  Arguments about who the betrayer was... then which of the twelve followers was the greatest.  Lessons in what it means to be great.  Teaching from the Master.

Long, desperate, trusting prayer in a garden.  What precious words the air held in those moments.  What priceless tears the ground absorbed.  Sleeping students.  Convicting awakening.

Betrayer's kiss.  Flying sword from a zealous follower.  Act of tenderness as the Healer restores an ear to His enemy... healing the man's outward wound hours before He will offer His life to heal his inward wounds.

Students run, frightened... who wouldn't be?  One follows only to betray the Lord anew. 

Abuses hurled.  Pain inflicted.  The Messiah bears it all.  Mocking... false trials.  Sinful men strike sinless Savior. 

Hours tick by.  More insults... more beatings.  Cowardly Pilot gives in to screaming masses. "Crucify Him!" 

Long walk... uphill.  Cries of grief.  Screams of condemnation.  What must the Messiah have been thinking as he made that long trek?  Was He crying to God for strength as He had in the garden?  Did He look into the faces surrounding Him, knowing their whole lives, and find new strength knowing it was for the sake of their eternities that He suffered?

Nails pierce flesh.  Blood spurts.  Blood is everywhere...  Finally He hangs for all the world to see.  Dignity outraged as soldiers gamble for His clothing.

On Your sacred head,

Crown of thorns rest on

Your sacred head.

Mighty King of the universe,

Merciful Lamb,

for my sin You suffered and bled.

Still, "Father, forgive them,

They don't understand!".

Sweet Savior, I heard what You said.

I remember You...

And I think how the pain must have crowded His mind...  then, on top of that, the crowd didn't cry sympathy towards the Man on the cross.  No, they spewed hatred.

Then there was the sin.  The suffocating weight of sin.  As if the physical and mental pain wasn't enough.  Spiritual torment was heaped upon Him.  He who never knew sin... became sin.

I cannot grasp it.  I can't comprehend such suffering.  Such anguish.

And that, at any moment, He could have come down off the cross of sorrow.  That the self-righteous men in the crowd before Him, shouting insults, could have been sent to their faces, begging for mercy, with one blast of His breath. 

Instead He bears all.  Beard torn.  Face slapped.  Back ripped.  Wrists pierced.  And more...

Father-forsaken as He takes our sins upon Himself.  He cries in torment.

And it goes on... till every sin is paid for in full.  Till freedom is bought completely for the world He loves.

"Finished!"  A cry not of defeat... but of victory.

Spirit committed, His head falls as one last breath escapes slowly.

Earth quakes.  Sky blackens.  Onlookers scream in panic.  Dead are raised.

The curtain of separation between mankind and God is torn in two.

One man, a Roman who played a part in the Messiah's crucifixion, exclaims to the dark sky, "Truly, this man was the Son of God."

So He was.

So He is.

As we drink from the cup of salvation,

Your blood
We remember Your sacrifice
We remember the way that You suffered for us
... You proved how you loved us on Calvary´s cross
and rose up on the third day
so all who believe might be saved

Yes, we remember You...

May I always remember as I do in this moment.

May I rush to Your feet like the healed leper...  realizing that I have been redeemed from living death... eternal death.

My soul was rotting away like an incurable disease.

Now I am made whole... made clean.

May I never forget.