In Focus

“His body, broken for you.”
"His blood, shed for you.”

Last Sunday, Mr. Pettit and I served as celebrants in our church’s observance of Holy Communion. He whispered the first statement to each believer as they held out their hands for a piece of bread, and I said the second as they dipped it in the chalice of juice I held.

Jesus’s body. Jesus’s blood. Offered up for us.

No, not for us. For each of us.

As Jesus said to John, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 (ESV)

Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, knocks on the door of every human heart and waits to see if He will be invited in. We must choose fellowship with Him or separation from Him. There is no third option.

Today marks the beginning of Lent, a forty-day season (excluding Sundays) leading to Easter. It’s a time of reflection as Christians contemplate Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Lent is often observed by the giving up of a much-loved food or pastime. Last year, I fasted each Friday from dawn to dusk, a practice that enhanced my Lenten journey.

I haven’t felt called to take a specific action this year. Rather, I believe the Lord wants me to look at Him. I try to look to Him for daily guidance, but this is different.

I have become distant from the enormity of His sacrifice, preferring to give the horror of the cross a sideways glance instead of a direct stare. Cleaning it up in my mind, blurring it like an illustration in a picture book Bible for young children.

Even the indescribable glory of Jesus’s bodily resurrection from the dead—He was truly dead, no doubt about it—can become just another happy ending if I allow it.

This must not be so.

When David wrote Psalm 51, the cords of guilt wound tightly about him. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of his loyal soldier Uriah the Hittite. When Bathsheba learned she was pregnant, David arranged for Uriah’s murder.

I believe David’s cry to the Lord resonates with all of us who have fallen short—which is, in fact, all of us. (See Romans 3:23.)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12 (ESV)

Yes. Let it be. Amen.

On the grounds of The Great Passion Play, Eureka Springs, AR. The seven-story Christ of the Ozarks statue is nearby.