Devotional Thought of the Day:

²³  Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. ²⁴  Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way. Psalm 139:23-24 (TEV)

⁴⁰  A man suffering from a dreaded skin disease came to Jesus, knelt down, and begged him for help. “If you want to,” he said, “you can make me clean.” ⁴¹  Jesus was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him. “I do want to,” he answered. “Be clean!” ⁴²  At once the disease left the man, and he was clean. Mark 1:40-42 (TEV)

86  With God, I thought, every day seems more attractive. I can see “little bits” at a time. One day I notice some wonderful detail; on another, I discover a sight I had not seen before… At this rate, it is impossible to say what will happen next. Then, I noticed that He was reassuring me: “Your happiness will grow greater every day, for you will be drawn deeper and deeper into that divine adventure, into that great ‘complication’ with which you have become involved. And you will realise that I will never abandon you.”

Good Friday.

A Crown of thorns, a thick “royal robe”, placed on a back that is raw from a whipping, Spikes hammered through each wrist, One more hammered through the ankles. Ankles already tired from carrying the beam up a mountain side.

People mocking Him, the people who called for His death, the people who once praised and followed Him, but followed Him hear for a different reason…..to watch Him suffer and die.

Why?

We were not able to cry out, as the man did at the beginning of Mark’s gospel.  A cry that echo’s David’s cry in Psalm 139.  Examine us!  Make us clean – completely. If you desire to Lord, you can.

And He did.  By hanging on the cross.

He cleansed us of every sin, He brought us into Himself – we share in that death – we hang there with Him, nailed to that cross in our baptism.  We rise with Him as well, brought into His very glory.

We receive all His promises, He guards us, never abandoning us, never forsaking us, always there, always faithful.  The promises that we find more and more of, as we plunge the scriptures, as we meet and pray and hear God’s word together.  As we kneel at an altar, and receive the Body and Blood of Christ.  These details, declaring God’s desire – that we are all transformed, that explain His patience…His will, what He did, for us, as Christ hung on that cross.

This day, as you consider the cross, as you consider that Jesus endured that pain, for the joy set before Him.  The joy of bringing us into the Father’s glory.

And here His answer to you….. I do want to… be clean!

Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 581-586). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.