Recently an elderly friend of our family passed away after a period of grueling discomfort. At one point she blurted out to my mother, “Why must I endure this? Jesus only suffered for three hours!”
Of course, most Christians know that Jesus suffered longer than three hours, including the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging and the long climb up Golgotha. He was also, it may be argued, carrying all sin, which burdened him with a weight that is unimaginable to us.
Yet did Christ’s suffering end when he announced, “It is finished”? Holy Saturday is the time between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and it is one of the most dramatic, if cloudy, episodes in Christian theology”¦.
[blockquote]18For [b]Christ died[/b] for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death [b]in the body[/b] but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom[a] also [b]he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago[/b] when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ~ 1 Peter 3:18-20 [/blockquote]
[blockquote]The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
[b]to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[/b]
~ Isaiah 61:1[/blockquote]
Thank you Lord Jesus for setting me free.