• Jesus ate the last supper with His disciples.
• Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in an act of humility, servitude, and love.
• Judas, a disciple of Jesus, departed from them to set up his betrayal of Jesus.
• Some of Jesus’s most beautiful prayers were recorded when He prayed to His Father, God, for His disciples, and for you.
• Jesus took 3 of His disciples to be with Him as he prayed to God, his Father, over the anguish He felt regarding His coming crucifixion.
• Those 3 disciples repeatedly fell asleep while Jesus cried out to God in prayer.
• Peter violently and foolishly attacked Jesus’ captures to prevent His arrest.
• His disciples scattered, abandoning Jesus.
• Peter denied knowing Jesus 3 times.
• Jesus spent the night in trial in front of Jewish leaders, who insulted Him, slapped Him, spit on Him, and denied Him.
• Jesus was then turned over to the Roman courts early in the morning.  He would be tortured almost to death, then nailed to a cross.

Jesus Christ was fully human, just like you and me. He enjoyed the fellowship of friends, He felt pain and sadness, and had expectations of others (Mt 16:8, Mt 26:40). But His expectations didn’t get the best of Him, because His faith and His focus were on the Father and the Father’s plan for Him, not in the abilities or the willingness of any human heart.

How would you react after your closest friends repeatedly let you down in your greatest time of need? Or if an institution let you down, your government, or your boss? Would you reach for the bottle, commit intellectual suicide in front of the TV, or maybe act out in anger towards a loved one?

Jesus reacted in love. He says in John 15:13, at the Last Supper, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay downs one’s life for his friends.” This is the example every person needs to follow, and this is one reason why Jesus came to us fully human, to set that example.

Can we attain this standard of love?

Most of the world feels that this standard is impossible to attain, that it is out of their reach. But Jesus was human, and it was in His reach. How is that?  It is because He focused, without ceasing, on His relationship with God. He immersed Himself in God’s word, which drew Him closer to His Father and gave Him revelation concerning His life on earth. Everything He did, either at work or play, in joy and sorrow, He kept His focus on God. This is how believers attain joy and freedom in a hurtful and enslaved world.

The root definition of sin is our separation from God, which started in the garden with Adam, opening the door for the evil that is in our hearts. That divide, our separation from the holiness of God, was bridged when Jesus died on the cross and overcame death, rising from the grave, making it possible for us to reunite with God in a very personal relationship, through the Son. That is what it means when they say that He took our sin upon Himself. Jesus bridged that gap and made atonement for the original sin of Adam.

What you can do on this Holy Weekend

Good Friday is a very significant and emotional day, the most significant along with Resurrection Sunday. Search your heart this weekend, talk to God in private (alone, by yourself, and in secret), and meditate on what happened this weekend. Consider for yourself that Jesus lived and what the Bible says about Him is true, then consider what that might mean to you. Lift up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in your family, proclaim it as truth, and read the Bible daily. Don’t promote the Easter Bunny, it blurs our vision as a society. Often the “small and innocent” distractions are what separates us from Jesus the most effectively.

May God bless us, our nation, our families, and our international brothers and sisters.