|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
As we approach Good Friday, the message of the Cross is clear — to love boldly and unconditionally. World Relief’s Director of Partnership and Generosity Allison Daniels, shares a heartfelt message on the power of the Cross, our Christian calling and the need for our response. Watch the video or read the transcript below as you meditate on our calling this week.
This Holy Week, I’ve been thinking a bit about Matthew chapter 27 and the final hours of Jesus, where he expresses the statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I think in this moment Jesus is asking God, “Where are you in my suffering?” Here he is on the Cross, beaten, bloodied, mocked, scorned. And Jesus is saying, “Where are you in my suffering, in my pain?”
And I think today there are many people around the world, in our world, in our communities, in our churches, in our neighborhood, our cities, who are asking the same question, “God, where are you?” It’s a very interesting final moment because we get to see the humanity of a holy Jesus. But I also think in this moment, as Jesus is looking to the Father, he’s also looking to you and me. And he’s giving a final invitation in those moments.
The invitation is to this community of people that have followed, some who were followers, some who were mockers. It’s people like Mary and the other Mary who Scripture says followed Jesus closely all the way through his journey to the Cross. They chose to set their gaze on his suffering. They chose not to ignore it.
It’s people like the centurion who, just after Jesus has passed, lifted up his voice and said, “Truly, this was the Son of God.” I think the centurion is representative of people who choose to use their voice in their generation to call for the love and the truth of Christ to be known.
It’s people like Joseph who then have to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. Sometimes in our generation, we have to step across the lines and and engage people who we may not agree with.
And then here we are with the Marys, as I call them, now, at the tomb in grief. But clinging to the hope and to the promise and the reminder of what Jesus said when he told them, “I will rise again.” Friends, resurrection means that you and I are part of this community at the Cross. We’re part of that community declaring that Jesus is Lord, that we choose the way of Jesus.
We choose compassion. We choose mercy, care. We choose to love God and to love our neighbor. Resurrection, yes, is redemption from sin and from failure. But resurrection also means that we are restored to our calling to shine the light of Christ in the darkest places.
You see the invitation that I believe Jesus is giving at the Cross in these final moments. It’s an invitation to be the church. At World Relief, this looks like creating pathways to renewal for the 122 million people displaced all around the world. It looks like creating community and belonging and welcome for refugee and immigrant families in our own cities and neighborhoods. It looks like still caring for Ukraine through their hard winters, while the war and conflict still goes on. It looks like being there for Haiti as they continue to rebuild. It looks like clean water initiatives that are impacting thousands of families in Rwanda. Friends, this invitation is an invitation to you and me to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It’s an invitation to make the decision to be his church in word and in deed.
So, this Holy Week, I pray that this is a blessed and beautiful reminder for you that the Risen Savior still calls us to the Cross in surrender, and then he sends us to go and be his church to a world in need.
Allison Daniels is the Director of Partnership and Generosity at World Relief. With more than 15 years in non-profit administration work, her core belief is that generosity is an expression of God’s goodness. Outside of work, you’ll find her leading Bible Study, writing YouVersion devotionals, hiking Florida trails and exploring vintage markets.