I don’t know about you, but I am really excited about spring coming and the warmer temps and all of it. It’s been a long winter and I don’t like winter to begin with. I’m ready to open up some windows, get outside, and go for a walk in the nice weather. Walking is one of my favorite things to do outside. There are so many parks in this area from Ottawa Metro park off 81 to Faurot Park in southern Lima to Heritage Park by Apollo. I find walking at these parks extremely peaceful and relaxing. If you want to lower your blood pressure, just go for a walk on a nice sunny day. It can do wonders. People in the Bible walked everywhere. I think Israelites had a great appreciation for good weather, because they didn’t have cars or bikes. Most of them didn’t have camels either. Only wealthy people could afford a camel.
With Easter at the beginning of April, I would like to focus on one walk in the Bible. That is the walk Jesus took from Jerusalem to Calvary. If you go to Jerusalem today, you can make the same walk that Jesus did. It’s called the Via Dolorosa, which is Latin for “Sorrowful Way”. It’s nearly a half mile long and winds through the city of Jerusalem. Jesus was spat upon, mocked, yelled at, and beaten on his lonely walk from Pilate’s court to Golgotha. It was perhaps the worst walk anyone would ever take. But I can’t help but wonder if, on that walk, Jesus was thinking to himself, “This is worth it. This is worth it. Things are going to be so much better on the other side of this pain.” Hebrews 12:2 still astonishes me to this day. It says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (NIV). He had joy in all this!! You may be wondering how or why he had joy in all this. Well, let me tell you. He went through all that pain because he knew that the result of it was eternity with you and me. You and I were Jesus’ motivation. Sinners were Jesus’ motivation to walk the hardest walk of them all.
I’m reminded of the song “Above All”. The lyrics to the chorus are “Crucified laid behind a stone; You lived to die rejected and alone; Like a rose trampled on the ground; You took the fall and thought of me”. In the darkest hour of the darkest day of Jesus’ entire life, you and I were on his mind. It wasn’t the nails that held him there. It was the hope of seeing you and me in heaven for all eternity that held him there. Jesus had all the power and authority to come down, which probably isn’t shocking to hear. But his love for you and me and everyone else was so much stronger. I hope there never comes a day in my life where the love of God becomes simple to me, because it’s so easy to just think that God loves us. I mean, we tell our kids that God loves them which is incredibly true. But, the phrase can become somewhat callous to us the more we hear it. I hope we never let the thought that God loves us to the point of dying for us to become callous to us.
Jesus took a terrible walk to show his love for us. The walk we now need to focus on is our walk with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is sometimes referred to our walk with him. I have found in my life that just as the geography changes on walks that I take, with hills or stairs or curves in the road, such things can occur on my walk with Jesus. It’s not always smooth sailing. It’s not always easy to read the Bible or pray or do the things I should. I go through valleys like that sometimes too. Those times are real struggles for me. But it is in those times that I have to go back to the cross. Jesus took a walk that was by no means easy and by no means fun. Being a Christian isn’t always fun. It’s hard sometimes. But when it comes to our walk with Jesus, it helps me at least to know and understand that Jesus went through harder things that I have and that you have and that gives me strength to get back in the race. I don’t know what your walk with Jesus is like. Maybe you get excited about waking up in the morning and having your alone time with Jesus. Maybe you are pumped up to love people that need it. Maybe you are more like Jesus than I ever will be. I hope that’s true. But maybe you struggle in your walk. Maybe you have a hard time picking up your Bible or praying or loving people the way you know you should. I have some good news for you. Jesus knew this life was going to be hard and we would mess up. That is why Easter happened at all. So, while reading your Bible and praying and everything else are crucial to our relationship with God, there is grace for when we fall short, because Jesus made the walk that we never could.
“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’” -Luke 24:46-47 (NIV)
