Beloved by the Beloved

The Life of the Beloved Son of God has been spent in love of you and me.

The Crucifixion scene from the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana. from my photos.

It is Finished.
 

The Life of the Beloved Son of God has been spent in love of you and me.

God’ love is poured out in Jesus crucified.

In the crucifixion, Jesus’ life appears to be a horrible failure.

Hatred seems to have conquered love.

Yet on the Cross, Jesus crucifies all illusions of power:

He has crucified all of our false gods:

power

possessions,

pleasure,

and popularity.


-Powerless, his hands and feet were nailed to the wood of the cross; he is humbled and incapacitated.

-Poor and stripped down to nothing, he hangs alone upon the gibbet of the cross under a burning sun; all illusions of wealth and prosperity are crucified.

-Illusions of pleasure and luxury are crushed in the bloody, splintered cross. Writhing in pain, gasping for air, he feels no pleasure at all; in agony and torment, He has crucified the god of pleasure.

-Jesus is rejected by the crowds; from the cross he looks for his followers, but he is abandoned by almost all of his is disciples.

Standing at the foot of the cross were only his mother, Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle John, the beloved disciple, the youngest of the Apostles.


Disowned, he has lost all honor and dies the death of a criminal; and crucifies the god of popularity and fame on the Cross.
 

Yet He is the Beloved:

And we are the Beloved of God.
 
We recognize ourselves in the Man on the Cross:

-We are beloved in our powerlessness;

-We are Beloved in our lack of possessions; (we are not what we have or possess).

-We are beloved in our suffering and pain; (we are not defined by a life of luxury and pleasure).

-We are beloved in our dishonor and abandonment; (we are not determined by our popularity or by what others say about us);


The search to find happiness in the false gods of:

possessions, power, pleasure, and popularity is over.


It is finished.

We place our trust in Him now, at the cross, giving ourselves over to him , dying with him, allowing his death to put to death all those things that prevent us from rising to new life, so that we can be a new creation....finished with the old way of seeing and doing things... finished because we have had an encounter with the Beloved Son of God.

We see the Beloved lifted high upon the cross, with his arms outstretched embracing all of our pain, all of our suffering.

And in him we see ourselves. 

We are His Beloved.

The Life of the Beloved Son of God has been spent in love of you and me.