They were covered in filth, and they didn’t even know it. They had lived in it for so long they had grown used to it. Some didn’t know there was another way. Others should have known, should have remembered, but they had forgotten.
So he came to them. He came to where they were. He looked past the filth. He gave light to those who had never seen. He reminded those who had forgotten. Some were overjoyed to hear the news. Others scoffed. Still others grew angry-how dare anyone come into their world and challenge the way things had always been done.
But he reached out anyways-to the lost, the scoffers, and the angry. And he embraced them. He wasn’t afraid to get involved.
Then he went beyond.
He took the filth, the sin and shame, on himself. Not just on his skin or his hands but into his very heart. And he carried it to the cross, even thought it meant he would lose his connection with the Father. He paid for our mistakes with his life. It was the only way to reconnect each of us to the Father.
“When you were dead in your sins . . . God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14 NIV
To prove the payment was enough, he returned to life, defeating the power of death once and for all.
We can never walk the entire road Jesus walked. He alone could pay for our sins. But may we each be willing to follow in his footsteps wherever he leads us, sharing his life and his love with those who have never heard, those who scoff, and those who are angry.
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