If I Were There

READ: LUKE 18:31-34; 23:26-49; MARK 16:1-8

If I were there
Would I just stare
As they bound my Savior?

If I lived during that time
Would I deny
That I ever knew Him?

If I witnessed all they did to Him 
Would I have offered to take it on me 
The carrying of the cross?

If I watched Him die
Would I have cried
And been too heartbroken to carry on?

If I had heard Him say
He’d rise again in three days
Would I believe He’d do just that?

If I saw the empty grave
And saw Him alive again
How would I have felt? • Bethany Acker

• Have you ever imagined what it would have felt like to live during Jesus’s time on earth? As we hear the stories of people who interacted with Jesus face-to-face, how could it be helpful to imagine ourselves in these people’s places?

• When Jesus told His followers that He would be put to death but then rise from the grave three days later, they didn’t understand. When Jesus was arrested, all His followers abandoned Him and ran away. Yet Jesus still died on the cross for them…and for us. He came to save us from sin and death, to make the way for us to become part of His family, because He loves us. How could it be comforting to know that none of us could earn what Jesus did for us? (Romans 5:6-11)

• If you want to dig deeper, read Matthew 26:47-56, Luke 22:54-62, and John 20:1-18.

“And after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.” Luke 18:33 (CSB)