He Offers Us His Back

He offers us His back.

in listening to a fr. mike schmitz podcast yesterday, there was one thing that stuck out to me for the first time ever.

the weight of the cross.

historically it is said that the cross Jesus of Nazareth carried to His death weighed somewhere between 125-150 pounds.

i tried to fathom how much this actually was, and the parallel i drew was the weight of a teenage girl.
now this is an image i can relate to.

most times when Jesus is depicted carrying the cross, it is hard to comprehend the amount of suffering He truly went through.

the weight of His passion wasn’t lying within the physical weight He had to carry after hours of being beaten. no. not just the splinters of the wood piercing into His open wounds. and not just the thorns of His crown reaching bone.

even heavier, it was the spiritual weight that eventually killed Him.

our pain is Jesus’ pain.

when we cry, He cries.

when we grow anxious, He sweats blood alongside us.

when the weight of our shame holds us down, He lifts us up.

when we get tempted, He wrestles with lucifer in the desert.

when we reach for sin, He reaches for our hand.

He is a God who will not turn his back on us.

but rather,

He will give His back for us.

to lean on.
to cry on.

and even
to betray.
to scourge.

we were the ones who inflicted pain on Him;

yet amidst the most brutal betrayal that could ever be committed against a human,
ending the life of another,

He still offers us His back.

rejoice & be glad.
He is a God of mercy