Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
LUKE 23:44-49 | 44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. 47 When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.” 48 And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. 49 But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the disciples experienced a world without Jesus. Can you imagine such a world? It would be a world without miracles, a world without clear truth, a world without someone to lead and direct and encourage. It would be a world without vision and purpose, a world without any hope beyond death, a world where injustice and brutal power got the last word, and death got the final victory. It would be a world where sin and failure can’t be healed and forgiven and forgotten, where the last acts of betrayal define the rest of your life.
A world without Jesus would mean a history without Jesus, and therefore a history without His church and without hospitals and universities and all the other effects of His life. Can you imagine a world without Jesus?
As His followers, we must be able to imagine it, because it is the world many people live in! Many do not know of His life and its gifts for us and many live outside the realm of its effects. That is part of our motivation for sharing the great good news.
What would your world be like without Jesus?
Do you know someone living in that world?
Pray and live so as to show them the world with Jesus in it!
