On Friday night (Good Friday, 18/04/2014) we held a stay awake for the youth of Highway Church; Double Impact. One of our late-night activities was to hold a Tenebrae service.
The service moved through the different things that Jesus had to endure on His way to the cross. Not the physical things, but the emotional things. Something struck me as we went through this.
It was the love that He showed in times that most would be incredibly hurt. When people betrayed His trust, or denied Him. Those moments that He must have felt completely unloved, unwanted, uncared for. Jesus must have felt like that - He was human. But He loves them anyway. And I write that in the present continuous tense for a purpose! He loves. It’s not that He loved, but rather, that He loves.
I’ve writted this in the form of a poem, but it’s not about the poetry. The poetry is actually poor. It’s about the emotion that Jesus must have felt. It’s about what He endured. It’s about the fact that He loves us anyway. And that is mind blowing.
But He loves them anyway
Friends would offer Him up to be betrayed But He loves them anyway
Others would give up when He asked them to pray But He loves them anyway
Yet others would denied they knew Him in any way But He loves them anyway
Some would accuse Him in every way But He loves them anyway
He would be so badly beaten on that day But He loves them anyway
Kill Him! Kill Him! Kill Him! all would say But He loves them anyway
He would be nailed to a tree to stay But He loves them anyway
Not long after His life would slip away But He loves them anyway
He would rise again on the third day But He loves them anyway
Some wouldn’t recognise Him, nay But He loves them anyway
But, it’s unfair for us “them” to say Because we are guilty, we betray We also neglect to pray
And when we deny Him our agape He loves us anyway