“I feel bad for Jesus.”
That’s the comment I got last Wednesday from one of my dear 3rd/4th-grade kiddos. It was the last session of 5 that covered the Trinity, Jesus being fully God & fully man, Jesus as the Lamb of God in the new Passover, the Crucifixion & Resurrection.
So, we’ve been hitting on Jesus’ Passion for a couple weeks … emphasizing that He faithfully died on the cross FOR US … to atone for our sins, inviting us all to eternal life with Him after our Earthly deaths.
The assignment was to answer 1 of 3 questions independently:
The boys of the room were extra chatty that night, so I stood closer to them in attempt to keep’em focused on the worksheet. After working through a few examples with one kiddo of what an appropriate response for each may sound like, I moved on to his friend sitting across the table.
As I start to read and describe the first question, he quietly interjects:
“I feel bad for Jesus.”
Typically, our minds gravitate towards THANKING Jesus for taking away our sins by dying on the cross (and rightfully so).
But it seems the true beauty of His Passion can get lost in translation by over-simplifying …
For a moment, my small friend had stepped out of his own shoes and into the shoes of our Savior. He truly felt & understood (judging by the authentic look on his face) just how badly Jesus had been treated in the suffering that would lead to His death on the cross – and all of it endured simply out of His love for us.
Here’s an interesting article to “lighten” things up a bit:
The Darkness at Noon During Jesus’ Crucifixion is Confirmed
