Mourning then Mercy

 

Zechariah 12:10 – “And I will pour a spirit of mercy and compassion on My people, and they shall look on Him Whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as for an only child and weep bitterly for Him as one weeps over a firstborn.”

 

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we can’t begin to imagine how much You suffered! Lifted high on the cross for all to look upon, Your Son felt the nails, brutally piercing His hands and feet. Below the cross His mother wept, and surely You did too.

Thinking about this moment also draws our tears, but only momentarily for we know the ending. We know Jesus Christ arose from the dead, appeared to many, comforted His mother and followers, and ascended into Heaven, where He pours out His Holy Spirit of mercy and compassion onto His people – onto us! Praise God!

from the book, Kneeling on the Promises of God

 

Good Friday prayer of Jesus

 

On Good Friday, Jesus the Son of God nailed our sins to the cross.  

Only a few days earlier, throngs of people had sung His praises and thrown down palm branches to ease His ride into Jerusalem. But now, crowds gathered to jeer at Him as He hung between criminals in the worse kind of torture – crucifixion.

Just to breathe, Jesus had to lift Himself up, thrusting His weight into the nails that held His hands against the hard wood while dragging His flesh further into the nails that fastened His feet.

And yet….

As the people railed against Him, hurling every kind of insult, and dogs snapped at His feet, and breathing itself became a torture, Jesus used these final moments to pray His last Amen on our behalf:

Luke 23:34 – a prayer of Jesus
from the King James Version (KJV)

Then said Jesus,

Father,
forgive them;

for they know not
what they do.

From the Book of KJV Prayers - actual prayers from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) collected by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019 

Luke 23:34 – a prayer of Jesus
in contemporary English

Father,
forgive them!

They don’t know
what they’re doing. 

 

From the Book of Bible Prayers – actual prayers of the Bible collected from a variety of translations researched on Bible Gateway then paraphrased into everyday English by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019.

 

©2021

…

 

 

Praising God on Good Friday

In Psalm 31:5 (Psalm 31:6 in the New American Bible, Revised Edition, NABRE), we find this prophetic Bible prayer of faith:

“Into Your hand I commit* My spirit,
and You have redeemed Me,
LORD God of truth.”


In Luke 23:46 Jesus quotes that Bible prayer in Psalms but pluralizes God’s “hand.”

“And with a loud voice,
Jesus called out,
`Father, into Your hands
I commit* My Spirit,'
and having said this,
He breathed
forth the Spirit
with His very last breath.”


*Commit or Commend?

In KJV, NABRE, and other translations, the word “commend” is used, rather than “commit.” As Jesus Christ the Son of God hung on the cross, He surely committed Himself wholly to the Father. However, “commend” is even more awesome (in the truest sense) as the word indicates approval, praise, and applause!



© 2015, Mary Harwell Sayler prayer-a-phrased today’s readings from many of the translations found on Bible Gateway.

…