Jesus Came to Save the Day

​Anyone can tell you it is a crazy world we are all living in right now.  It’s Easter.  Perhaps this Easter won’t look like any of our normal holiday traditions as we learn to live in a socially distanced reality.  We won’t be having the family get-togethers, the larger church services (at least in person), or the Easter egg hunt at Grandma’s house.
 
Although, those traditions are fun, they are not why we celebrate Easter.  Easter is about a big God.  Easter is about salvation.  We rebelled against a perfect God.  Rather than damning us straight away as we deserve, this big God steps in.  As my four-year-old prayed at supper time, “Thank you that Jesus came to save the day.”
 
Easter is Jesus Christ taking our punishment for us, that we might have redemption, covered by his perfection.
 
Below is a poem I wrote several years back.  If you look at the picture it is a copy of a painting by Rembrandt depicting the crucifixion.  Rembrandt painted his own face into the picture, participating in and directing Christ’s execution.  Guilty, we can all paint our own face into the crucifixion.
 
My Rembrandt’s Face
By Ryan Doughan
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
I force the thorns upon your brow.
You bleed for me; this is your crown.
Demands of mine force blood of yours;
It dances down from skin and pores.
 
I spit on you; you stare at me,
Your gentle love for all to see.
My hand beats bruises on your face.
I mock you, yet you show me grace.
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
I crack the whip that tears your skin.
Your crimson warmth now bathes my sin.
I scourge again, and then again
To see if Satan might yet win.
 
Sweat drips from me, and blood from you.
You’ll bare my cross yet bless me too
Now up the hill I’ll force you on,
And bring the tree you’ll die upon.
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
Now hammer falls, and nails must hold.
Pain’s loving blood for many sold.
It drips on me, this love of yours;
You’ve washed me with your very sores.
 
I drop the hammer, raise the cross,
And now you’ll pay for all my cost
I curse your name, enjoy the scene,
Rest in my filth and the obscene.
 
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
“Come down from there.” I scream at you.
Then I’ll believe and worship too.
Grace strikes me with this mighty blow.
“Forgive them Dad for they don’t know.”
 
You stare at me in your pain too,
Your eyes scream out, “This is for you.”
The sky turns dark and dismal hue.
I am ashamed I murdered you.
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
Now desecration is complete,
With sin I’ve sealed my own defeat.
I lay sprawled out beneath your cross,
With three days yet to count my loss.
 
But you arise; you’ve won the fight,
And see me there at dawn’s first light.
Through grace and love, and with a tree,
You don’t damn me; you set me free.
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For I was there and screamed aloud.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
So paint my face into the crowd,
For here I am, my knee is bowed.
Now crucify, Oh, crucify;
This is my Lord I crucify.
 
Jesus came to save the day.  That is Easter.  Happy Easter everyone!

---