As I continue my journey toward Easter; I have been reminded about how much I have let Jesus down. I have heard several variations of the following story; and I came up again last week in one of our Bible study sermons (author unknown):

A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a Seminary Class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s girlfriend drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased at the overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts, with much laughter and hilarity. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart.

Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her target.

Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall. Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus …

A complete hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced. Dr. Smith said only these words … “In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40 (KJV)

No other words were necessary; the tear-filled eyes of each student focused only on the picture of Christ.

*****

So often we think that we are just aiming our darts of anger, jealousy, hatred, slander, pride, unforgiveness, etc. toward one person. In reality those darts are hitting Jesus also. As I said in yesterday’s blog on forgiveness (see here if you missed it): “none of us fully understand what we did to Jesus. We crucified Jesus just as much as the Roman soldiers who were there that day. Jesus forgave us when he was on the cross and we were not there to ask for his forgiveness. Jesus forgave us before we were born and he forgave us even though we were undeserving.”

The good news is that even though we deserve death for our sins; Jesus paid the price so that he can offer us the wonderful gift of salvation! Praise God for his grace and mercy!

One of my favorite songs this time of year (and year round) is “Feel The Nails” by Ray Boltz. I think that this song is really helps me to reflect on things in my life that caused Jesus to have to die in order to save me from myself. My sister and I used to do a mime drama to this song when we were kids. The past few years I have had the privilege of teaching it to some teens at our church. Yesterday a couple of them did the drama and it tied into Pastor Brian’s sermon very well. Below is the link to last year’s presentation (I don’t have the video of yesterday’s presentation downloaded yet. I will add it when I get it).

“Feel The Nails” by Ray Boltz

They tell me Jesus died
For my transgressions
That he paid that price a long, long time ago
When he gave his life for me
On a hill called Calvary
But there’s something else I want to know

Does he still feel the nails
Every time I fail
Can he hear the crowd cry “Crucify” again
Am I causing him pain
Then I know I’ve got to change
I just can’t bear the thought of hurting him.

It seems that I’m so good at breaking promises
And I treat his precious grace so carelessly
But each time he forgives
What if he re-lives
The agony He felt on that tree

Chorus 1x

Holy, holy
Holy is the Lord
Holy Holy
Holy is the Lord

Do you still feel the nails
Every time I fail
Have I crucified you Jesus with my sins
Oh I’m tired of playing games
I really want to change
I never want to hurt you again

Holy, Holy
Holy is the Lord
Holy, Holy
Holy is the Lord

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P.S. A few days ago I asked that my readers to submit stories to help me with upcoming blog series that I have planned. So far, I have not received any stories (although I do have a couple of people who said they are planning to write some for me). I would really like to feature your stories for these projects! Can you help? See here for more information. Thanks!