(May 18, 2022) Maureen McQuillan responds to a query by her husband Robert…

Hi my darling Maureen!

This is a bit unusual… a question from me, not some concerned Christian sister or brother as is normal. But, as I know that you so often have immediate insights into troubling questions or queries, I thought I’d ask you (Hoping that someone else may have had the same thought over Easter as I had and they’ll receive a blessing too).

Okay then, here it is… as you’re only too much aware, I was hospitalised over the recent Easter week and weekend in respect to an urgently needed major operation I had and, although the op was successful, praise God, I was so very sick the next few days as I recuperated. I couldn’t eat the great hospital food, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even talk to you over the phone and you couldn’t visit me due to restrictions!

Late Good Friday night, desperately trying not be sick and ever so sleepless, I started complaining to God whom I had been declaring was my helper. Although the top-class hospital staff were so efficient and sought to comfort me, they couldn’t give me any stronger painkillers and so I was whinging to myself that I never ever again wanted to go through that operation and its unexpected aftereffects!

Suddenly my muddled mind remembered that article we had written about Jesus suffering much more discomfort that I was, or ever would ever know! You’ll remember our April Easter-centred article… That Dark Friday’s Hours.

I turned on my mobile World Watch, on which I had recently added Jerusalem time. Can you image what was now going on in my mind as I recalled the dark hours that our dear Saviour had gone through. No longer was my discomfort, my pain, troubling me as I went over what we’d written, and what we know from scripture, about our Lord’s pain and agony! I confess that I wept for some time as I thought of God’s humiliated Son suffering so much for us.

Now weeping in itself didn’t make me a better person… but I stopped whinging, thinking of me, me, me!

Then an unusual thought came my way…

My troubled weekend was Easter 2022, but Jesus’ horrifying Passover was some 2000 years ago! Yet here I am thinking not only of my current pains and discomforts but recalling much of what our Lord went through on our behalf as He made it possible for all humankind to be forgiven of sin and on confession of our shortcomings be saved for eternity.

Thought: Does Jesus spend every new  Easter weekend recalling how He’d been insulted, mocked, beaten, lashed and crucified on a cross like a thief? Does He relive those dark hours every new year?

I thought I’d ask you, darling. What do you think, Maureen?

Hi Robert

An interesting thought indeed. To be honest, the immediate response to your question that comes to me is ‘No, I wouldn’t think so.’ (A short answer indeed compared to your long but necessary explanation behind your query).

Now let me tell you why… Yes, our Saviour did suffer much brutally before His death on Calvary’s cross, but as He was dying, trusting in His heavenly Father to take care of Him, He joyously and boldly proclaimed, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30b).

To me, if Jesus would be thinking anything at what we term Easter it would be that He has overcome on our behalf.

Maureen (caring and praying for you as usual)

Robert’s response –

Wow, thank you, darling… I get it! You’re right… Jesus’ commission was achieved, finished! I’ve looked up that Greek word ‘Finished’… it’s  tel-eh’-o which indicates to end, that is, complete, conclude, discharge (a debt). No wonder the Message Bible reads, ‘It’s done . . . complete.’

Matthew Henry commented that ‘It is finished’ is a comprehensive word, and a comfortable one, ‘… we may suppose Him to say it with triumph and exultation.’

And I recalled some great preachers saying that only one word is really necessary here… ‘Finished!’ So if Jesus considered His work, His commission, was finished here on earth, I too can believe He wouldn’t be going over all those grimy details every new Easter!

Rather I like to think of our Saviour considering how He can help us finish our work, our great commission, while we’re still here on earth! Indeed,1 John 2:1 reminds Christians of Jesus’ mission today…. ‘… we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.’

Hebrews 7:24-26 are precious scriptures too in this connection of advocacy. Verse 25 reminds us that Jesus, our own high priest on high, is also our intercessor. Our Saviour completed His mission given Him by the Father. With the leading and assistance of the blessed Holy Spirit, every Christian can be about God’s business every day. May we all know and fulfill our callings… especially as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, June 5!

And, come our time when finishing our mission, our race, may our testimony be like that of Paul’s, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 4:7).

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Got a question for either Pr Maureen or Dr Robert McQuillan? Email to OnlinerConnect@gmail.com
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