Meditations on the Cross

Below are some Meditations some Biblical Reflections and some Poems to help you reflect on the Easter story. 

Meditations:

  • Easter Meditation

Come with me to a garden….. Smell the grass, still wet with dew……. It's early morning; in the grey light before sunrise you can just see the way ahead……. There is a dawn chorus of birdsong in the trees…..

It's going to be a beautiful morning, the kind that inspires joy. But you don't feel joyful. Your heart is heavy. You have an awful empty feeling. The bitter memories are still fresh, having lost one so loved, so respected, worshipped.
The horror of the last few days is still vivid: the sudden violence of the arrest; the indignity of the soldiers’ mockery; the false accusations; the preposterous trial; and worst of all, almost too painful to recall, the public execution; that agonising lingering death on that shameful cross.

And so now with sadness bordering on despair, you are drawn back to the tomb in the garden; to that last link with him, as if there might be some lingering trace of his presence there.
You want to annoy his body, to bring him in death just a little dignity. Now that you are almost there the awful question ; how will you possibly be able to move the great stone that blocks the entrance to the tomb?

Now you stand before the tomb. But the stone has been moved; the entrance is open. It seems he's not even been allowed to rest in peace. Someone has interfered with his tomb. Will they have left the body alone?

Ducking down you go inside. The dark cavern strikes a chill right through you, makes you shiver. You can just make out in the dim light the rock hewn ledge where his broken body was laid to rest. But the body is no longer there. This is the final indignity; the body moved only two days after burial.
It really is too much. Through the grief, you become aware of someone behind you.
You turn, brushing your tears away, embarrassed, confused, not daring to look up.

“Where have they taken the body?” you ask.

 The stranger speaks, the sound is startling, disturbing. You tremble with wonder. It's a voice you thought you'd never hear again, speaking your name……..

 “Lord is it you?”

The face comes into focus. He is here. He is risen. He speaks to you now in the early morning silence. Listen carefully to what he has to say to you……..

Suddenly life is new; life is sweet. The Lord is risen. There's a feeling of urgency to make it known; to share the joy. Behind you, in the shadows of the empty tomb, lying with this discarded grave clothes, you leave all sadness and despair, the , the fears, all that could come between you and the risen Lord.

You step out of the tomb. Sunlight is flooding the garden. You’re going to make a new beginning with him.

  • Jesus in the Garden: A video meditation from Engage Worship Perhaps watch this before having a time to be quiet in your own garden (if you are blessed with one) reflecting on Jesus' death and new life. 

Reflective Readings

  • Read Matthew 27 verses 45 – 55

Read it through once.

Read it through again noting down how the senses are used: sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell.

Imagine what it would have felt like had you been there, imagine you are one of the soldiers, one of the apostles and/or one of the women.  Write down how you would have felt. What questions would you have had? What does it says to you about Jesus?

Write a response to the reading expressing your emotions and thoughts in a drawing, painting, words, or in silence reflect what is being stirred in you from this familiar passage

End in a prayer thanking God for his son and his amazing love.

  • Read Matthew 28 verses 1-10

Read it though once

Now read it again slowly

What one word or sentence strikes you this time of reading?

Reflect what that might mean for you. Why does it leap out for you? Offer it to God and ask for his understanding.


Poems:

Below are some poems and links to Poems... perhaps read and reflect, and then write your own poem as you consider the meaning of the cross. 

  • by G.A. Studdert Kennedy 

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on a tree,
they drove great nails show hands and feet
and made a Calvary;
they crowned him with a Crown of thorns,
red where his wounds and deep,
for those were crude and cruel days and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by,
they never hurt a hair of him, they only let him die;
for men have grown more tender and they would not give him pain,
they only passed on down the street and left him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”
and still it rained the wintry rain that drenched him through and through;
and crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see
and Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary 

  • Meditation with poems based around Jesus' words on the cross:   Linked HERE
  • From Engage Worship a Good Friday Poem by Dave Hopwood