Hallelujah. Grace. Freedom.
These three words are ones that you hear “regularly” in church and your spiritual walk, but have you ever taken the moment to just unpack these words and allow your soul to really feel the depth of them? Well I took some time this past week during Passion week to really unpack these and truly experience the fullness and overwhelming power of Jesus through these words.
Hallelujah. This word is one that you may hear frequently in song, scripture, or among fellowship with others, but let’s dive deeper. The word Hallelujah is actually a combination of 2 words. In Hebrew the first half of the word comes from the verb hillel, or to praise. The second half of the word is a shortening of the Hebrew name for Lord, or Yahweh, this shortening is “jah”. The translation of this word in simple terms is “Praise the Lord”. You may be thinking, “okay simple! I praise Jesus all the time, in my car, at church, in my room.” But just take a minute and think deeper. With all the craziness going on with this current pandemic a lot of churches are from this year’s Easter service or have transitioned to worshipping online. This is a very unique opportunity to feel the presence of the Lord. My church held a drive-in worship service and at first it felt…weird. It felt strange to not shake hands or share a hug with my neighbor, it felt weird and restricting being told due to health reasons we were not allowed to get out of our cars, but the Lord revealed so much more to me in this unique experience. Everything was different than we were used to, we were all in our cars with a parking space in between us and our ministry staff had a makeshift stage on the back of a stock trailer. But none of those obstacles stopped our church from exalting Jesus. Music has always been very special to me and often times it is what the Lord uses to reveal himself to me and this worship time was so much more powerful than I could’ve imagined. There is something so incredibly powerful and overwhelming that happens when you take away the stage lights, and words on the big screens. By taking away the visual aspects and by detaching the distractions you truly allow yourself to just be overwhelmed by his presence and to be washed by grace. Being able to fully experience the Lord and praise him through songs about his faithfulness and his goodness physically brought me to tears. In that moment I truly felt the depth of Easter is a way I hadn’t felt before. He is so worthy of our praise. He physically took our place and he endured so much brutal pain and torment that we ultimately should have deserved, and our minds can not comprehend that kind of love and grace, that is why Hallelujah is the form of the highest praise. When we speak Hallelujah it is much more powerful than just a word it is acknowledging, and declaring that Jesus is the only one who we should be in awe of and He is the only one who deserves our highest and undistracted form of praise.
Grace. Grace is such a precious gift from God to us. It is the ultimate example of forgiveness. In Mark 14 Jesus sits with his disciples and has what we know as the Last Supper. After this He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and he prays. Verse 36 reveals the heart of Jesus towards the Father. He knew that what was coming. He knew he would have to endure suffering and death in order for us to be with Him. Jesus humbled himself before his Abba, father and bowed to His will. Jesus was betrayed. He was denied by one of his close disciples, he was mocked for speaking truth, he was accused of wrongdoing that he did not commit. Jesus was spotless, but yet he suffered as though he had committed a crime. In Mark 15 we see the death of Jesus. In this time period the Romans would mix wine and myrrh together in order to deaden pain, this would be closely related to what we know as a narcotic a doctor may provide. Jesus refused this mixture. He endured every ounce of pain when he did not deserve an ounce of it. His clothes were then sold, and he was crucified with the words “King of the Jews” inscribed above him. During this time the holiest of holies and the rest of the temple was separated by a veil. This veil was extremely thick. The moment Jesus breathed his loud breath this veil was torn from top to bottom. This verses in Mark 15:37-38 always makes me smile because it reminds me that is FINISHED!! What joy we can take in that! The verse is as follows “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” This means that Jesus has now made a new way for us! Doesn’t that just make your heart do flips in your chest!!
Freedom. Freedom should make us want to just jump up and down and raise our hands in excitement and praise. Jesus’s story doesn’t stop at his death where the enemy thought he had finally won the battle. In Mark 16 we see that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James went to the tomb where they placed Jesus three days prior in order to perform a proper burial for our sweet Jesus. Those ladies went to the tomb expecting death but what they found was life changing! When they went to the tomb Jesus was not there but instead an angel sat before them. The angel says to them “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you in Galilee.” This verse is so powerful! Here we see that the Lord fulfilled his promise and our sin has forever been forgiven, because of this we are changed and FREE! One thing in this verse that is so eye-opening is that the angel even commands the two women to go and get the disciples but also to get Peter. Peter was a disciple of Jesus, but he denied Jesus 3 times. So, I am almost certain that Peter felt so much guilt for denying Jesus in those past 3 days before the resurrection. Not only that but I’m sure others were questioning if Peter was even qualified to be a disciple anymore. So, it is not by accident that the ladies were told specifically to get Peter with the disciples, this proves that NOTHING we’ve ever done is enough for Jesus to not love us. If Peter denied Jesus but he still loves him just as much as the other disciples then no matter how much you believe you may have missed the mark, or how big you think your mistake is it is NEVER enough for Jesus to not extend his love out to you. No one is disqualified and cant be restored from Jesus. Jesus loves you so much more than you could imagine or comprehend, Because He Lives allow yourself to live in freedom and confidence.
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