Across the Chasm

You've seen those action pictures where people are running across rooftops trying to either get away from someone, or to catch someone? Invariably there is a leap from one building to another that stretches credulity. If there's two people doing it together, they may look at each other and say: "you ready? Let's go!" and then they run, yelling at the top of their lungs, and ...

well, you know how it goes. Good guys make it across. :)



But it's not the leap that strikes me ... it's the yell.

People do that, when they physically give all they've got. They yell. Whether it's a novice skydiver, a weightlifter in the olympics, or a woman in childbirth. They yell. It helps.



Two of Jesus' "seven words from the cross" were yells. One was a cry of anguish and separation. "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" That one we think of as a yell.

The other one we don't tend to think of that way, but a yell it was. Here's the account from Luke 23:

By this time it was noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.

He's actually quoting from Psalm 31, but there's no doubt it was a very loud quote - a shout, a yell.

Friday night I had a chance to take part in a church service and read the "seven last words", while others commented. This last time I shouted Jesus' words, because the commentator on this one had it right. Jesus did not go out with a whimper, but a shout. Not a whisper but a yell. Why?

I think he was making that last run at the edge, readying himself to jump across the chasm called death. He knew he'd make it, because he knew whose arms were waiting on the other side to catch him: his Father's. But he still had to make the leap. So he roars that full-throated cry that men do, when they're giving it all for a purpose, and then he jumps...



and you know how it goes. The good guy made it. :)

Thank God!



Soon enough the chasm is ours to cross. And he waits to catch us.