Wait, He did ALL of that for US? Yep.

IT'S HOLY WEEK 2013. OH YES.

So as you might know, my roommate and I are the Youth Ministers for the 6th graders at St. John's parish in Lawrence, KS, and last night we did a super cool activity with our kiddos.

We went through the stations of the cross, from Jesus's point of view — all the torture, all the sorrow, all the emotions, all the details. After every station we had them write down on a sticky note how Jesus must have felt, or what was going through his head. Their understanding of it was so much deeper than I ever thought it would be. Some of their answers to what was going through Jesus's mind absolutely blew me away: "Why me, Father?" ... "I want to give up, but I must press on." ... "I'm trying to make others feel good, Lord, but I can't." ... "I'm done trying." ... "Embarrassed." ... "What did I do to deserve this?"... "Abandoned."

Then we read them the Easter Gospel of the women returning to the tomb to find that Jesus was not there because he had risen from the dead. They wrote down how they would have felt if they were one of the women. Again, their answers were excellent: "God, how can this be?" ... "Joy and happiness." ... "In awe of the sight." ... "Confused but joyful."

When we looked at the two poster boards, one was flooded with sticky notes — everything Jesus went through for us — and the other had just a few — our joy and happiness.

This is just a simple representation of how much Christ endured, so that we wouldn't have to. He took on the burden of the cross — all of our sins — and he went through embarrassment, betrayal, torture, ridicule, sheer pain, and the ultimate sacrifice, death. He did all of that so that we wouldn't have to. Yes, every once in a while we have to go through some of these things, and take part in the suffering of Christ, but we never have to go through the agony of what Jesus went through for us.

That is love.

So this Holy Week, go through the stations and really dive into the beauty of what Christ did for YOU. He was thinking of you when he picked up that cross. He was thinking of you when he had the strength to get up from his falls. He was thinking of you as the centurions pounded nails through his palms. And he was thinking of you as he bowed his head and died on that wooden cross.