When only love could make a way

You gave Your life in a beautiful exchange.

-Beautiful Exchange, Hillsong Live

I’ve just sitting here trying to pound out something on this keyboard.  I don’t know why this has gotten so hard.  And just about the moment I’m going to give up and go to bed, this song starts playing in my headphones.

…trading Your life for my offenses,

for my redemption You carried all the blame…

And it’s appropriate since we are nearing Easter, or Passover as it’s probably more appropriately called.  And my mind drifts to a place long ago where men were gathered together at the feast of Pesach, or Passover in English, and their Rabbi does the strangest thing.  He breaks the unleavened bread and tells them to take it and eat it,

This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.

The Bible says He then takes the cup and tells them,

This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

 And it would seem then at the moment, that whole thing just went right by the disciples.  Oh, remembrance of you.  New covenant.  Hmmm, yes Jesus.  That sounds nice.  Clearly they missed something because in Luke, right after this part, the next thing you know the disciples are arguing about which one of them was the greatest.

(You know, sometimes as I’m reading this sort of thing going on amongst the men who were closest to the Messiah, I’m thinking man, you guys were a bunch of dunderheads.  But I have no room to talk.  I can be a pretty big dunderhead myself most times.)

They’re sitting there (or I guess reclining there) having a meal with their Rabbi and even in the midst of a meal, He’s teaching them.  In the miraculous, He’s teaching them.  Even in the mundane, He’s teaching them.

In everything, He’s showing them how to walk in His dust.  How to follow Him.  How to live in a way that pleases the Lord and brings glory to His name.

Because that’s really it.  Doing all things to His glory.  Doing everything, all the while remembering Him…

Remembering the beautiful exchange that was made on the cross…His life for mine.

Remembering that I am restored by the grace and mercy that poured out red.

Remembering that I am whole because He was broken.

Remembering that I have life because He conquered death.

Yes, it was a beautiful exchange.  His life for mine.

And what’s even more beautiful to me is that now, I live, having exchanged my life for His.

I remember Him…because He remembered me.