From Grief To Relief

A Reflection on the Second Reading for July 28th, 2019:
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

​Colossians 2.12-14

Brothers and sisters, When you were buried with Christ in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the Cross.

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“He set this aside, nailing it to the Cross.” How simple the idea sounds — to set something aside. The weight of my sin, the burden of my trespasses, are so great that I couldn’t set them aside on my own. I am utterly crushed by the record of my sins and yet Christ can just set them aside, brush them off. God is so merciful that He can simply forget all of our sins. But God is also just. He does not only set my sins aside, He nails them to the Cross. Justice is served on the Cross alongside Mercy.

"Justice is served on the Cross alongside Mercy."

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The thing that sounds so simple — the setting aside — is so easy for me and yet comes at such a cost to Christ. What is nailed on the Cross isn’t just my sins, but Christ. As though the weight of crucifixion alone isn’t enough, He takes upon Himself the weight of my sin, of my death.


Earlier this month was the 4th anniversary of my mother’s passing into Heaven. My gratitude for my own salvation doesn’t come close to my gratitude for hers. She had a taste of the bitter froth of the cup of eternal death through her battle with cancer. When she passed, she left behind her the pain and suffering. I can trust and rejoice that because she totally surrendered her life to Christ, she only had to taste the froth, and not drink deeply of the cup that Christ drank in her place. So, while my mother may have passed out of our earthly view, I know in faith that she woke up on the other side of that empty grave, free of her cross.


On that Cross rests so much grief and pain, but on that Cross rests also salvation, joy, and relief. Our God is a God who will suffer for us and alongside us. Our God is a God who is just and merciful all at once. Mercy and justice come hand in hand at the foot of that Cross. Hope awaits at the empty tomb. ​
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Stephanie Potter

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