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The Hardest Six Hours
“THE HARDEST SIX HOURS”
What are the hardest six hours you have ever experienced? Take a few minutes and think about that question?
Perhaps they were those hours before a surgery you were going to have, the one when a routine visit to the doctor sent you to a hospital for immediate surgery you did not expect.
Perhaps it was the first day of high school, the day when nothing went right. You missed the bus and were late to school. The locker combination didn’t work properly and you got lost looking for your classes.
Perhaps it was that flight for which you had to be at the airport at 3:00 am. You sat near a fussy, crying baby for the long flight. Your flight was diverted to another airport because of bad weather and your luggage did not arrive when you did.
Perhaps it was waiting for your first child to be born. You paced the hospital halls with your spouse hoping that the walking would help begin the labor.
Perhaps it was that two- hour drive to your friend’s wedding, the one where you got started late, and then sat in traffic for hours on I -65 after multiple wrecks on the interstate.
Perhaps it was those terrible hours in the hospital as you sat by the bedside as your loved one’s life slipped away.
No matter how tough it was and how much you hated it, nothing can match the last six hours of the life of Jesus Christ. “Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.” (Mark 15:25) “And at the ninth hour…. Jesus called out with a loud voice and breathed His last.” (Mark 15:34-37)
Jesus suffered for six hours on the cross. He was scourged, mocked, spat upon, stripped, crowned, and burdened with His own cross before the six hours even started. Then, He was nailed to the cross to be tortured for six hours before He died.
Those six hours were for you and for me!
Written by Larry Schneider
