Pre-Lent Meditations Based Around an Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ by Johann Gerhard
Consider how we are always meditating on something; we are always thinking about something or someone. What is the most beneficial thing to meditate on and think upon?
Read 1 Peter 2:24 to prepare your heart.
Next, consider all of Jesus’ life and meditate on the following questions or statements:
Who all does Christ receive suffering from?
(soldiers, those who mocked him, those who lied about him, those who abandoned him, etc.)
Consider how Christ suffered, not only for one sin, or one man’s sin, or a nation’s sin, He suffers for the sin of all mankind, from the beginning of the world to the end of the world.
Consider how Christ suffers on the cross in nearly every member of His body (head, hands, back, lungs, etc)?
How was Christ received when He preached the truth, performed miracles, practiced compassion, etc?
Consider the different places in Christ’s life where He suffered (Bethlehem, Egypt, Jerusalem, etc).
Consider how Christ suffered during His various times of life (birth, circumcision, youth, temptation by the devil, etc.)
How did Christ suffer in His soul (weighed down in Gethsemane, forsaken by the Father, etc.)?
Why did Jesus do all this? Read John 13:1 as one answer.
Consider some people in the Old Testament and how their work or person point us ultimately to the Christ (Joseph, Noah, Job, Levitical
Sacrifices, Samson, Isaac, Moses and the snake, Eve coming from Adam’s side, etc)
Read 1 Peter 2:24 again.