February 2026
“Learning Love at the Cross”
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 24:44-46)
February comes to us with a sense of anticipation. It is a month filled with hope as we wait for the warmth of spring, and with excitement as Valentine’s Day stirs the hearts of lovers. Yet for Christians, February also brings a deeper anticipation and a holy trembling, for it is the month that leads us into the season of Lent. It is a time that calls us to remember the road to Golgotha—the path Jesus walked in deep love and profound suffering.
Lent invites us to slow down, to listen more closely, and to walk with Jesus on the road that leads to the cross. It is not an easy journey, but it is a holy one.
In the Gospel of Luke (23:33–46), we are brought to the place called The Skull. There, Jesus is crucified between two criminals. The scene is raw and painful, stripped of sentimentality. Yet from the cross, Jesus speaks. In his final hours, he offers not silence, but words—words that reveal the depth of God’s love and the heart of who Jesus truly is.
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
These words are not carefully prepared speeches. They are spoken in suffering, breathed out in pain, and offered in love. They are holy words, and they still speak to us today.
Susan Robb, in her book Seven Words: Listening to Christ from the Cross, reminds us that the last words of Jesus are not meant only to be remembered, but to be lived. The cross is not simply something we look at from a distance—it is a place where we learn how to love, how to forgive, and how to trust God when life feels most fragile.
At the cross, we learn that love is costly. Jesus forgives even as he is being wounded. He offers hope to someone society had written off. He entrusts himself fully to the Father when everything seems lost. This is not the kind of love we see on greeting cards or advertisements in February. This is a love that stays, that suffers, and that gives itself away.
And yet, this love is not meant to overwhelm us with guilt or sorrow. It is meant to draw us closer. The Gospel of Luke tells us that even the centurion, witnessing Jesus’ death, praised God. The cross has a way of opening hearts—not because it is easy to look at, but because it reveals a love that refuses to let go.
As we prepare to enter Lent together, we will be studying Seven Words as our Lenten Bible Study. This will be an opportunity not just to learn more about Scripture, but to listen—deeply and prayerfully—to what Christ is saying to us today. What does forgiveness look like in our own lives? Where is Jesus offering hope in places we least expect it? How might God be inviting us to trust more fully?
Lent is not about having all the answers. It is about walking faithfully, one step at a time, toward the cross—and discovering there a love deeper than we imagined.
My prayer for you this season is that you may hear Jesus’ words anew—not as distant echoes from the past, but as living words spoken into your life today. May the cross teach us how to love honestly, humbly, and wholeheartedly.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jenny