I have been thinking about this phrase.  It is used often enough.

You may hear a frustrated employee say it; you can hear a spouse who has just about had it repeat this common refrain.  I was at a funeral this week and one of the people who shared used the phrase “I didn’t sign up for this,” referring to the agony of watching her father labor in breathing and eventually die.  I have been thinking about what do we mean when we say, “I didn’t sign up for this”?

Sometimes we mean, “This is much harder than I thought it was going to be.”  Other times we mean, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”  Yet other times we might mean, “This was a bait and switch, and I am bitter.”

I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say that this is what I signed up for.  I don’t think I have ever said that.  So who does sign up for it?  It strikes me this Holy Week, Christ did.

He humbled himself to death on a cross.  He signed up for it, knowing it would be horrible,  knowing his beloved Father would pour out all His wrath on him.   Knowing that he would be crushed by this (Isa 53:10), Jesus signed up for it.  He said he had to come to suffer and die.

This Good Friday, I am broken and blessed that Christ signed up for even this.

Isaiah 53:10 — “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”

Kevin Barnhart attended the May 2013 Legacy Retreat® with his wife and their three children. They live in Rochester, MN, where he is Lead Pastor of Calvary Evangelical Free Church. This post was originally part of the church’s blog, which you can check out here: http://www.calvaryefc.org/blog/.