How did the word “bucket” get associated with death – as in someone just “kicked the bucket?” Out of curiosity I searched Google for the phrase, “kick the bucket,” and this is what Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue reports: 

     “One theory is that the phrase originated from the notion that people hung themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicked the bucket away. However, during the 16th century, England had an additional meaning for bucket, i.e. a beam or yoke used to hang or carry items. A bucket was the wooden frame used to hang animals up by their feet for slaughter. Naturally, they were likely to struggle to their death and hence ‘kick the bucket.’” 

     Many people have their bucket list, meaning they have certain things they want to accomplish before they die. Some want to ride a hot air balloon in Albuquerque, NM. Others want to parachute out of an airplane. But have you ever wondered if Jesus had a “bucket list?” I believe He did. In John 17:1-25 it emerges while Jesus is praying to His Father before He faces His death. Here was what I believe Jesus had on His bucket list: 

      v. 2 – “For you granted me authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.” 

     v. 4 – “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” 

     v. 6 – “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” 

     v. 7 – “Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.” 

     v. 8 – “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” 

     v. 9 – “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” 

     v. 12 – “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” 

     v. 14 – “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” 

     v. 18 – “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” 

     v. 22 – “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity.” 

     v. 25 – “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” 

     Jesus had one more item on his bucket list. He faced the tortuous death of being nailed to wooden beams, or buckets, except the buckets weren’t attached to a ceiling. The wooden beams were shaped as a cross. His last task was to rescue us from the penalty of sin by shedding His blood for us. He was the perfect sacrifice who took our place on the cross. We know this was His final item on His bucket list because He said so. “It is finished.” (John 19:30) 

     As Easter approaches, I am filled with gratitude that Jesus was obedient to complete His bucket list from His Father. I accepted Jesus’s offer of the forgiveness of my sins and entered into a love relationship with Him for eternity. He has made the same offer to you! If you simply pray to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you of all of your sins and acknowledge Him as the Son of God who died on the cross for you, you will experience being saved and enjoying eternal life with Him. 

     What has our Father put on our “bucket list?”  

     Happy Easter!! 

Blessings,                                                                                                                                                      Lee Ann