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Dear Friends:
During this Lenten season, we spend some time contemplating the life and ministry of Jesus. As we review the gospel accounts, we realize that Jesus came to do a lot of things:
He healed the sick, made the lame walk, and gave sight back to the blind.
He fed thousands with a few loaves and fishes.
H e calmed stormy waters.
He taught about what God’s real expectations are of us as humans.
He gave us glimpses into the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven.
He cast out demons.
He condemned those who had twisted the image of God into a set of rules to be followed.
He showed us how to love the unlovable and forgive the seemingly unforgivable.
He taught us how to relate to God as our loving heavenly Father.
All of Jesus’ actions and teachings were important, to be sure. They have helped us to understand God in a way that we never could have understood without having the living Word walking among men, conversing with them, and sharing their lives.
But none of these things holds a candle to the central purpose for which Jesus came: He came to die. That’s it. His whole life was about dying. How do we know this?
- The gospels record seven times in which Jesus said to his followers, “My time has not yet come” or words with a similar message. He lived his life to the full, but was always pointing toward his “time” or his “hour”.
- As his earthly ministry began to draw to a close, Jesus told his disciples on numerous occasions that he would be betrayed, would be tried, would die, and would rise again.
- He even told them that when they celebrated the Passover feast in the future, it would be a remembrance of his death.
- Finally, we will recall his praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and saying to his sleepy disciples, “Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” (Matthew 26:45b). It was for this very hour that he had come to earth.
It is obvious by his teaching that the cross did not surprise Jesus. He freely gave his life. Although there is human responsibility for his death, he never would have died if he had not been a willing sacrifice. He could have called angelic armies to strike dead those who were judging him or crucifying him and he could have been safely whisked away to Heaven turning his back forever on fallen humanity.
But the cross was a choice that God the Father and God the Son made together before the earth was created. They placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden knowing that they would be tempted by the evil one and would rebel against their Creator. That rebellion did not take God by surprise, either, and that is why the plan to redeem mankind was already in place before the creation. Octavius Winslow, a 19 th century writer, sums it up this way,
“Who delivered Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy’ – but the Father, for love!”
In Jesus’ last moments on the cross, we find this incredible statement by the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” (Matthew 17:42). John R. W. Stott wisely understood the significance of this first century taunt when he commented that those who mocked were speaking the truth. “Jesus could not save himself and others simultaneously. He chose to sacrifice himself in order to save the world.”*
We will never understand all that happened on that Good Friday two millennia ago, but as Jesus’ followers we would do well to ponder the cross, the willingness with which Jesus endured the spiritual and physical suffering, and the resulting bridge that the cross created between us and our Father in Heaven.
Because of Jesus’ willing sacrifice,
- we have been released from being slaves to sin (redemption),
- we are seen by God through the righteousness of Christ (justification), and
- the way has been opened for us to have a personal relationship with the triune God as well as with our brothers and sisters in God’s redeemed family (reconciliation).
Even if we don’t totally comprehend the theological implications of the cross, we know that Jesus’ willing suffering and sacrifice was for our eternal good and we are overwhelmed with gratefulness.
The glory of Easter, of course, is that God accepted the payment that Jesus made for our sins and put his holy stamp of approval on the death that Jesus died by raising him from the grave and, after 40 days, taking him back to Heaven where he is now, in a human body, seated right next to God the Father. He is forever our bridge to God, our mediator, our Way, Truth, and Life. Thanksgiving flows from our hearts as we contemplate this great eternal gift from the great eternal Giver of gifts!
Blessings on you this Lenten season!
Bev
*This quote is taken from a book by John R. W. Stott entitled The Cross of Christ. For those of you who want to dig in and learn more about the theology and sheer wonder of the cross, I would highly recommend this study.
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