I came back to it today, wanting to finish my "Easter post". Due to the time difference from when I originally wrote it until now, I thought some of it might have to be adjusted. I only changed a couple tenses, so I'm sorry if it reads a little out of whack. And then I added more today. Not that this is really important to most of you. :) I just wanted to apologize if my thoughts seem all over the place...or moreso than usual.
From last week
For me, it's always been easier to relate to
historical events, to really grasp them and appreciate them, when I can think,
"So many years ago today this or that happened." (Perhaps
that's why half of history class is all about the dates of events?) History can
begin to feel like any other story if we're just told, "This
happened."
I always love watching Preacher craft a timeline.
It helps to put things into perspective, even if it isn't to scale (because it
never is). And you know what happened this week, 2,000+ years ago.
Christ's last week on earth. For the time being.
He'd had His last supper. He'd prayed in the
garden. He'd been taken prisoner, tried and declared guilty, beaten and mocked.
And then He headed for a death on a cross, to be executed. Not for Himself, the
perfect God Incarnate, but for the very creation that scorned and hated and
spit on Him; we who reject and deny and curse His name.
Crucifixion
was one of the worst and most disgraceful forms of execution. And Christ
submitted Himself to it for us.
In my last post (or the one before that) I
mentioned a recent Sunday morning sermon. The text was Mark 9:1-9, Matt 17:1-9,
and Luke 9:27. (Yes, the account of the Mount of Transfiguration.) The subject:
the glory of Christ's cross.
Glory (dictionary.com):
2. Something that is a source of
honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride.
4. Resplendent beauty or
magnificence.
No one before the cross saw it as in any way
glorious. They didn't get it (Matt. 16:21, Mark 8:31). Those who followed
Christ believed His glory would be in conquering Rome and ruling as King. Only
a few days before, they were singing in the streets, looking for God to save
them. But today we call the day of His death "good". It certainly
wasn't good for Him. The mockery, the abjection, and ultimately the giving of
His life after hours hanging in agony on a tree. But it represents hope and
grace and love poured out for us.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Christ prays and
then talks with Moses and Elijah. They don't discuss His victory and reign.
They discuss His approaching death.
They discuss "his decease which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31)
Accomplish.
The word connotes, at least nowadays, the
achievement of something good, praiseworthy, and proud. People boast about
winning a race, completing college, or getting their driver's license. Who
considers brutal execution while being publicly humiliated to be their greatest
achievement? Not only that, but it is human nature to try to maintain life for
as long as possible.
Accomplish:
1. To bring to its goal or
conclusion; to carry out; perform; finish.
When Christ declared "It is finished"
and surrendered Himself to death, Satan saw it as his greatest
accomplishment. He'd killed God! He'd prevented God from saving the world. The
human race had rejected Him, tortured Him, and killed Him.
The angels didn't understand it. Why was the
Creator doing this for people who didn't even care? Why didn't He call them to
lift Him from that cross and wipe out His wicked creation?
Christ's disciples, His earthly family, those who
followed Him and looked to Him as their Messiah, didn't get it. Why did it end
this way? How could it? Where was their kingdom, their glory, with Him on the
throne? When they saw Him raised on that cross, I believe their hearts were
sinking. The weight of their sorrow, their hopelessness, made it difficult to
breathe. They felt lost when the body of their Savior was laid in a tomb. What
now?
The Devil certainly didn't get it. I wonder if he
thought it was too easy? If it even crossed his mind.
Three days later, he had to be saying that.
Christ didn't just die. That's only the beginning
of the story. No rock in front of a borrowed tomb could hold Him; no soldiers
could stop Him; death couldn't keep Him. He claimed the keys of Death itself.
His life was the ransom, His perfect blood the great price none of us could
ever achieve.
That's the glory of the cross. That's the great
accomplishment of God, even though people still can't understand. That's love,
the likes of which no temporal thing in this finite world could ever hope to
mimic. The Devil tries, but all his copies are like the crayon scribblings of
an infant compared to the Mona Lisa. Not only crude and short of any kind of
imitation, but also worthless.
A couple thousand years ago, as they watched
their king, their Messiah, their friend, the Son of God, struggle under the
weight of the ugly wooden cross, torn and bleeding and scorned on all sides,
they didn't understand. Their hope seemed to die with Jesus, and then it was
buried in a cold, sunless tomb. They didn't see the whole picture.
We have the whole picture. We see the pain and
the hatred and the blood, we see the tomb and darkness. But we also see the
victory! That's the glory of the cross! That's what we claim, what we hope in. “It
is finished” is our victory cry.
Today
I’m subbing the teaching part of our Wednesday
night class tomorrow. Dad gave me the verse a couple weeks ago so I could
prepare. (He tends to fly by the seat of his pants when he teaches, which works
for him, but I like notes.) I’ve slowly been adding thoughts and comparison
verses to it since then. I don’t know how I’ll get to hit on all the points
during class, but I wanted to share the gist of it here.
The verse is John 15:13, a supporting verse for
Romans 5:1, which the kids memorized while working on the Romans Road a while
ago.
Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. –
Romans 5:1
Greater love
hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:13
Whenever Dad starts to work with the
kids on memorizing a verse, he has them point out words they don’t know. Then
he breaks down the verse so they understand the meaning of what they’re
memorizing, not just the words.
I’m sure the kids will understand what
all of those words mean, but I went through the dictionary and got definitions
anyway. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to determine which form of “that”
is being used? There are a good dozen or more forms listed in the dictionary.)
While I was working on that, a few words/phrases stuck out to me; namely, “lay
down”.
What’s cool is that Pastor’s sermon
Easter Sunday tied in with this really well and gave me some extra material. I
love it when that happens.
To lay down one’s life is a sacrifice,
usually for the sake of a loved one.
Peter
said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for
thy sake. - John 13:37
Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. - I John 3:16
Christ wasn’t forced onto that cross. He
wasn’t beaten into such a state that he couldn’t resist. He didn’t “surrender
his life” or “give up his life” as if there had been a struggle and He was
finally relinquishing control. He laid it
down. No fight; no resistance.
Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my
Father. - John 10:17&18
Usually the king’s life is more
important than anyone else’s. People give their lives for the king, promise to
protect the king with their lives, pay any ransom for the king. But this King
gave His own life for our ransom, and we didn’t even care about Him. The glory of the cross is that the King of creation laid down His life for the sake of people who didn't even acknowledge Who He was, who were so lost in their sinful darkness that they couldn't understand this Light that burst in. He reached down and paved a path out of the darkness, the stones His love and the mortar His blood; a road that starts at the foot of His cross. Our cross.
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