RIDING INTO DEATH
The crowds pressed in upon Him. The little donkey, never before ridden, plodded obediently along in submission to the King of Kings. His heart swelled with grief as every “Hosanna” brought Him one step nearer to the Cross. In days, he knew, the crowds would betray Him to the Evil One. The full wrath of His Father would come sweeping down upon Him, for you and for me, for our sins. Yet He set His face toward Jerusalem.
Why? Because He saw beyond the Cross, the spittle, the nails, the agony, the tomb, to me and you, His beautiful Bride. He would give it all, even His life’s blood, to redeem us unto Himself, to make us forever His. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. “What wondrous love is this, O My Soul!”
GIVE ME JESUS
Joseph of Arimathea summoned up the courage to seek an audience with Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. He behaved prudently, so that his request would be granted. He didn’t use arrogant language that would only have enfuriated Pilate, who would then have denied his petition. Joseph didn’t say to him: “Give me the body of Jesus, who has just caused the sun to be obscured, split rocks asunder, made the earth quake, opened Joseph of Arimathea summoned up the courage to seek an audience with Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. He behaved prudently, so that his request would be granted. He didn’t use arrogant language that would only have infuriated Pilate, who would then have denied his petition. Joseph didn’t say to him: “Give me the body of Jesus, who has just caused the sun to be obscured, split rocks asunder, made the earth quake, opened tombs,, and tore the veil of the Temple in two.” He said nothing of the sort to Pilate. What, then, did he say? His petition was humble and utterly meek:
“O Judge, I have come to you with a very small petition. Give me the dead man to bury, the body of the one you condemned, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the pauper, Jesus who was homeless, Jesus who was hung on a cross, naked, worthless, Jesus the son of a carpenter, who had no roof over his head, a stranger unknown and despised and hung on a cross for everyone to see.
“Give me this stranger. What good is his body to you? Give me this stranger; he came here from far away into our world to save us strangers. Give me this stranger whose homeland we strangers do not know. Give me this stranger whose father we strangers do not know. Give me this stranger who lived as a foreigner in a foreign land. Give me this stranger from Nazareth who had nowhere to lay his head. Give me this stranger who, like a homeless stranger at an inn, was laid in a manger. Give me this stranger who had to flee from that manger away from Herod. Give me this stranger who, while still in swaddling clothes, lived as a foreigner in Egypt without city or town or home or family.
“Give me, O ruler, this one who was naked on the cross, so that I may cover him who covered the nakedness of my nature. Give me this one who is at once both dead and God, so that I may bury him who buried my sin in the Jordan. I beg you, give me this one who was wronged by everyone, sold by a friend, denied by a disciple, harassed by his relations, slapped by a slave. I ask for this dead man who was condemned by those he freed from slavery, who was wounded by those he cured, deserted by his disciples, separated from his mother. O ruler, I implore you to give me this dead man who was hung upon a cross, homeless and bereft, with no father on earth, no friend, no disciple, no relative, no one to bury him. Yet he is the Only-Begotten of the only God; he is God in the world—he and no other.”
Epiphanius, Greek Bishop, 4th. Century AD
BEYOND BUNNIES AND BONNETS
Easter morning. Tucked in between my mother and father on the church pew, shivering a bit from the walk through the spring rain, I’m drawn into the swell of the organ music, the joyous fervor of the singers around me. A feeling I can’t quite explain transcends my childish delight in my new plush bunny, the chocolate eggs waiting in my Easter basket. my frilly pink dress. A few of the song lyrics catch my ear. “Who died eternal life to bring, and lives that Death may die”. How can Death die, I wonder.
The stripped down answer lies in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the Resurrection of the Body. Really? These are startling words in our post Christian times. Here is bedrock faith, not just a vague hope of some ethereal existence, but a physical resurrection, a transformation, an equipping for Eternity. After all, how would our bodies cope with Heaven?
Our modern day fascination with the care and feeding of our bodies is rampant. Just count the fitness centers in your town. We worship at the altars of physical beauty and health, yet we view our bodies as impermanent and without intrinsic value. We are urged to drench our bodies in pleasure while we can; life is short and “If that’s all there is,” as the song goes, let’s go for it. The body is only “Dust in the Wind”. Or is it?
Scripture pushes back. Six hundred years before Jesus burst out of the tomb on Resurrection dawn, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “But your dead will live, their bodies will rise, You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead”. Here is the death of Death.
Later Paul the Apostle added this: ” …the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” No longer captured in space/time, no longer subject to death and decay, we will live in His Presence, never to die again. No wonder we rejoice with “joy unspeakable and full of Glory”.
GRIEF-BEARER
The work of the Cross is endlessly faceted. “It is finished,” Jesus proclaimed as He released His spirit to the Father. The work was done. He bore our sins in His own body on that Cross, but he bore something else…our griefs and sorrows. Isn’t that astounding? Isaiah tells us this through the Holy Spirit, 600 years before the Cross.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: (Isaiah 53:4)
Life is full of grief and loss. What eats at your heart at 3:00 in the morning? What old memory attacks you in the middle of the night, burying you in regret for what can never be changed? What unjust betrayal, possibly from years ago, stabs you over and over again? Did Jesus really bear our griefs and sorrows as well as our sins? Is this too good to be true?
If it is true, then He is able to lift you above the hurt, the loss. He can heal. He can restore hope that better days are coming, for in Jesus, it all ends well. Really well! We can release the pain to Him, our grief-bearer. Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That is His promise to us, His children.
HOSANNA
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. (Zech. 9:9,10)
Hosanna, they cried. Save us now. A cry for deliverance from the Roman oppressors. So just as Zechariah’s prophecy foretold, our Lord rode into Death that day, knowing the horrors to come. But on He came, riding on a donkey, as kings rode in peace. Someday, His work of redemption completed, He will ride into Jerusalem on a horse, to destroy every enemy of His Father. But not on this day. On this day He came to make peace through the blood of His Cross.
And He cried for them. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. “(Luke 13:34-35)
That day is coming! But we who have fallen in love with our Messiah can say that He is indeed our Deliverer, our Salvation, our Reigning King. And together, on this Palm Sunday, we lift our voices in highest praise to the One who gave Himself for us.
GOD’S ANSWER TO EVIL
“When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.”
Thank you, Isaac Watts, for these words that reach across 300 years of time to reach us as we struggle to grasp the enormity of the sacrifice of Christ. Think of it. God Himself, absorbing for all time the evil in the world, the evil in us. He was rejected by His Father that we might be accepted. He was torn that we might be healed. He was made sin for us that we might be made righteous. He became a curse for us that we might receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit. He died that we might live. What can we say to this kind of love?
“Were the whole realm of Nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!”
A PERFECT WORK
Certain well known theologians are gaining popularity by preaching a skewed view of the Cross of Christ. Don’t fall for it. The Cross is not just a metaphor for human suffering. It is a space/time event. It is a visceral, literal blood and guts tearing, ripping open of the flesh and blood body of Jesus, the Man who is God. It reveals to us the full extent of the Love of God. This ultimate sacrifice, the Life of the Son of God Himself, is the only solution to the dark night in our souls. Nothing else is enough to rescue us back from the hand of our enemy.
This perfect sacrifice, the sinless One, His life blood poured out on Calvary, was eternally sufficient to cover the heinous extent of our rebellion. There on that Cross we died with Him, and then rose with Him to a new life, the life God intended for us, life with Him forever. It is finished.
Thank you, Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, for these lyrics:
“In Christ alone!- who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe! This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save: Till on the Cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, for every sin on Him was laid; here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain: Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me, For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.”
We can’t really improve on the Apostle Paul’s words in Galatians Chapter 6. “May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” God forbid – may it never be.
WHO WILL BUY?
Walking through the chill spring morning, I look up at the bluest of skies. It couldn’t be bluer. I marvel at its depth, its infinity. And I remember a song that I love:
Who will buy this wonderful morning?
Such a sky you never did see
Who will tie it up with a ribbon
And put it in a box for me?
Who will buy this wonderful feeling?
I’m so high I swear I could fly
Me, oh my! I don’t want to lose it
So what am I to do
To keep the sky so blue?
There must be someone who will buy…
And then I think of my Lord Jesus, who spoke the worlds into being, earth and sea and sky. I remember that He has given me all things bright and beautiful, “all things that pertain to life and godliness”. We can read about it in 2 Peter 1:3. He is the only One who could pay the price of that sky. How did He buy all of this for me?
It’s all about the Cross. Yes, I was there when they crucified my Lord. I died in Him and rose to the newness of life in Him on Resurrection morning. And because of Him, all things are mine. “…the world, life, death, the present, the future”. (1 Cor. 3:21) Jesus bought that blue sky for me, and so much more, with His precious lifeblood. It is mine, along with righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Here is Love, vast as the ocean, deeper than the bluest sky.
HEAD OVER HEELS
I was struck by the lyrics of one of Wynonna Judd’s C/W songs that I heard for the first time today. “She is His Only Need” – just a simple story of two young kids in a small Arizona town who fell in love for life. This boy spent his life living for this girl. As I listened, I couldn’t help but think about the lack of commitment in so many marriages today and how easily it is to walk in and out of relationships. People like to talk about the magic of falling in love. I think some have forgotten that the only “magic” is in commitment, covenant love that won’t let go. They have no idea what they are missing. It’s heartbreaking.
Going overboard in love. Giving everything to another, unconditionally. That is what Jesus did for us. No one else can, or does, love us like Jesus does. How much does He love us? “This much,” He said, and then he stretched out his arms and let them nail Him to the Cross. Can you imagine that we are worth that much to Him? He, who owned all of Creation, longed for us. In fact, He endured the Cross for the joy that was set before Him, His beautiful Bride. He could have called the angels of Heaven to destroy the world and set Him free, but he poured out His life; He gave it freely. Why? He could see you and me, His Bride, on the other side of Death.
“On the mount of Crucifixion, fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love like mighty rivers flowed incessant from above,
And heaven’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in Love. Here is Love!”
(William Rees)
On our best days, on our worst days, He loves us. We can live in that love. When we blow it, or when we stay in control, He loves us. No strings attached. He is head over heels, crazy about us! Like the boy in the song, He went overboard for us. He will withhold nothing from us; all He has is ours. He cannot wait to bring us home to His Father’s house for the Wedding of the Ages. And we can walk in that love, every day of our lives.
0 Comments