That ...
...Christ should come from the eternal presence of his
Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the
flesh, the Creator made into a creature; that he who was clothed with inapproachable
light should be wrapped with rags of flesh; that he who filled heaven and earth
with his glory should be cradled in a manger - an animal feed bin; that the one
with the power of almighty God should flee from the weak man Herod, that the
God of Israel should have to run away back into Egypt; that the God of the law –
the very one who wrote it - should be
subject to the law; that the God who prescribed circumcision was to be
circumcised on the eighth day after he was born; that the God that crafted the
heavens was to be found working at Joseph’s homely trade; that he who binds the
devil in chains should be tempted by that same devil; that he, who owns the
whole world and all its bountiful produce, that he should hunger and thirst; that
he who owns the cattle on a thousand hills had to borrow a coin to make a
sermon illustration, that the God of strength should become weary and sleep in
the boat; that the Judge of all flesh should be condemned to public execution;
that the God of life be put to death; that he who has always been one with his
Father should cry out in misery, ‘My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?’;
that he who has the keys of hell and death in his hand should lie imprisoned in
the grave of a man, that he who prepares a room for us in his father's house of
many dwelling places should have in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head; that he
before whom the angels and elders will gladly cast down their crowns, should be
crowned with spiteful mocking thorns; that his gentle piercing eyes, which have
seen all things be closed in death; that his ears, which will hear the
hallelujahs of saints and angels for eternity, which heard the breaking of the
first wave and the song of the first bird,
that those very ears had to hear the blasphemies and hatred of the
multitude; that his face, which is fairer than the sons of men, was spat on by
the fickle crowd; that his mouth and tongue, which spoke such truths and tender
love, which said 'talitha koum' to a dead little girl and brought her back, the
same mouth which said "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and
I will give you rest." and the countless other life changing things
besides which he said, that his same mouth was accused of uttering blasphemy;
that those calloused strong hands, hands that blessed and healed and held
rightfully the sceptre of heaven were nailed to the cross; that those feet,
'like unto fine brass,’ feet that walked for miles to reach one lost person,
were peirced through with heavy roman nails; that each of his senses were
ravaged until the point of agony: his sense of touch wracked with a fists,
thorns, the whip, rough wood, nails and the spear; his sense of smell drowning
with the stench of rot on Golgotha; his sense of taste soured with vinegar and
gall; his sense of hearing deafened with insults and taunts, and his sense of
sight filled with scornful faces and raised fists and there too the sadness of
his mother and the scared faithless disciples already mourning him; that his
soul and body, comfortless and forsaken on every level - broken for you and me,
might now be ... ignored? might now be doubted? mitigated? re-imagined?
rendered unnecessary? lumped in with other religious 'truths'? added to? called
insufficient or ineffectual or not enduring?
That ...
...He went through all of this for you - and that Satan or
your own selfish flesh or the darkening world then tries to teach you that sin
is not that bad, that you can still have a little peccadillo here and there in
your life, that Christ's blood was either so generously spent that you can
still live it up in this life without consequence or the devil tries to shame
you into believing that Christ's blood was not enough to cover all your sins.
Either you are shown by that cunning snake and father of lies that you can go
on sinning and purposefully living a self absorbed life or that your sins are
too much and there is no forgiveness for you. Either sin all you want, you are
fine, or you have sinned too much and you must despair.
But what does the Word of God say?
That…
...you must instead determine to trust you are forgiven by the
one who went through all of this suffering and then determine to sin no more as
he taught during in his ministry.
That…
As the author of Hebrews (12:1-3) put it:
…we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.
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