Passion Week will be hear before we can speak. Reflections on the Redemptive act of our Lord and Savior fill the hearts and minds of brothers and sisters. It is during his time that we recognize the Suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Resurrection Power. There is a statement that Pontius Pilate says when trying to dissuade the crowds from seeking Christ's crucifixion, He says, "So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!." (John 19:5). For us beleivers this has a profound impact, God became a Man (John 1:1-15, Hebrews 1) and like all humans he had a body, pain, sorrow, emotions, and senses. He had created all of these sensations of soul of course (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16) but in the time of Cesar Augustus and Tiberias Cesar, Our God experienced those sensations and feelings in a body, His creation's flesh. Think about that, God made flesh, skin, bone, marrow, muscle, sinew, joint, and more, but it was in Roman Occupied Judea that He took on this flesh, skin, bone, marrow, and joined mankind in suffering. Our Lord Jesus who is God felt every temptation to man, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted," (Hebrews 2:18), and "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin." (Hebrews 4;15). There was nothing we feel or that drives our anxieties, and painful memories that did not also touch the Alpha and Omega. In fact, Gethsename gives us a glimpse that God as a Man felt the extent of the fear we humans hold dear, the fear of death, "He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood," (Luke 22:44), "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will," (Mark 14:36), and "What we do see is Jesus, who was given a position "a little lower than the angels"; and because he suffered death for us, he is now "crowned with glory and honor." Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9).
Jesus' was not the tame and mellow fellow of the latest cinema. He had strong emotions, being God and feeling the horrors of fallen man around Him, He often spoke out, chastised, and rebuked (see all of Matthew 23, Woe to Pharisees). He also had compassion on people, seeing their infirmities and struggles, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36). His body was subject to same struggles we have, for He tired (John 4:6), He got thirsty (John 4:7) and grew weary of company (Luke 5:16), often going to mountains or hiding palces to consult His Father in Heaven (John 17:1-23). He needed to eat like everyone else (Mark 11:12), and all the normal functions of human body were part of his life. It is even believed that Jesus experienced many maladies, the Prophet Isaiah fortells he would not be striking like Ryan Grosling or Brad Pitt, "He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him," (Isaiah 53:2). People were not attracted to Jesus by His appearance, but by His words, "The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority--quite unlike the teachers of religious law," (Mark 1:22), and "The Jews there were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having been taught?," (John 7:15). Some brothers in Christ believe Jesus even had an elongated leg with a limp, thus fulfilling, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him," (Isaiah 53:3 HSCB), "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth," (Isaiah 53:7), "Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand," (Isaiah 53:10), Though Jesus is God he did not during His first Coming consider Himself equal to His Father, "Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to or use to his advantage, Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:6-8 NLT+NHEB). There was no pride, deceit, or cruelty in Christ Jesus, just the Divine God Head in a human body (1 John 4:1-3). An event that never has happened before or since, a phenomenon that should put us to tears, God humbled himself and became like us, humble, weak, and meek, and He carried our sins and transgressions (Isaiah 53:2-11).
Before Christ carried our sins and crucified them in his body on the cross, He was recognized by his contemporary, John the Baptist, "The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Jesus being God and Man chose to become the Sacrificial Lamb for our sins. In the Law of Moses, a Lamb or sheep were used as blood sacrifice for the sins of man. However, this sacrifice was incomplete, it could not cover sins for all time, but Jesus being God and eternal and infinite, and out of time but in time, could then be Lamb that would cover all sins for all time (Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 9:28). The process of our redemption and salvation was severe, Christ was beaten and flogged (whipped) with iron tipped whips known as Cat of Nine Tails, which really contained glass shards, iron spikes, and knotted cords that bruise (John 19:1, Matthew 20:19, Mark 15:15). Jesus suffered as they flogged him forty times, the whole process nearly killing in from punctures in internal areas, and loss of blood. But Jesus though his body was crumbling, made it to the cross, for Jesus fortold this is how He would die and echoing the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and King David, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life," (John 3:14-15), and "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die." (John 12:32-33). In addition to the flogging (flagellation), Jesus was spit on, slapped, and mocked verbally (Luke 26:67), He had a crown of thorns beaten into his head (John 19:2), He had to carry at 200lbs cross beam (John 19:17), He was subjected to an unjust trial, and finally crucified (John 19:23). Divine Jesus (Colossians 2:9, Titus 2:14) knew His mission, his body subjected to severe pain, God experienced the physical anguish of torture, and excruciating death, and for this He is able to intercede for all Christians right now at hands of torturers and cruel men in the middle east. In His body Christ carried our sins, an experience that made Him quote King David, "About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?")," (Matthew 27:46, cross ref to Philippians 2:6, Jesus is God so is Father and Holy Spirit). Jesus experienced for all of Christians who believe in Him, hell, total separation from God, so that we who believe shall never experience it. He tasted Hell.
Finally, there was a Plan, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11). This was fulfilled by Jesus Christ in His death and Resurrection, giving at last a future with God and hope of salvation (1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:13). No longer do we have to prove our worth and try to merit favor with God, for God has achieved the Merit before God on our behalf, and so we are now in the plan of God, called Grace and Faith (Romans 3:2, Romans 5:1 and Ephesians 2:8-9). It was for this reason Jesus came into the world, and why He died. He was innocent though condemned, healed but harmed, saved but forsaken, and divine though despise (Isaiah 53, Colossians 2:9). Thanks be to God who is Jesus Christ One with Father and Holy Spirit, whose plan of salvation was executed and now let all accept Him through faith and receive His gracious gift of Salvation through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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