Monday, December 04, 2006
Alright, we all know there is something called the cross. Jesus Christ died for our sins and He who had no sin became sin for us. And we know He did that in love. We know that He could have said no to the task, but yet He suffered for us.
That sounds common, no? But what does it really mean? I find myself praying that God, thank You for the sacrifice on the cross. But I don’t feel anything. So what does Jesus’s death on the cross means? What does He who has no sin became sin mean? How painful is that process? I shall try to (with God’s help) break all these down into simple terms that appeals to us and makes us understand what exactly is the fuss about the cross.
What we say:God’s sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ is the ultimate anthem of love
What it really means God really loves us. Imagine you are Jesus, you have the power of heaven and earth on your hands, the angels are under your command. If this is a bit hard to imagine, maybe you can imagine that you are the King of some country. Now, let’s say you are the King of England. You are captured by captors, what do you do? The normal reaction would be to show something that says you are King. I remember watching Chinese serial shows that portray Princes with this gold plate thing and when the guards come and try to create havoc or maybe he will summon his own guards to fight them in order to protect himself.
My point here is that, by all human wisdom that I can garner, a normal person would have to tried to defend himself in front of all these.
But did Jesus? Let’s see.
He was betrayed by a kiss from Judas. Did He get angry and blow up? (think Chinese serials, YOU BETRAYED ME! THE THINGS I HAVE DONE FOR YOU! HOW COULD YOU?) While being captured did He say ‘Oh no! Angels help me!” He could have. The reality is, He had the authority. But He did not. At Pliate, He could have said,, “Look here, I am the King of the Jews, I am God’s Son, if you don’t let me go, You will be cursed for eternity” Could he have said that? Well, He had the option. Or maybe when He was being whipped or nailed onto the cross, “AHHHH ANGELS! I NEED PAINKILLLERS!!!!!!” or “ANGELS!! LET ME DOWN!!”
And I am quite sure the angels would have gladly done so.
My point here is that, we keep forgetting that Jesus had a choice. We kind of treated Him pretty much 2-Dimensional. We felt sad that He had to go through all these, but perhaps, on a subconscious mind, we did not realize how he feels. Senstive girls like many of my girlfriends shruddered at the thought of the nails piercing through our hands. We say, it must have been very painful, Jesus mist have felt the pain.
And it kind of stopped there.
What went through Jesus mind? Was he tempted to stop all these? I guess He was very tempted. I guess in His mind He must be wondering, “Must I do this? Is it really necessary? Is there is a better way?” And the angels beside Him must have been like “Hey Lord, command us to bring you down! You are so much in pain!” And upon hearing that, I guess our Lord must be tempted to say, “ Yes, bring me down”
In fact in any stage of the whole process, He could have requested a stop. And He would have been granted the wish. I mean change the name Jesus into let’s say, your good friend’s name or your name. Don’t you actually find Jesus.. Stupid? Is like saying, my mum is giving me 1 billion dollars and I say I don’t want. Or maybe should I challenge you and say, go out, stand in the road and wait for the car to bang onto you? You will say I am crazy!
But Jesus was that crazy.
Crazy enough to in our daily terms, stand in the middle of the road and let the car bump onto Him and die a painful death.
Because He loved us.
Cannot fathom the love? Let’s have an example. I remember watching some TV serials and basically this pregnant woman has cancer or something and the doctor suggested for her to abort the child so that they can go through radiotherapy with her and she can actually muster a full recovery. And guess what, the woman says no. Well, even her husband tells her never mind about the child, afterall if she recovers, she can have more children. But she still says no. She rather die for her child to live.
That was how Jesus felt.
Was that love? Yes, The ultimate one. To quote Jesus on in our modern day terms, it would be like saying, “I don’t mind dying because I loved you too much. I love you too much to see you die, so I will die on your behalf.”
This is true romance.
And that’s my interpretation for today. Jesus had an option not to die. Or at least, not die in such a horrible way. But He did. He knows if He did not endure all these (which He did not deserve) we would not get our salvation. He knows that He cannot be selfish because a whole would go to hell if He did not. And I can imagine that every slash that He took he must have been thinking,
“For the sinners”
For the weight of the cross that he had to carry all the way to Calvary, he would have said,
“For the people”
And for the pain that He endured as He took every single breath on the cross he would have looked around and thought,
“For you”
“For you”
“And for you”
He chose the nails.
For you.
If the whole world died and you were the only organism on earth, He would still have gone through the whole journey for you.
Just for you.
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And upon reading on that, I realized God had just showed me another of life's revelations on how to love. You know we always complain, saying things like, "GRRGHHH! She is so irritating" and things like that. But when I look at how Jesus loved, I suddenly know why our God is a God of love. Catch this, people crucified Him, for goodess sake, they crucified Him and what did He do just before He died? He say" Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing"
I look at myself, and suddenly I felt so bad. Did anyone crucify me? No. Did I suffer the same things that Christ suffered? No. And here I am, complaining up and down, complaining to God to people, saying how unfair it was. Saying how can I love these unlovables. Then I realized. Hey. I really don't deserve to feel that way. If Jesus, who got treated so badly can say 'Forgive them please" what right do I have to NOT forgive them. And when the Word of God says, "Love thy neighbours" it means just that, it means, No matter what insults they throw at you, no matter what bad things they do to you, how hopeless they can be, how hurt you arte by them, you will never retaliate. NEVER. You will never give up on them.
Because you loved them.
Innocence
9:29 PM
