Passion week. In 2008, we walked the path Jesus took during his final days on earth. From the Garden of Gethsemane to the path He took down the Mount of Olives, to the place where He stood trial before the high priest, and on to Golgotha and the Garden Tomb.
Of course, today many churches mark the spots where Jesus walked, but it is not hard to imagine what it might have looked like then because also in and around Jerusalem there are archeological sites that show the very stones that stood in Jesus’ day. Stones where His feet landed as He walked toward His death.
If you are a Christian or have been taught of Christianity, you know this story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. And perhaps it has become so familiar that it no longer holds the meaning it once did.
That can happen when we go about living life and don’t spend much time reflecting on why He came and the magnitude of our own sin against a holy God. I know, because it’s happened to me. Sometimes we think we’re not so bad, so we don’t feel the weight of what once stood as evidence against us.
We can easily forget why the cross matters.
At the moment, I’m doing research on Esther’s story. I do not yet know what direction this story will take, but the research has given me a greater appreciation for why the torture of the cross was so absolutely necessary and how Esther’s story mirrors Jesus’ sacrifice.
To briefly explain, in the Scripture, Esther’s story tells of heroes and villains and the near annihilation of the Jewish race. Haman, the villain, convinces the king to allow him to write a decree that will destroy the Jews in a single day. Persian law at that time was apparently irrevocable. The only way around it was to counteract it with a different law, which Mordecai did once he took Haman’s place. The end result was the salvation of the Jews and triumph over their enemies. They celebrate this victory even today during Purim.
God gives examples of salvation of the Jews on other occasions throughout Scripture – in Judges, under many of their kings, especially David, and all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God Himself promised to counteract the irrevocable decree of death that fell over the world because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
That promise of God to counteract what He couldn’t just ignore or remove without consequences came to find its fulfillment in the cross.
The thing is, when God makes a declaration or a promise, He always keeps it. Adam and Eve lost paradise and gained eternal separation from God, which became the new normal for all of humanity from then on. When God said if you disobey Me, this will happen, it does. There is no wiggle room.
Why? We hear of God as loving and forgiving and merciful. Why can’t He just look the other way when we sin against His holiness?
Because His decrees are always irrevocable. What He has said in the past would happen, did in fact happen. And that gives us a pretty good idea that what He has promised will happen in the future, will also happen. God is not a human that He should lie or change His mind.
But He can and did do something to counteract that one major decree of eternal death and separation from the people He created and loves.
He wrote a new decree in His Son. Jesus is described in John as “the Word”. He is the Father’s final Word, the last irrevocable counteracting decree against sin.
Jesus came to bring salvation from our one great enemy – our own sin – our own choices that keep us forever distant from our Creator.
And He allowed them to scourge Him and mock Him and nail Him to a wooden cross, and pierce his head with thorns and his side with a spear, and He took every last blast of hate from the pit of hell along with the holy wrath of His Father against the enemy sin. He took it all.
For you. For me.
God waged Holy War against the enemy of our souls and His perfect Son was the only One who could win that battle because He was the only pure, sinless One who could counteract that irrevocable decree of death held against us.
And Jesus defeated death three days later when He arose victorious over the enemy. Just as the Jews were victorious over their enemies in Esther’s story, on a much wider, greater scale, Jesus brought victory over death – and He did it for all of humanity for all time.
But I wonder–do we realize our need of that victory in our own lives? It’s so easy to forget that all of us deserve God’s wrath in judgment because not one of us can live without breaking His laws.
God’s holiness demands justice.
Jesus took what we deserve.
To us who believe, who are in Christ Jesus, there is no more condemnation.
But…to those who refuse to accept His grace, judgment still remains. One day God will enact that again, but that day is not yet. We have our lifetime to choose to repent and come to Him, to let Him free us from the fear of death. To set us free from the sins, the chains that hold us captive.
As Esther cried out to King Xerxes, “How can I bear to watch the destruction of my people?”, Jesus essentially asks the same question. He held out willing arms to hang crucified because He didn’t want to see our destruction. He did it for the joy of spending eternity with us!
And now He holds out those same arms to us asking us to come to Him.
Would you choose God’s just judgment – or Jesus provision of God’s grace?
It’s not a difficult choice but it is a costly one. It cost’s us our pride and it cost Jesus His life. But eternity depends on what we do with that decision.
#passionofchrist #choosegrace #counteractiveloveofgod
