The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The Cross of Christ
As my daffodils happily nod their heads in the sun and leaf buds start to appear on the rose bushes, I see springtime bursting out all over. It is always this time of year that we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that because the earth reflects a sort of resurrection in the spring? No, it has nothing to do with the annual re-awakening of nature. It is because it was this time of year that the passion and crucifixion of Christ occurred.
What we call “Holy Week”, the week between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday, was the seven-day Passover celebration in Israel. In Exodus 12 the Passover was established as a memorial for the Jews by God’s decree to Moses. It was to start on the fourteenth day of the first month, Nissan, which roughly corresponds to March or April (depending on the year) on our calendar. It was during Passover that Jesus was arrested. In fact it was the same night that He had eaten the Passover dinner with His disciples.
The primary component for the Passover dinner was lamb, an animal that was attentively checked before it was chosen to make sure it had no blemish. Thus the Passover lamb is a metaphor for Christ in that He was the spotless Lamb of God sacrificed to redeem sinners (i.e. all of us). 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us, “… you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
His suffering on the cross was unimaginable. Psalm 22:14-16 prophesies His terrible experience on the cross even before the cross was introduced as a tool of execution: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. …Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.”
Someone once asked me if I understand the cross. I said that I absolutely do not. I understand the facts of the cross that Scripture states. But why it was necessary and how it fully impacts us is a mystery to me, beyond my complete comprehension. What I do know and believe by faith is summed up in Isaiah 53:4-12b: “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people He was stricken. …He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. … He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. …He has poured out His soul unto death, He was numbered with the transgressors, He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
John 19:28 and 30 gives us the rest of the story in the final two sayings of Christ on the cross: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst.” …When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.”
His work was done and so, as was prophesied, Jesus Christ came back to life. He gave His life and He took it back again once He had accomplished what He had come to earth to do. All glory to the Savior of my soul!
Update/Prayer Request: Dan continues to have difficulty sleeping. It caught up with him on Monday when he came home from work and fell asleep for an hour before dinner. Please continue to pray about the other side-effects of his infusions. While no worse, the rash, skin dryness, asthma, and digestive issues persist.
