To Stain Reputation ...

There is a reason why a lie is an abomination.  A lie is the tool to slander, and malign truth, especially The Truth.  Innocence had been convicted in the courts of pride, by men, by religious leaders who would not cede control to it.  For 2000 years the tactics have not changed.  Threats to power, threats to those who believe themselves to be in control, must first be destroyed in reputation, before in body.  The Sanhedrin in the days of Christ, is little different than the halls of power that exist today.  The pretenses may be different, but the tactics employed, and the results to the innocent are identical.  The Sanhedrin wanted more than the blood of Christ at His death, they wanted Him to be seen as guilty.  They wanted the common people to look upon innocence and call it guilt.  Yet another abomination to add to the rap sheet of religious men and their satanic master.

What would begin, was a long and calculated effort to make the name of Jesus of none effect.  Emmanuel, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Christ; all titles associated with Jesus from Nazareth must be taken from Him, or dragged through so much mud, no one could recognize them again.  The Truth was convicted of blasphemy against God; or in other words, God was convicted of speaking against God.  There was no sense in it.  There was no logic in it.  There was only an abundance of hate in it.  Love was nowhere to be found; hate was dripping in the air itself.  First, Jesus would be taken to the place where the lowest of criminals were taken.  This would be no place of honor, but instead to a place of ignominy, reserved for the scum of the earth.  Jesus would not meet His final hours in apathy, but in a rage against His name, against who He was, calculated to make Him guilty, by the association of guilty things all around Him.

Peter recalls the horror of how men would treat His Lord to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen and picking up in verse 22 saying … “And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.”  Death was to be by intent.  Torture to precede death was to be by intent.  This place was the place dedicated to just such a thing, to just such a mission.  No one landed here who had any hope of living or lasting.  They bring Jesus nowhere near the Temple, or any place of mercy, they bring Him to the place of a skull.  This act alone could help them heap insult upon the reputation of Jesus.  They could not understand how Jesus could see this place as a place of redemption.  For in their eyes, this place was only a place of death, of horrific death.

Mark continues in verse 23 saying … “And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”  Grape juice mingled with myrrh to dull pain, prolong torture, and make the horror of His death last longer.  But Jesus would not take it.  With a back and body still bleeding like a civ, from a lashing one lash short of death itself.  The whip laced with shards of glass, and the crown of thorns pressed deep in His head from the blows by the reed doled out by the Romans while they mocked Him.  The pain to the body and heart of Jesus had to be as extreme as it gets.  But He refuses the drink designed to dull that very pain.  He prefers to keep His mind sharp, even though it keeps the pain at its level.

Mark continues in verse 24 saying … “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. [verse 25] And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. [verse 26] And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Peter was not there.  He knows what happened but at best he was far away when he witnessed it.  So Peter omits the nails pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus.  But Peter knows about the removal of the clothing of Jesus, the humiliation of hanging naked for all to see.  In front of the tortured Lord, they part the homespun cloth as a dead Man will have no need of this anymore.  But Romans enjoy irony.  So above the head of this Jew lies the inscription THE KING OF THE JEWS.  This is meant as a testament to all other Jews who would rise up against Rome, that this was their fate.

Mark continues in verse 27 saying … “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. [verse 28] And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.”  Criminals die together.  Jesus would not die alone, but would die with others who were clearly guilty of their crimes.  Guilt by association.  Guilt by proximity.  Jesus does not see these men as criminals doomed to a fate they well deserve.  He sees men who have endured and inflicted such pain by their choices to embrace sin.  This is a pain Jesus would take from them, and free them from.  While their fate on the cross will not change, their fate beyond it could be made free, and eternal, no longer bound to the desire to serve self.  To be no longer destined to repeat a life of similar choices was why Jesus was hanging in between them in the first place.  Jesus must pay their ultimate cost, so He can free them and restore them to a life without such pain ever again.  But what the world sees, what men see, what too often you and I see; is only three criminals.

Mark continues in verse 29 saying … “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, [verse 30] Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”  And the plan works.  Passers-by, travelers on the way to Jerusalem, remember the words and teachings of Jesus.  But now, given where He is, given who He is with, use these words as a taunt to prove to themselves, that Jesus must really not be the Messiah after all.  Had Jesus come down from the cross, these men would not have been converted, only surprised.  Faith does not originate from fear.  Faith does not originate from insult and challenge.  Faith originates in a love that recognizes what Jesus does to transform who we are.  It comes from submission, not control.  These men had no intentions to believe no matter what the challenge.  They were already convicted of the Savior’s guilt, by where He was, who He was with, and what was happening to Him.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. [verse 32] Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”  Let there be no doubt as to where the religious leaders stand on the issue of Jesus, and His innocence or guilt.  The Sanhedrin joins in the mocking, and challenges.  They ask Jesus to do, what Satan desperately wants Jesus to do.  Satan wants Jesus to take the easy way out.  To stop all this redemptive work and decide very logically that “we” are simply not worth it.  “We” have earned the destruction we face, if Jesus does not pay this penalty for us.  So stop.  Just stop dying.  Go back to your Father, and leave these pathetic creatures to me.  Satan’s thoughts, his temptation, comes to voice in the taunts of the religious leadership of the true church of God.

At this point, even the criminals beside Jesus join in, in taunting Him.  But worse than this.  The plan is succeeding wonderfully, as scripture reads, they “reviled” Him.  This means they looked upon Jesus as having a reputation lower than their own.  Both of them did this.  Peter does not hear the repentance of one of them before it is too late.  Peter is too far away.  He only hears the jeering, the taunting, the mockery.  Peter misses the redemption and sees only the guilt.  How often do we too, continue to see only three criminals?  We miss repentance because it is quiet.  We are ashamed of our misdeeds, and so are not inclined to shout about them while repenting of them.  Instead we whisper our sorrow over what we have done, and beg in humility to be forgiven which we do not deserve.  How often are accusations hurled loudly against our brothers in church, but apologies said only quietly and in private later on.  Crowds seldom see an apology.  Reputations are damaged in public, and never repaired in quiet lonely places of humility.  There only guilt is assuaged.

Peter is suddenly cognizant of the time.  The crucifixion began in the third hour of the day.  Mark continues in verse 33 saying … “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [verse 34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Three hours into the crucifixion, a strange darkness covers the entire land.  The plague that hit Egypt before seems to hit Israel now.  Everyone knows it is daytime.  This is the reason Peter is reciting the time precisely for us.  But the sun refuses to shine, the stars will not yield their light, nor the moon.  There is nothing but fire to provide light as torches must be lit.  On the day of atonement in the year of Jubilee this miracle begins to happen.  The priests and Sanhedrin have left the scene to attend to their duties in the ceremonies at the Temple.  But they know the reason for the darkness.  The darkness is within them.  And fire may be its only cure.  It is a harbinger of where refusal leads.

But then, a language of heaven is revealed to us.  Peter remembers the story of the bloodless hand that wrote on the walls of Babylon in a language no one could interpret but Daniel.  It foretold of death and doom nearly upon them all for the blasphemy they had engaged in.  Now while on the cross, the language again appears to us.  This time spoken by Jesus, and interpreted by Peter to Mark.  Jesus cries out in agony as to why He must be alone to face this punishment.  But then hell, is the absence of God.  So Jesus must endure a separation He has never known in His life, across space and time.  It is the thing that will kill Him.  It is not all the physical pain, as that has become nothing to Him.  His mind can only focus and detect and absence of His Father’s presence.  He is truly alone.  He is more alone that we will ever be.  For this is the real punishment He is living on our behalf.  And we see with only base eyes, not comprehending what He did then, nor 2000+ years later.

Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. [verse 36] And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.”  Those still standing around hear this outcry, but do not understand.  They know the darkness.  The Romans know it too.  Everyone is nervous, nothing like this has ever happened before.  The Jews believe Jesus must be calling to Elisha or Elijah to come and rescue Him.  They offer Jesus vinegar as a stimulant to make sure He is awake for whatever, or whoever, comes next. 

Mark continues in verse 37 saying … “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. [verse 38] And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [verse 39] And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Many things to unpack in this scripture.  First, it is the separation from God, the unanswered prayer, that kills Jesus.  In effect, Jesus gives up the ghost.  It was not the pain that did it.  It was not the spear that would do it.  It was the keen effect of losing contact with His Father God.  The torture of separation from God preempts the Roman plans for days and hours in agony.  If only we too would feel that deeply about keeping distant from God, instead of treating it so casually.  The earth is shaken when Jesus dies.  I imagine the energy wave is sent into space into the farthest corner of the universe.  Satan thinks briefly perhaps he has won.  But a risen crop of first fruit quickly shatter that idea.

Darkness still covers the earth.  For the first time, the day of atonement ceremonies feel as though they are being done at night, instead of in daylight as tradition and the law demand.  As the blade is raised above the sheep, Jesus dies instead.  It is Abraham’s experience in reverse.  And simultaneously the Temple curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom, rent in two.  Common worshippers and Temple servants stand awestruck staring into the Most Holy Place directly at the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy seat is empty.  There is no presence of God there any longer.  There is no more reason to wear bells on the hem of the robe and a rope around the ankle to drag out a high priest unworthy of this sacrificial presentation.  It is finished.  It is history.  What will come now, is something new.  The sacrificial lamb slips away amid the chaos and the fulfillment of scripture.

The Romans fear for their lives.  They have their own worship system, consisting of many gods.  They actually think it superior to the Jewish idea of one supreme, all powerful God.  They laugh at that idea; until today.  When the darkness appears, when the death of Jesus occurs, when the earth is shaken, the Roman guard there is left with only one conclusion.  Surely and truly this man was the Son of God.  Notice he does NOT say the King of the Jews.  This is a divine event, not a manmade one.  This is creation weeping at the loss of its maker.  The Roman feels it, as much as he knows it.  He is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit even while standing here at the foot of the cross, at the moment of the death of Jesus Christ.  The Roman’s words echo.  This is not some quarrel between warring factions of gods with limited power; this is a tangible demonstration in the nature of the universe of a singular power, and its depth of sorrow over the death of Jesus Christ.

And so the remorse must begin.  Did I nail Him down to this cross?  Did I lash His body with the whip of leather and glass?  Did I push the crown of thorns upon His head deeper while hitting it with a reed?  Did I spit on Him, in His face?  What sins have I done to this Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  What sins have we done to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  Every time we choose to embrace sin knowing this cost, are we not Romans of old?  Our sin guides our hands to pick up the hammer and spikes.  Our sin guides our mouth to spit in the face of God.  Our sin guides our greedy hearts to leave the Lord naked, and part His clothing for a greed that can never be satisfied.  We looked and saw only three criminals.  But now we see two men, and the Savior of all mankind.  But we treated them all the same, all ruthlessly, all without mercy.  This is the cost of our self-love.

Only when it is too late does a reputation reveal itself.  Only after we have tried to kill it, do we recognize what we do.  When we see each other through the eye-glasses of hate, we do the bidding of Satan himself.  When instead of three criminals, we see instead three family members where the loss of them would break our hearts, we begin to understand how God sees us, and how we should see each other.  There is not judgment in that kind of love, there is only redemption in it.  If there is judgment to come upon us, it will be brought by us, as we gaze awestruck at how far love would go to save us, while we refused it.  We should guard the reputations of those we love.  We should love even those the world sees as just another three criminals …

 

Proof of Death ...

Before one can come back to life, one must have first lost their life in the first place.  CNN carried a story recently of a man who was pronounced dead for 45mins and after a prayerful declaration by his teenage son, his pulse rate resumed, and he was quite literally brought back to life.  The man appeared on television with his family.  He had no stories of bright lights, or ascending over his body, or seeing departed loved ones.  His testimony was only that he fell asleep at home and awoke several days later in the hospital without any knowledge of what took place in between.  His doctor conducted research and to the best of his knowledge has never heard of anything like this in the medical / scientific community.  So is this a modern day resurrection, akin to Lazarus in the past?  Skeptics will dismiss this story, as being mistaken, facts incorrectly relayed, timing’s being in question.  Perhaps the man in question was never “really” dead.  But skeptics will always find a way to discount that in which they refuse to believe by choice.   There were those I am sure who dismissed the story of Lazarus who spent four days in a grave before being called back to life.  And now, John was to record the final events of the life of Christ, those events that led up to His death.

 

John begins in chapter 19 of his gospel in verse 16 saying … “Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.”  Pilate had finally given up his efforts to spare the innocent blood of Christ, and had acquiesced to the fervor of the religious zealots who demanded Christ be killed through the power of the state.  From a human perspective, all hope was gone for Christ.  The hate of the Pharisees, combined with the muscle of Roman power, was a combination that no man could overcome.  But therein lies the irony.  This was no ordinary man.  Christ, with the power of His divinity, could have at any time removed himself from this situation.  He had done so on every occasion where the people intended to make Him their earthly King.  But while He exercised divine power to escape fame and earthly glory, He used none of it to escape His own torture and death.  He chose to submit through each agonizing moment, all the way to His death.  It is why He had said that no man takes His life, that He alone must lay it down.  All the power of hate and Rome was nothing against His own will, should He have willed it, He could have stopped the process in an instant.  But He did not.

John continues in verse 17 … “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: [verse 18] Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”  No sense in wasting an execution, Pilate determined to go ahead and execute two other captured criminals with Christ.  In yet another Roman expression of efficiency, the criminals were to carry the heavy load of the instrument of torture they were to be put to death upon.  They carried their own crosses (though we know this burden at some point in the journey became too much for Christ, and another was tasked to help Him with it).  Crucifixion was not the same as beheading, or a bullet to the head, or a mortal wound from a sword or spear.  It was intended to be a slow death.  The victim must hold themselves up in order to keep breathing properly.  When the muscles in their legs finally give out, they become unable to breathe, and die of asphyxiation.  Their last ounce of strength would be spent trying to stay alive for just one more moment, with a knowledge that at some point, they would lose strength and die.  Christ had already exhausted Himself, in the beating He had taken that nearly had Him bleed out.  He had been mocked, spat upon, lost more blood from the crown of thorns placed in His head, and again exhausted from trying to carry His own cross.  He would not last long.

Pilate however, had one parting shot at those religious zealots who had refused to listen to reason.  Pilate knew that the Jews believed their Messiah was to be their king.  So John records in verse 19 … “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. [verse 20] This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. [verse 21] Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. [verse 22] Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.”  Pilate did believe Jesus was indeed the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy, his brief encounter with Truth taught him that.  So, Pilate gave to Christ the title the common belief in that prophecy warranted.  In effect, Pilate was saying to the Jews, whether you see it or not, you have asked me to crucify your only hope.  And Pilate remained firm in keeping this title posted in every common language, near to Jerusalem during a Passover, a year of Jubilee, and a time when every worshipper would be heading into the city.  This was something the Pharisees could not stand, but were forced to endure.

Modern artistic renderings of Christ always show Him clothed during this final torturous death.  It is hard enough for us to bear that He died in our place, but to add the humiliation of seeing our God on earth naked, and exposed for all to see, for His enemies to further mock, is too much for most artists to represent.  But scripture tells us in verse 23 … “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. [verse 24] They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”  His clothing was divided among the soldiers (spoils of war), and He would have no further need of it.  His robe however, was decided by dice as it was a garment woven without seam.  Even in the details of their greed, scriptural prophecy was fulfilled.  The Pharisees were present during these events.  They knew the prophecies.  They had spent their lives debating the scriptures and their meaning.  These events were not lost on them, but they simply did not choose to care, or to truly see their own error and repent.

In another act of cruelty, the Romans freely permitted the women related to the victims of crucifixion to attend these events.  The women who loved these victims would openly grieve for them, pleading for mercy which would not come.  The victims seeing the pain of their loved ones, would struggle harder to survive, thus extending the torture of their own inevitable death.  All of this spectacle only added to the pain and torture for everyone concerned.  The men who were friends of the victim would largely stay away, as they did not want to risk a confrontation with the attending soldiers, or risk being associated with the victim and perhaps find themselves the subject of further Roman prosecution in coming days.  So no matter what the motivation may have been, the remainder of the disciples of Christ were not recorded as being present at His death.  Perhaps they were there and unnoticed, or perhaps they had already fled to the upper room.  In any case, John does record who had come in verse 25 … “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”  Four women had come to grieve and spend what little time there was left, with the One who they had all come to love.  I do not know, if the sister of the mother of Christ may have been the mother of John the Baptist or not, but at least Mary had some family present with her. 

Death was now very near.  Strength had given way to the exhaustion of human limits.  For most of us, our thoughts would have been centered on living, on keeping alive just a bit longer.  But even unto death, despite everything that has happened to Him, and all the pain He has personally endured.  The thoughts of Christ are on the pain of those He loved.  Instead of crying out for His own agony, He looks to address the concerns of His family.  John records in verse 26 … “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! [verse 27] Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”  Widows were the poorest of Jewish society, without a male to earn, and buy, and manage affairs, a woman could do little to preserve her own life.  So Christ first thinks of us once again, and in so doing affirms that we are family by choice, as much or more, as we are family by blood.  To His mother, He offers yet another son.  To His most loved friend, He offers the care and love of yet another mother, His very own mother.  To care for the widows, and orphans, is not just a lesson to be preached in the Temple, but to be lived by example, even at the point of death.  Even at the door of death itself Christ is thinking about us, trying to care for us, looking out for our best interests.  With all the divine power at His disposal, He does not make miracles to insure the wealth and ease of the life of His mother.  Instead He asks John to love her and care for her.  He asks Mary to treat John as her own son, and to love and care for Him.  It is not miracles that are needed to make our lives filled with wealth and ease, it is only love.  It is love that is truly important.  It always was, it will always be.

Now there was only one more prophetic scripture to be fulfilled.  John records in verse 28 … “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. [verse 29] Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. [verse 30] When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”  Every prophecy of scripture regarding the true mission of the Messiah had been fulfilled.  Christ had died.  He had yielded up His own life.  He had laid it down for us.  He had died of a broken heart.  But I do not believe we were the direct reason for His so great sadness.  There was something else going on, something of far more significance, and caused Christ far more sadness.  The burden of our sins were upon Him.  As such, for the first time in His existence (which is without time and space to measure), He was forced to be separated from His Father.  This separation constitutes the very definition of hell itself.  To be pulled away from the source of love and life and be hidden from its view, was more than the heart of Christ could bear.  Sin could not exist in the presence of God the Father.  Therefore though He Himself was sinless, the weight of our sins that He carried, forced a separation between Himself and His Father.  This was just too much for Him.  This separation was more than even His own divine nature could endure.  It would be this separation that would cause Him to yield up His own life, and see His heart broken because of it.   This was the ultimate sacrifice on His part for us; to be willing to endure separation from His Father in order that we might not suffer that fate.

But there was even more at stake for Christ than the separation that was causing His eminent demise.  What if, having been stained with the weight of our seemingly endless evil, He could no longer return to the presence of His Father?  What if this separation was to be permanent?  What if the sacrifice He was making was simply not enough to redeem mankind, or be removed from His being?  He was not just risking a human life in the sacrifice of His life with taking on our sins.  He was risking divine existence as the universe had come to know it.  He was risking everything for us.  He was giving up everything for us.  The scale of His sacrifice was not to be measured in merely His mortal human existence, but in His divine eternal one as well.  This was the question the atheists delight to ponder, could God create a rock so big He could not move it?  But of more eternal significance, could Christ carry the sins of us all, and still return to the side of His Father, having once been stained with the evil of our species from time and memorial?  This answer was not visible from the cross.  Jesus would have to die first, and find out if it was enough later.  His divinity could not answer this mystery before He experienced it.  Thus everything was at risk for our God.  And the pain of separation was that which would cause His own heart to break.  And still He went forward with it.  Still He submitted, and did the will of His Father, without a guarantee it could be undone, or overcome, only a faith that this is the road He must take, and the choice He must make … for us.

And while the fate of the universe itself hung in the balance, the Pharisees had larger concerns, they must insure that preparation for the religious rituals they were to perform would not be distracted by the death of Love and Life itself on a cross outside their city.  These men firmly believed that holiness was achieved through their own actions, not through simple submission.  As such they must “do” what they needed to do in order to be made “pure” before the day of rest and atonement.  John records the height of hypocrisy in verse 31 … “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”  The religious leadership of the only one true religion on planet earth, the one established by the Man hanging on the cross, was determined that their murder of their founder would not distract from the ceremonies they had been directed to perform.  Thus they wished to accelerate the deaths of those hanging there, in order to wrap things up by Sabbath.  Ironically there was not even need of this where Christ was concerned, He was already resting.

John records the events in verse 32 … “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. [verse 33] But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: [verse 34] But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. [verse 35] And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. [verse 36] For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. [verse 37] And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.”  Now even after He was dead, scriptural prophecy was still being fulfilled.  But beyond this, a lethal spear wound was inflicted JUST to make SURE Christ was dead.  It was already visibly evident.  The darkness as nature refused to witness the death of her creator was unearthly and unprecedented.  The thunder and earthquake that occurred when Christ had given up the ghost, which had woken some of the dead from Adam to Christ and would now bear witness of His divinity until His first ascension in three days, would rock Jerusalem to its core.  And most interesting, the rip from top to bottom of the heavy curtains that separated the Most Holy place from the rest of the temple, allowing EVERYONE to stare straight at the Ark of the Covenant without death.  All of these miraculous events testified at the death of Christ, of His divinity, of the magnitude of His sacrifice. 

But skeptics are not convinced by the miraculous, only by the practical.  So a mortal spear wound through the ribs of Christ would have to suffice for proof of death.  After all, a Roman soldier knew how to kill if nothing else.  They had plenty of practice at it.  And there has never been any dispute that Christ was killed in these events.  There has only ever been a dispute about whether He emerged from death.  The proof that He died seems to have been sufficient for even the most die-hard atheist who examines this record.  Indeed there seems to be ample evidence that He died.  But as said in the beginning, the only way to prove a resurrection is to first prove a death has occurred …

 

Nightmare Ending; A Paradox ...

Is power greater when it is used, or when it is restrained?  Until the final day when all will be revealed, we cannot know for certain the motives of Judas in doing what he did.  Perhaps one scenario was that Judas still held to his beliefs about the nature of the Messiah’s mission to be a king, and liberator of Jewish oppression from the yoke of Roman bondage.  After all, Christ Himself, had said for His listeners to come to Him with their heavy burdens, and take His yoke upon them, to find rest.  Perhaps in the mind of Judas, Christ just needed a “push” in the right direction in order for Him to stop avoiding becoming the king He was surely meant to be.  Human nature is fairly instinctual about self-preservation.  If Christ were put in a truly life jeopardizing situation, His human side would be sure to use His divine power to avoid death.  If forced into this scenario, perhaps then Christ would rise up, use the power He was endowed with, and finally and fully take control over things.  Power was decidedly within Him.  Judas perhaps reasoned that He could not just waste it, or leave it dormant, particularly in the face of imminent death.  And if God could die, how could He truly be God?

It is hard for me to accept that a disciple of Christ who experienced His love for three years, suddenly decided to betray His Lord for a mere thirty pieces of silver to satisfy his own greed.  Mary’s sacrifice spent on the feet of Christ was worth more than that.  Believers would be inclined to donate, and if needed, Judas could employ miracles in exchange for “donations” if all he wanted was to become richer financially.  There were easier ways to make money off Christ, than betraying Him to His death for a lousy thirty coins.  Why kill the golden-goose, so to speak?  In our day, many a charlatan uses the name of Christ, and preys on the faith of believers to enrich his own bank account.  All through time, ministers claiming to be sent of God, ask for money they can hoard, instead of employ, and all in the name of Christ.  It has become nearly an industry.  Judas, being a thinking man, might well have pioneered this industry if money were his only end game.  But I believe it was more than that.

What is much easier for me to accept, perhaps because I have seen it happen in the mirror; is to believe that Judas looked to his own scriptural understandings to shape the course of his life.  He was taught from youth what the nature of the Messiah meant to his nation, and to himself.  He heard no dissenting opinions by the learned-men of the nation on this topic.  Ironically, had Christ ever employed His power to assert dominance over Rome, the priests and leaders would have fallen behind Him in a minute.  Instead Christ taught a completely different version or understanding about the nature of the mission of the Messiah, one in which power was NOT the answer.  This was a message that doomed the Jewish people to remain under the power of Rome.  And as such, it could not be accepted by the teachers who daily told the people the wrong ideas.  The humility of Christ stood as a stark contrast to the struggle of the leaders of His day to maintain power and control over their religion and their people.  The love and care Christ showed for the under-class, treating them as He would a king, making no distinction – upset every cultural value they had relied on to date.  It was revolutionary.  It was undermining.  It was counter to everything the leaders taught, and perhaps too, to what Judas believed.  The decisions and actions Judas took, may well have been because He refused to accept what Christ said, and continued to believe his own ideas instead.

When we try to “help” God achieve His mission, we often take actions that instead, end in a nightmare for everyone involved.  I do not believe Judas thought the ending of this story would unfold as it did.  I believe he envisioned an ending of traditional designs, where Christ would be king, Judas would be His number two, the Romans would be banished, the Pharisees humbled, the nation saved, and Israel the predominant country to last forever under the leadership of Christ.  It was a nice dream.  It was an engrained understanding of scripture.  It was a choice to cling to his own ideas, and doctrines, and values, and it would lead him to see Christ die for it.  Instead of effecting the kingship of His Lord, he would witness the torture and death of His Lord.  His dream would become a nightmare.  As will ours, if we follow the same path of trusting to our own wisdom, instead of accepting the leadership of Christ alone.

John omits in his gospel, the agony, and the glory of the final struggle of Christ in the garden.  Instead John moves from the long communion of Christ with His faithful few, to the betrayal and how it took place.  Perhaps John thought the struggle in Gethsemane already covered well enough in other gospels, or perhaps he simply thought the pre-amble more important to emphasize.  But I do believe in John’s account there is an implied passage of time within the first few verses of Johns gospel chapter 18 as in verse one we find … “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”  Perhaps the final agonizing struggle of Christ occurred then, perhaps it had already taken place.  But John continues in verse 2 … “And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. [verse 3] Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”  This part of the plan would have to be difficult for Christ by design in order for it to work in the mind of Judas.  Christ must understand His life is in jeopardy, in order for His human side to use His divine power to save Himself and His friends.

John continues in verse 4 … “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? [verse 5] They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.”  So far, so good, for Judas’ plan – Christ steps forward, asserts leadership and asks who they want, then identifying Himself as their object.  John writes in verse 6 … “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. [verse 7] Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. [verse 8] Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: [verse 9] That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.”  Now things were unfolding exactly like Judas had dreamed.  Christ answers “I am he” and an entire company of armed soldiers recognizes the divinity flashing through His humanity, and they are powerless to resist, falling backwards to the ground.  The voice of God, even in only 3 small words, is more than the force of their entire armed company.  This is what Judas wants.  Christ further asserts, that those who are with him, are of no concern to this mob, so they should be let go.  No one intends to argue that point.  The power of His voice is irresistible.  No sense to debate taking men the Pharisees could care less about at this point.  So far, all is as Judas desired.

But John then begins to twist the hopes and dreams of Judas as he continues the story in verse 10 … “Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. [verse 11] Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”  First, there was no need for Peter being impetuous.  Christ had already flattened this mob with His voice.  But Christ’s words were now devastating to Judas.  Instead of seizing power, He intended to be taken.  Instead of becoming King, He would accept His betrayal.  He considered this cup of woe, to be the will of His Father, and part of His mission and intended to go through with it.  This was the nightmare ending, Judas had not envisioned.  The words and teachings of Christ of a sacrificial lamb that must be offered in order for the people to be redeemed, the broken body, the wine that would symbolize His blood, all the teachings come flooding back into the mind of Judas.  And now he is left with the inescapable conclusion, Christ intends to be that sacrifice.  Instead of pushing His Lord into a kingship, He has betrayed His Lord unto death.  Judas has done this.  Judas played this role. 

John closes out the last hopes of Judas as he continues in verse 12 .. “Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, [verse 13] And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. [verse 14] Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.”  Christ allowed Himself to be bound.  He heals the ear of His enemy, though John does not explicitly state that here.  But He is carried away to the homes of His enemies to Annas, and to Caiaphas.  These men intend to kill Christ, and Judas knows that.  He was counting on that.  He needed the threat of death to push Christ into becoming king.  So the threat is real, and is fully understood by Judas, and by Christ.  But instead of wielding the power Judas knows Christ has within Himself, the power that only recently put a whole company of armed men on their backs.  Christ submits.

Power then, is not to be measured by its employment after all, but by its restraint.  Hosts of heavenly angels, much more powerful than the wicked men who now threaten and injure their Lord, are at the ready.  They long to protect He who they love.  They long to take righteous retribution on these evil men, giving to them the punishment they have earned, and keeping their Lord safe from the insults, and pain He will now endure, and is enduring.  This angelic army defeated the forces of Satan before and cast them out of heaven.  They would be happy to do it again, and foil the plans of greedy men.  But with all their power and all their might, and despite all their love for their Lord, they are restrained by the will of God, and of Christ.  Power could have solved this danger for Christ, but it would have perpetuated our demise and our suffering.  He was here for this very purpose.  He came to take on our well-deserved punishment.  And despite His ability to extricate Himself from the pain, the danger, and the imminent death, He restrains Himself, and submits.

But the ultimate power, was and remains the power of God the Father.  God who could speak creation into existence by the sheer power of His own will.  God the Father who loves NOTHING more than His own Son, His only Son.  God the Father, must now sit restrained and allow what happens to Christ to happen, without interference, without intercession, without disruption.  He will not reduce the pain of Christ in order that He might bear this punishment.  He will not take away the death that is coming.  He will not comfort His son, as now His son bears the sins of us all.  The Father must instead bear witness to what occurs without doing anything to stop it.  This is the price of sin.  This is the pain that now the Father must bear, because of the choices we embrace.  In order to redeem that which He loves, He must see His son suffer what we have chosen.  The power of the God of the universe is not used to spare His son, or keep His own son from pain.  Instead all that power and all that might is silent in the face of our pain.  He allows His son to bear our punishment, in order that we might be redeemed and reconciled to Himself.

This mission was a partnership of Father and Son to redeem us.  Both love us so much, that they would endure this to see us redeemed.  Either of them had the power to end it.  They could at a moment’s notice simply end the whole thing.  To endure this was a choice both would have to make, and see that choice through to the end.  It was not a situation where at the last minute they could be spared.  Evil had brought death into the universe, and Christ must endure death in order to see us freed from its embrace.  Judas had his understanding of power from the designs of Satan.  Satan employs power to control.  Satan preserves self above all others.  Satan uses power over others to force them into slavery and compliance.  Whereas God used power to save Himself nothing.  His power was restrained in full, allowing a weak species to inflict maximum pain, insults, and torture upon the very embodiment of power.  Christ would submit to losing His life.  Christ would submit instead of rising up.  Christ would submit instead of control.  Christ would define love, showing there are NO limits to how far love will go to save another. 

This thinking was something Judas could not grasp.  This thinking did not make sense.  It was counter to every human instinct.  It was stupid.  It was ridiculous.  It would save us.  It would redeem us.  It was simply too high a price to pay for us.  We were not worth this.  We are still not worth this.  We do not deserve our redemption at this cost.  We are unworthy.  And yet, Christ will pay this cost anyway.  Love will go this far anyway.  Christ will submit, in spite of the ease with which He could have become a king.  It was a nightmare ending for the dreams of Judas.  It was a paradox his mind could not get around.  It happened because at the end of it all, he, like Lucifer before him, trusted in his own ideas about what made sense, what was logical, and not in what Christ had said.  When we modern Christians decide that our unique understanding of scriptures is the “only” version of truth there is, we follow the logic of Judas.  When we put our faith in our great leaders to explain the meaning of truth to us, instead of finding it on our knees in submission to Christ, we follow the path of Judas.  When we attempt control, instead of submission, we become Judas.  Knowing the love of Christ in a personal relationship was not enough to save Judas from himself.  Because despite feeling the love of Christ, Judas was never willing to let go what he trusted in, and cling only to trust in Christ.  Modern Christians are no less at risk today.  When we prize our doctrines ahead of our Savior, when we prize judgment over redemptive love, when we seek to exclude, rather than to redeem – we demonstrate our own ideas are what we trust on, and submission is not in our thinking.

Power was not the mechanism by which sin would be removed from the universe, Love is …

 

Mental Anguish & Persecution

The prophet Jeremiah (chapter 30, verse 07) foretold of a time of Jacob’s trouble unlike anything ever seen on earth before then. The prophet Daniel (chapter 12, verse 01) seemed to reinforce this idea by referring to a time when Michael will stand up, and there would be a time of trouble such as nothing the earth had seen before then. Most of Revelations seems to describe a time near the end of the world where “trouble” is the understatement of history itself. A time where persecution would appear to be the norm; a time when following God is a crime punishable by death; a time when the only way to escape certain torture and death is to simply listen to what you are told by the ones in power to tell you. While the intensity foretold in scriptures is like nothing we have ever seen, the scenario itself is not something new.

I am reminded of three Hebrew boys, taken captive from their native home of Jerusalem and dragged to Babylon. They remained faithful to God despite the difficulties thrown at them. But one day they were taken to a great assembly with the King and ordered to worship a golden image of the King, symbolizing the eternal kingdom of Babylon itself. They refused. The penalty was certain death, death by burning alive. They continued to refuse. The King’s ego was damaged, his mercy in offering another time to worship them rejected, he lost his control and ordered the furnace be heated up seven times hotter than normal. His intent to kill those who would not obey him was clear.

A rational man in the Hebrew’s position could have easily bowed-down to avoid all this hoopla. After all, God knows what is on the heart, right? In fact, a modern day Christian might have known how to turn this seeming contradiction into something to be proud of. Instead of actually worshipping the image, they could bow down and pray for the soul of the King to the true God (while bowing of course). This way they worship God in their hearts, while not offending the King. No fire drama here. But the 3 Hebrews would not so compromise.

A rational man would realize that by being so uncompromising in how they lived their beliefs that they were provoking the King to anger, and forcing God to have to save them similar to jumping off a cliff first and then demanding God do something about it on the way down. If they could just take the day-off in their values systems, or not be so rigid in applying them, they could avoid angering the King and risking what was sure to be certain death. After all, if they knew what the meeting was for (pretty hard to miss the construction of a ninety foot solid gold statue of a king), why not just skip it and call in sick so no one blames you for not being there?

A rational man could have surmised that since God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to become king and had so blessed him with a dream of the future kingdoms of earth, that they should follow this blessed King of God and do whatever he says. After all if God did not want a ninety foot solid gold image to be built, why not simply destroy it like He had destroyed other things in the past? Maybe God allowed the ninety foot statue to be built in order to accomplish some greater purpose. A rational man would choose expediency and life rather than obstinacy and death.

The 3 faithful servants valued their lives. They did not have a death wish. They did not relish the idea of being burned alive. But they could not disobey the council of their mothers and fathers in their ears; they should bow down only to God. This was not a lack of humility on their part; it was obedience to an unseen God in whom they firmly believed. At least in their story, there was a point to be made. The king lost his best soldiers trying to throw the Hebrews into the furnace. But the Hebrews walked among the flames, only their ropes burning off. They were undamaged, and Nebuchadnezzar recognized the fourth man as the “Son of God”. Through their perseverance and dedication to obeying God, even to the point of certain death, the entire Babylonian kingdom heard about the God of Israel.

At the end of time, the world becomes divided into two camps; those who serve the invisible God of the Bible in whom they have come to trust with their very lives; and those who do what is expedient to survive, possibly even claiming to worship God, but never letting God affect their hearts or lives in a meaningful way. John (favored disciple of Christ) through his revelations sums it up this way … “let he is holy be holy still. And let he who is unholy be unholy still.” These have long been the scariest words in all of scripture for me personally. They represent a paradox I have been unable to get my mind around.

The closer I get to God, the more wicked I realize I am. To actually achieve holiness is to allow Christ to change the entirety of my life, but the ability to recognize this work has taken place is not something we will have any training in. None of us have yet reached perfection, yet those who remain alive to see Christ coming in the clouds will stand in that day without a shield between them and God. And so the source of our pain, the thorn in our shoes, the greatest worry to occupy the mind of a Christian will not be our physical fate, our lack of food, our horrific surroundings, perhaps even the fates of those we had come to love who have not made the choices to follow God. Our greatest concern will be inward, have we truly let go of the sin we have clung to our entire lives? Or are we merely denied acting on our sinful natures by the conditions around us? Are we in fact holy or merely deceiving ourselves as the wicked so often do? Our minds will search for un-confessed sins, but find none.

You see no one knows your evil better than you do. You can put on a mask for the world to see, for your family to see, in front of your church brethren. You can pretend to have a servant’s heart and mind, and seem to know your scriptures very well. But it is possible to remain unaffected by the saving grace of God as you continually refuse to allow Him to change the core of who you are, by daily forgetting to submit your will to Him first. When there is no more time for repentance, and achieving change through the power of His Holy Spirit which has been withdrawn from the earth; in that great day of Jacob’s trouble, will we be found wanting?

For years, I have known Adventists who bought property away from the cities. Some who have reported to have buried canned foods in caves in the mountains for “use” during the time of trouble. Those poor Christians, have missed the point of these prophesies entirely. God has already assured us that our physical safety will be protected (a thousand shall fall at thy left side, and ten thousand at thy right, but it will not come near you – says David in the Psalms). Our food and water will be sure as it was for Elijah who received each day’s meal from the Ravens bringing him bread in an otherwise famine filled land. I used to joke that my Raven will bring me pizza. The caves of the earth may indeed provide us shelter, or perhaps the jails and prisons of the land (where we may find the last few who truly need to hear the message we bring with us). But to place our emphasis on preparing for the last great troubles by trying to be physically secure is to doubt God, and to miss the point of preparation completely.

It is not our diet that needs adjusting, it is our character. It is not our homes in the cities than need to be abandoned it is our propensity to hold on to sin and refuse to let it go. It is our minds that need an overhaul not our vehicles. We do not need to bury food in the earth, we need to bury sin in the grave once and for all and find ourselves ahead of the curve when it comes to being Holy still. It is TOO easy to compromise our values and be pragmatic about what we believe and how we live it. We are trained cattle to march to whatever banner and directions we are given that keep us alive physically with no thought of the cost to our souls. Our compromises with evil are training us to compromise our eternal lives in the end of all things. We have so long indulged the idea of control that it has become a part of the fable we hold on to. It is long past time to relinquish control and let Christ do His saving work in minds and hearts of each of us.

Remember when the doctor tells you … “this is going to hurt.” The doctor is not being a Sadist, and does not enjoy inflicting pain for a living. Rather, the doctor administers to us what may hurt us in the form of a pinprick, or sometimes worse, because our greater good requires it. Our Lord gives us insight into these prophetic writings not to scare us as if we were the wicked to be punished in the end, but to keep us from becoming the wicked, to help us avoid the coming pain, and to help us focus on what is truly important. The time of Jacob’s trouble is fast approaching our world as it has been for the last 50 years. We are wandering towards it even now.

Even in the United States that has long been a beacon of religious freedom, currently there are well meaning Christians who would impose their own standards of morality upon the remainder of the country as the law of the land. They fear that Muslims are out to do the same, or Atheists, or worse. They fear that we have turned away from God as a nation and the only way to return to Him, is to make His laws our laws. But in this effort, they totally miss the mark. It is not our laws that need amending it is our hearts and minds. It is not even our actions that must change nearly so much as the motives that lay behind them; only Christ can offer us this freedom, and only when we allow Him to do so. While men continue to attempt to tell us what is right, we must learn to go to Him, and find it for ourselves. We must learn what it is like to be led of Christ, rather than of men; for men are bound to lead us into darkness as the time grows short.

We must learn to be like the 3 Hebrews of old. They did not attempt to enforce their beliefs on others, only to offer others the witness of their lives and if needed their deaths while obeying the commands of our God. They were human just like us, wanting, needing, loving the same way we do. But unlike us, they were willing to enter the grave following what they believed to be true, from the hands and writings of an unseen God, than to obey the dictates of the men in power in front of them. They did not bring spears and swords with them to fight the evil servants of the king. They offered no resistance to the mighty soldiers who bound them. Instead they let their words state the love in their hearts when they told the king, he need not give them another chance. They could only bow to their unseen God, and if that cost them their lives, so be it. This was a mark that Christ had been active in the hearts and minds of the 3 servants.

I wonder as our time of trials and testing begins, will we be so similarly minded? Will the effects of Christ changing our hearts be so evident in our thinking that we could not even consider the demands of men not to follow Him? Or will we find a life of compromise with evil now simply continues right through to the end, without even second thoughts that rational is not what God is looking for. He is looking for those who trust in Him no matter what life brings, no matter how the outcome looks to us, and to the end, even if it means the end of our mortal life on this planet. I hope He finds this in each of us …