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| When I first met CC Partin. |
I am flying home on Good Friday.
Tonight I will walk the prayer stations at church.And Saturday and Sunday I will preach a sermon I have had two weeks for which to prepare.
But today I am leaving my wife, my daughters, my sons-in-law, and my new Grand baby CC in California.
My time in California has been a bitter mixture of (1) joy and (2) anguish.- I have experience the joy of becoming a grandparent. I have heard of the legendary power of becoming a grandparent from many of my peers. My wife just asked me what I wanted to do my last day in California. Must I remind you that I am walking distance to 5 star restaurants, the Lakers, the Clippers, the Dodgers, Hollywood (The Price is Right, Jimmy Kimmel, etc.), and 1000 others things to do in Los Angeles? I answered her, “I just want to hold CC.” Then this tough, old, leather-hearted, curmuddgeon’s eyes filled with tears and we stopped talking.
- Today we also reflect on the cross, the sacrifice, of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus is a beautiful, infinite mystery that is beyond the finite understanding of a sinful, human mind. My heart bursts with grief when I contemplate why Jesus was beaten, mocked and crucified. The rest of this blog is scripture and commentary by two pastors who have both expressed why this Friday is Good better than I ever could.
Read this quote from the first sermon ever preached about the cross and see if you can find the revealing phrase.Brian Zahnd is a pastor in Missouri. I don’t agree with everything Brian says in this article but I do agree with the main point – Jesus death on the cross was my fault. It was the fault of every sinner like me.
Acts 2:22-23 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.Did you see it? It's the solemn phrase in the paragraph. It's the statement that rings of courage, the one with roots that extend back to eternity. It is the phrase which, perhaps as much as any in the Bible, describes the real price God paid to adopt you. Which phrase? "delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." The Revised Standard Version calls it "the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." Today's English Version translates the phrase, "In accordance with his own plan." Regardless how you phrase it, the truth is ever so sobering: The cross was no accident.
Jesus' death was not the result of a panicking, cosmological engineer. The cross wasn't a tragic surprise. Calvary was not a knee-jerk response to a world plummeting towards destruction. It wasn't a patch-job or a stop-gap measure. The death of the Son of God was anything but an unexpected peril. No, it was part of a plan. It was a calculated choice. "But the Lord was pleased To crush Him." (Isaiah 53:10) The cross was drawn into the original blueprint. It was written into the script. The moment the forbidden fruit touched the lips of Eve, the shadow of a cross appeared on the horizon. And between that moment and the moment the man with the mallet placed the spike against the wrist of God, a master plan was fulfilled.
Beautiful eyes like her mother. It was no accident—would that it had been! Even the cruelest of criminals is spared the agony of having his death sentence read to him before his life even begins.
But Jesus was born crucified. Whenever he became conscious of who he was, he also became conscious of what he had to do. The cross-shaped shadow could always be seen. And the screams of hell's imprisoned could always be heard.This explains the resoluteness in the words,
"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10:17-18)The cross explains … Why he told the Pharisees that the "goal" of his life would be fulfilled only on the third day after his death.“And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’” (Luke 13:32)It adds gravity to his prophecies,"I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.." (John 10:14-15)This is why the ropes used to tie his hands and the soldiers used to lead him to the cross were unnecessary. They were incidental. Had they not been there, had there been no trial, no Pilate and no crowd, the very same crucifixion would have occurred. Had Jesus been forced to nail himself to the cross, he would have done it. For it was not the soldiers who killed him, nor the screams of the mob: It was his devotion to us.So call it what you wish: An act of grace. A plan of redemption. A martyr's sacrifice. But whatever you call it, don't call it an accident. It was anything but that.
Before the cross is anything else, it is a catastrophe. It is the unjust lynching of an innocent man. This is precisely how the Apostles spoke of the crucifixion of Jesus in the book of Acts.Today, as I say goodbye to most of the people I love extremely, as I rush through airport security, stand in lines, jostle for seats, and coordinate airplane departure and pick-up, I will intentionally do something even more important. I will prayerful contemplate on the greatest act of history – the cross of Jesus Christ.“This Jesus…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” – Acts 2:23The Bible is clear, God did not kill Jesus. Jesus was offered as a sacrifice in that the Father was willing to send his Son into our sinful system in order to expose it as utterly sinful and provide us with another way. The death of Jesus was a sacrifice in that sense. But it was not a sacrifice to appease a wrathful deity or to provide payment for a penultimate god subordinate to Justice. Let me suggest that when we say Jesus died for our sins, we mean something like this: We violently sinned our sins into Jesus, and Jesus revealed the heart of God by forgiving us. When Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them,” he was not asking God to act contrary to his nature. When Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them,” he was, as always, revealing the very heart of God!“You killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.” – Acts 3:15
“God raised up Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.” – Acts 5:30“The Righteous One you have now betrayed and murdered.” – Acts 7:52
At the cross we violently sinned our sins into Jesus, and Jesus absorbed them, died because of them, carried them into death, and rose on the third day to speak the first world of the new world: “Peace be with you.”
When I say “we” violently sinned our sins into Jesus, I mean that all of us are more or less implicated by our explicit or tacit support of the systems of violent power that frame our world. These are the very political and religious systems that executed Jesus. At the cross we see where Adam and Eve’s penchant for blame and Cain’s capacity for killing have led us — to the murder of God! At Golgotha human sin is seen as utterly sinful. God did not require the death of Jesus — but we did!So let’s be clear, the cross is not about the appeasement of a monster god. The cross is about the revelation of a merciful God. At the cross we discover a God who would rather die than kill His enemies.
Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus, my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus, my Lord!
Refrain:
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Vainly they watch His bed,
Jesus, my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead,
Jesus, my Lord!
Death cannot keep his Prey,
Jesus, my Savior;
He tore the bars away,
Jesus, my Lord!
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| Dr. Phil Sallee, Pastor twitter.com/philsallee facebook.com/phil.sallee philsallee.info nbchurch.info nbfamilies.info |
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