Friday, April 10, 2009

Scandal of a Trial

By this time of the morning Jesus would be going through a mockery of a trial. The leaders of this band of rebellious leaders knew they had to get this trial done quickly, for religious reasons; The Passover was right in front of them, and so they sped the entire process up to fit into their plans, but it wasn't their plan at all that all. The Father had the plan and He also had the people in place who would be willing to carry out His plan, Is. 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief.

Yes, The Passover was right in front of them, but The Lamb was also literally right in front of them and the had missed the point all along. I think that was Jesus' point for 3 years to the Pharisees; they were so caught up in the rituals and ceremonies but they had forgotten what they were all about. Similar to our holidays now; we have Christmas, to remember the birth of Christ, but often it is more about family and time off. We have Easter to remember the death and resurrection of Christ, but it's about dinner with family, girls in new dresses, kids looking for eggs and candy, and we miss the entire point. The Lord's table, church service and worship can be the same way. We must remember why we are doing what we are doing.

As I have said many times in these last posts, "I can't imagine what Jesus must have been thinking and going through". That is the beautiful thing about God's whole plan, is that we can't imagine and we couldn't have done it. Our death would have been insufficient for any of the work that Jesus did on the cross. Any amount of suffering would have only been the tip of the iceberg of what we deserved to have laid on us, because we are sinners. But it is only because Jesus, the Just, was willing to die for us, the unjust, that the payment for our sins could be atoned for. He is our spotless, perfect Lamb, that for centuries passed the Jews had been symbolizing with their own sacrifices, and yet they missed it.

Today is called Good Friday, but it was the worst/best day for Jesus. The worst because He had to become sin for us, which separated Him from the Father. The best because He followed the Father's plan perfectly and finished His work here on earth to restore the relationship we had broken.

The entire Bible is the story of God working out the plan, and revealing it to us, about how He would fix what we had broken. We really don't understand the magnitude of this plan. Why would God go to such great lengths to restore the relationship with us? This is what the weekend is about; Remembering what God did on our behalf.

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