This is God's plan, His great
gift to us?
This young Jewish man went and
met that enemy of every man, that enemy that eventually wins every battle
fought, and that enemy is death, the inevitable offspring of sin. Here this man
stood, in the face of our enemy and He did so without any discernable defense.
He allowed the beast to inflict its finishing move, its checkmate. So, death
crawled upon this seemingly insignificant life that hung upon the Roman cross,
and delivered its fatal sting, that sting that has taken out every person
before, that sting that was always known as final, and Christ drew His last
breath. Christ died, even Christ.
What gift is this?
God has given us a man, and before He makes any real impression on the world, other than in the hearts of a few Israelites, He is stripped of His dignity before His servants and of His life. Can you imagine the horror that must have washed upon the shores of the disciples' hearts? We see it in Peter, even before the crucifixion, when he denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26: 69-74). Even this miracle worker, this man Peter, on behalf of the disciples, acknowledged as the "Son of the Living God," (Matthew 16:14-16) died, and He died before accomplishing anything that human history would have acknowledged as an accomplishment. In other words, if the story had ended at the cross, there would be no story to tell. This Man through whom they drew so much strength had, in an agonizing moment, been separated from their midst.
How dare these apostles think so highly of their Rabbi? They hailed from a remote nation ruled by a mighty emperor a world away. They could have no real bearing on the world, even if they tried. A man more powerful than anyone they had ever met, a king of kings, ruling the earth from his Roman throne, the emperor, had no idea of their existence. They were insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Israel might have been a mighty nation at one time, but that time had gone, lost to antiquity, and every great hope that had come down the line had been defeated; why would this Jesus be any different? Why would He matter to Caesar, or any other mighty ruler to come into human history?
Here the gift hung, a lifeless
corpse? What gift was this?
He came into the world, from
the world's perspective, in less than spectacular circumstances. Yes, we know
the miracles that took place to bring about the incarnated One, but if one
simply observed the physical circumstances without much thought, Christ would
seem less than extraordinary, a star being the only real recognizable
phenomenon, and only by those who paid attention to the stars. His parents, at
the whim of Augustus, their emperor, had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem,
while Mary was nine months pregnant. In other words, He was not the direct
descendent of powerful parents, but to people who obeyed the rule of another,
and He never takes a thrown, not once, while He walked the Earth, other than
the throne of His followers' hearts.
His birth was eventually
recognized by some wise men, and even noted by Herod, but this was some time
after His actual coming into the world. At the time He was born, He was
delivered into a stable, amongst the beasts of the field, and the only persons
to be heralded by the angels concerning the arrival of the baby happened to be
shepherds, a lowly group of men indeed. The elite of society looked down on
shepherds, and these men, as Luke tells us, were in the fields at night, which
more than likely meant that they were homeless. And so, we find this
child, born amongst animals, visited by the homeless, to a insignificant family
in an insignificant part of the world, and He would grow up only to die by the
hands of the same mighty empire that He was born under. At the time of His
death, He had changed nothing that matters to humans as they write history.
Some were privileged enough to witness His miracles, but the vast majority of
the world in which He lived, He was a nobody by their standards, a nobody like
everyone else.
How, then? How did He start
such a movement? He was nobody, was He not? And, after all the miracles, He
still died a nobody, did He not? He shook Pilate to His core, but who was
Pilate in the grand scheme of things?
Yet, this man is known. He is
not only known, but He generates interest. He not only generates interest, but
He is still studied. He is not only studied, but He is followed. He is not only
followed, but He is worshiped. How? Why? What made the difference? His life
ends in tragedy and defeat, or so it seemed.
In short, Christ proves great
because God orchestrated a great surprise, a surprise that we would have
scoffed at if we were in the planning room, a plan we would have said of,
"I would do it differently." He used an insignificant nation to bring
about this insignificant man, who would eventually be realized to be the
greatest gift ever given to man: Our Messiah, Our Savior. While this seems odd,
it was not so unexpected. That Messiah would come from such humble and
forgotten history was prophesied long before His arrival, and it is in this
knowledge that people in retrospect begin to understand the significance. Against
such odds, God said it would be so, and it is undeniable, practically speaking,
that this is phenomenal. Some bow in worship, and others act in fear, trying to
snuff out this light from Israel, but all hear...and one day, all will take
notice:
" But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting."
Therefore He shall give them up,
Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth;
Then the remnant of His brethren
Shall return to the children of Israel.
And
He shall stand and feed His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God;
And they shall abide,
For now He shall be great
To the ends of the earth;
And
this One shall be peace. Micah 5:2-5
From nowhere, amongst a little
group among an insignificant people, will come a king that will be from
everlasting and will have the strength of the Lord. Just as His coming was an
unexpected expectation, so the life He lived was an unexpected expectation. What
do I mean by an unexpected expectation: It something foretold and acknowledged,
but so unbelievable it was unrecognizable to many who knew of its eventual
coming and paid its realty lip-service alone. He was to be the suffering
servant, and although this was known of Him, it angered His fellow Jews that He
would not take a more political rule that typified human power and might,
ruling with a heavy hand. Instead, He walked everyday towards a submissive
death, the death on the cross, and while His death was foretold years and years
before His coming, and He even spoke of it often, when He died, His followers
felt defeated. If they had only known...
And God looks down on us and
says, "This is my Son, whom I give to you." This unknown man, He is
our gift. The greatest gift ever given, and we must, at times, wonder why. Why
is Jesus the gift of God? What does He offer me...which is the typical human
question, not always without warrant, but often ungratefully asked nonetheless.
We ask because we often think
to ourselves, “If I were God, I would have done it a different way…How is this
the best God could do? How is this a gift for me?”
The reality of Jesus
unexpected, expected reality teaches most about ourselves, that what God would
plan would not be our plan. God did not send His Son in such unexpected ways just
for surprise, In fact, He told us exactly what He planned to do, and it made
all the sense in the world to our Father. It is our own unbelief and twisted
ways that lend to our surprise. Why would God come as One who would not use His
might to punish others into submission? Why would He not rule from a human
thrown? Why would He be so different? Because God is different. God does not
rule and provide peace like Rome, or any other fallen nation for that matter.
Through heavy-handed rule and power humans reign. God rules in love, and Christ
is that ultimate gift of love.
Let us indulge the human
question: How is Christ a gift for me?
Jesus' coming in human flesh
is a gift on so many levels. First, it is a demonstration of God's self-giving
character. God's love for His Son extends throughout eternity past, present,
and future. Throughout eternity, up to the point of the incarnation, God the
Father had enjoyed complete unity with Christ, the Son, but the Father had to
give Him up to send Him to us to die (John 3:16). Not only did the Father give
away His Son to live on earth away from the intimate Triune community He had
always enjoyed, the Son also sacrificed. He gave up His divine rights in order
to walk amongst us (Philippians 2:6). He gave up His power in order to walk as
we walk, so that we might know Him.... So that when we ask the question, what
would God have us do as humans in this or that situation, we can look to
Christ, God in flesh. Just as written Scripture is God's Word in language
we can understand, so too the Son comes in a form understandable to our mind,
human form. He teaches us that our path is through Him, in communion with the
Holy Spirit. He is our model.
Jesus’ coming was an intimacy
not yet known by sinful humanity. Not only could God be approached as He was in
the Holy of Holies, He could be touched. He could be held; He could hold. He
could be kissed; He could kiss. He could be seen; and we could see Him seeing
us. He would come to be with us, and would forever be closer than ever before
(since Eden), through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was here. God was
walking amongst us once again, and because He came, He is still here.
Perhaps the greatest part of
this gift is that He has opened a way back from exile. The exilic human race is
on a path to once again be the Edenic people of God. We are going home, back to
the garden, which will be a beautiful city once we finally get there, New
Jerusalem. Once sin entered the world, a gulf was formed, a non-negotiable
ocean born.
When we say, "I would
have done it a different way, God might just reply, "And who would you
suggest die for your sins?"
God could have manifested
Himself in countless ways, but He came as a human, for sin demands human death.
And if He had not died, we would be forever hopeless. Instead, He came, and
death has been split in two, and we walk in its wake by His grace, back to
God's Kingdom. That death that had defeated all men before, in its
spreading upon the Christ, met its own demise. By taking Christ, it dragged into
its depths a being too powerful to contain, and He burst forth, leading the
captives out of captivity.
It is true, if the story had
ended at death, it would be no story. But there was a big surprise; death has
died, for it met a man too powerful to destroy.
Christ is the gift of life,
the promise that God still loves this fallen race. Our story is a tragic tale
without Him. We are hopelessly lost without Christ. Ours would be a life not
worth having, if that great gift had been never given. The gift of the baby boy
that would save the world came into a world in a less than magnificent manner
when we reflect upon the whereabouts of His family in physical and social
standing, but then again, knowing the supernatural nature of His birth, it is
the most amazing story ever told. We still tell it. And even with all the
mundane, less than elite people involved, His coming still drew the wisest of
men to see the child. His birth still struck fear in the heart of Herod.
Imagine Herod's thoughts. Here a child is born to a couple of no real import,
yet somewhere deep down Herod knew this child represented real opposition to
His rule, to the rule of tyrannical men. And for some unknown, seemingly
illogical reason, He lies awake at night in cold sweats, knowing the boy is
alive, and growing in stature.
Herod would not succeed in
killing Him on behalf of the empire, but the empire would kill Him nonetheless.
He would have the audacity in His own lifetime to speak of His gospel, to
suggest it would one day be told worldwide. How foolish this must have seemed,
no more foolish than at the time His body hung lifeless on the cross, and, yet,
somewhere deep down they knew it to be true, and they had killed Him for it.
The centurion knew it, and we all have to face His reality. In this death, His
message would become concrete. His death would complete exactly what He came to
accomplish, to die so that we do not have to die as well. By the time of His
death, His story had just begun. Christ is that gift we look at and at first
think, why would I ever want that. There is nothing special here. But once
opened, the gift becomes the greatest possession we can know.
He is the difference between
having nothing and everything, not just because He died, but because he also
rose!
On Friday, the veil was torn in
two because of Christ’s work on the cross. As it ran down from top to bottom,
the tear continued downward, creating a fissure down into the depths of Death
and Hades, but Death did not notice. In swallowing up Christ, death unwittingly
sealed its own fate. For three days, death silently and smugly boasted in its
victory, as it had defeated even the most perfect Man to ever walk the Earth.
Just as it swallowed up the first Adam, the second Adam had been defeated as
well, or so death thought. On this day, Satan watched as His child, Death, was
defeated, and he as well was delivered a mortal blow to His head. Today, Christ
rent death into, becoming the first fruits of the resurrection.
When He rose, He reminded us all
that the Messiah was to be crowned King, as it was written:
“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the
Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And
they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was
given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which
shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be
destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14).
For a time, Christ humbled Himself to
serve us through suffering, but that was finished. Now, He has taken back His
rightful place. Thus, He states:
And Jesus came
and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on
earth. Go therefore[a] and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
We have a King! Happy Easter…
