Mid-Week Message - Incredible Love

Years ago, for a Christmas dinner at our church, I wrote and performed a skit showing Mary, the mother of Jesus, at her Son's crucifixion.  While she was watching the horrors unfold before her, she was thinking back to His birth.  Of all that I have ever written, I have to say this was my personal favorite.  Not because I thought it was written well, but because I had to reach deep inside myself to try to imagine the feelings each event must have evoked in her.

The resurrection is crucial for the Christian faith.  If Jesus did not rise from the dead then He was not who He claimed to be and we are believing in a lie.  However, if in reality all that we are taught through scripture is true, then we actually do have a risen Savior who accomplished all He promised.

Easter Sunday is the day to celebrate.  It is why we sing out hallelujah's and dance with joy.  But there were a series of events that led up to that miraculous day that we need to remember as well.

Jesus always knew what was coming.  Every word He spoke and every move He made were done with His death in mind.  Every minute of every day of His life, He could have said, "NO!"  Each time He faced trials, rejection or hatred, He could have decided that we weren't worth it. All the way up to, and including, when He was hanging on the cross, He could have changed His mind.  So why didn't He?

We know that as He prayed in the garden before being arrested, He asked His Father if the cup could be removed from Him.  Being fully divine but fully human, He had the same emotions we have. Fear, dread, anguish.  Yet, He was willing to put all those feelings aside and say, "Not my will, but Yours be done."

Why did He go through with it?  Why did One who could have called down legions of angels to His defense allow Himself to be beaten, spat upon, scourged, mocked, humiliated and nailed to a cross with a crown of thorns jabbed into the skin of His head?  He was fully God.  What held Him there? Not the nails.  Man made nails could never have the power to hold Him.  No.  Not nails, no matter how strong and large.  The only thing that could keep Him on that cross was love.

Your face, my face, every face of every person that has ever lived or ever will live and His incredible, unconditional love for us is what He gave His life for.  His blood, shed for us so that we could be forgiven, is the reason.  And because He is Truth, He rose again as He said He would and someday, soon, I hope, we will get to see His beautiful face and experience His love as He welcomes us home.
Hallelujah!