What if the Father had said to Jesus, "You do not have to take this afflication, it is too much for you to bear, and they will not appreciate it anyway."?
What if Jesus had said, "No, I'm not going to do it! They lack love and faith and do not believe I AM."?
The Pass-over is no longer the remembrance of passage from bondage to freedom, but the passage from death to life.
Behold, Jesus of Nazareth, the Beloved Son of our Creator. Do you know Him...really? What would you do for Him that can even compare to what He has done for us?
Yet : Just as the Father sent His only Son to us so that we could be reconciled back to Him, so the Son sends us that we might show others the way to the Father.
I watched the movie Jesus of Nazareth late the other night on TBN...alone, after Michael had gone to bed. It is not quite the same dynamic as The Passion of The Christ, but it is still my favorite movie about the life of Jesus. I cried like I always do in realizing what He did for me. What He did for the Father. Even knowing this story is a man's depiction of the life of Jesus, it still brings to reality what the Messiah was like as He walked the earth and spent time with people...with His disciples...with sinners...with church leaders...with Jews and Gentiles. He taught on the roadside, He taught in the Synagogues, He taught in homes, He healed, He delivered, He prayed, He chatted and ate. He was a regular guy, and yet, utterly not regular.
I realized anew, that people still reject Him today, so blatently and so haughtily, just as they did then. I realized again that people even then, had their own ideas of who Jesus was, and who they wanted Him to be. Even Christians today do not understand who Jesus really is...who the Father really is...and how much we are loved...and just how truly unworthy of His love we are. I so want to help people to see that, to share the love of Jesus, to show them the only way to the Father is through His Son, to impart an explosive passion to really know this Jesus who died for them so that they could live and be free and know the Father. I've been in churches, on the streets, in the facilities for the wayward, spoken to people one on one, even discussed Him on Facebook, and one thing I see is common in all of it. People do not understand who the Jesus of the Bible really is. They want Him to be the image that they have set up in their minds, the altered image they have been taught in Sunday School, the image we have created. Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord of all - He really came from the Father, He really left his home in Heaven, He really walked on earth, He really did miracles, He really taught about the kingdom of Heaven and how to live it out, He really did die, and He really rose from the grave and went back to Heaven, and He really did NOT leave us alone. He sent His Holy Spirit to guide, teach, exhort, comfort, admonish, convict, advocate, and point us to the Cross. Jesus did this because He wanted to, not because someone forced Him to. No one took His life, and He did not allow it because He was incapable of standing up for Himself when He could have. And though His human-side would rather have not, His divinity did it because it was His Father's will. And though to us as humans, that appears as cruel and unusual punishment, the Father's will is always for a divine purpose...the incredible destiny of humankind.
God is not ruthlessly executing His wrath on humanity because He is sick of us and how we act, He is not waiting for us to mess up to stike us down, He is not a cuddly fairytale in the sky, or someone we can make into our own image to appease our own aspirations and ideals...good or bad. He is not Allah, or Buddha, our enemy or our accuser, or the devil. To believe this is false doctrine. He is not so full of unbridled wrath that He would destroy us in an instant...though He could...and we deserve it...He does not. There is a day set aside for this, and that time is drawing near. But the Day of Judgement is to end the fallen nature of man and end the pestilence of Satan's jurisdiction on earth. It is to usher in perfect love, perfect peace, perfect unity, and perfect purity among the human race. It is the alignment of His kingdom and the earth...the New Jeruselem. And even though He could wipe us out whenever He chooses, He does not because of His great mercy and love, and because of His desire for all to know Him and to be married to His Son. His Son, who left all His glory, who left His own Father, and all of the majesty, splendor and perfection, to become imperfect flesh. He left all that to become like us, and to be viciously attacked and indicted, and brutally beaten and suffer crucifixion. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, though still perfect in Spirit and one with the Father, became like us...human and tempted. But He lived a sinless life, and was the spotless Lamb, slaughtered on the Altar of the Foundation of the World. He embodied the very nature of humanity, and yet, embodied the very nature of God. The God of Israel is no longer our accuser, because Jesus the Messiah stands in the gap. Through His Blood we have passageway to be cleansed and come to the Throne of Grace without fear. And though God has wrath and judgement, and He is the Lion who is fierce and jealous, He holds back, because He is not emotionally-led like humans. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And because Jesus Christ did what He did, God shows us grace, kindness, compassion and patience. And that was His plan. It has always been His plan.
God knew that the first Adam and his wife, Eve, would make a choice and become imperfect. Imagine that. He KNEW. And yet, He created them anyway, in His own image, because He wanted to demonstate what a perfect union would look like between husband and wife, and mankind and Himself. It was a portrayal of the union between the Bride and Bridegroom. A portrayal of His love. And everything that He has done throughout history is a portrayal of that. When Israel became His chosen people, His intention was to have a lineage for His Son to come into the world through. A lineage of people that would understand who He was, how to obey Him, and understand the coming of the Perfect Sacrifice for the Perfect Marriage. And yet, when the Perfect Sacrifice came as the living Messiah, that same lineage of people were so caught up in keeping the letter of the Law, and all its man-made addendums that had been added, so caught up in their idea of how their Messiah would come and what they thought He should look and be like, they rejected the truth when it was right in front of their eyes. The religious leaders discussed it among themselves, and although there were a few, like Nicodemus, who understood that this was their anticipated Messiah, the majority of the church leaders could not see past their own idea of who their Messiah would be, and they refused him. He was hated and rejected by many, and so they rallied to kill Him - the king of the Jews, the Lord of all. And He knew that would happen. That was His plan.
In a dialogue from the movie Jesus of Nazereth, it is explained this way - Pontius Pilot: "Don't you know that I have the power to have you killed, or to set you free?" Jesus: Shaking his head, "You would have no power over me were it not given you from above."
John 19:10-11 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
There it is. Man is sinful, and makes his own choices because God created him that way. He makes all choices from his sinful nature. And man does that quite well without the accuser of the brethren, the devil himself, to launch his fiery darts. BUT, God is sovereign and nothing can happen unless God authorizes it first. And sometimes He does set a thing in motion, to create a spiritual, atmospheric or geographical shift. But that is always, always part of His original, ongoing plan...an alert from Heaven to usher in a move of His kingdom...to awaken Believers...to gather a harvest of souls...to amass a reconciliation to Himself. Jesus' death was His plan from the beginning of time. Scripture tells us that God abhors sin and wickedness, and will not tolerate the disobedience of mankind. And we are incurable within ourselves. So, we need a Savior to redeem us - to mediate for us. God sent His Son for Himself and for us. Nothing could have changed that. Every dot and tittle, every single detail, was planned and played out the way it was supposed to. Oh, Jesus could have refused to go through with it, and God would have suddenly changed His mind in the middle of it. But then we would all go to Hell. Yes, Hell is real - the place of neverending torment where our thirst is never quenched. And He wants so much for none to perish, and for all to know Him and come to Him. So Jesus was obedient unto death, becoming the sin of the world, and the Father didn't stop it. Even knowing that some will never want to know Him, or come to Him, and will perish. For those He calls to Himself and those who make the choice to come, it was all worth it. And He would have done it for just one person. If only one human being would have said "I believe", if one person had said "yes, I want the Bridegroom", He would have done it. There's nothing we can do to earn it, and there is nothing that could have been done to change it.
He loves us that much.
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