I hear people say many times, "How could God let this happen?", referring to the horrible things that go on in this world. How could God let a teenage boy enter a school and shoot others? How could God let an adult do awful things to a child? How could God let this person or that person get sick, suffer, and die?
Maybe we should first pose that question to the days leading up to the death and resurrection of God's only Son. Now, for my Christian friends, this is nothing new, but to my non-Christian friends, let me elaborate a bit. Many of us attended Sunday School as children, or Vacation Bible School. The majority of us have heard the meaning of Easter in a nice, compact story: Jesus died for your sins and rose again three days later. If you haven't learned anything beyond that, you are missing out on the magnitude of what took place.
Jesus didn't "just die". The days leading up to His death were torturous for both Him and God. Can you imagine handing your only son over to a mob of crazy, radical people, knowing he is going to be tortured and beaten, and finally killed to pay for the sins of people who hate him? God knew how evil the hearts of man were, and He knew the only way to atone for the sins of man was with the ultimate sacrifice - his perfect Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He knew he would feel pain and anguish like never before, yet it had to be done. How could God let this happen? Honestly, I don't know. I don't think I could do that.
For Jesus, he was spending his last days and hours with his disciples - the people who supposedly loved Him the most. While the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest among them, Jesus knew that one of them would betray him, and the rest would run away when the time of His death drew near. How hard would it be to spend your last days with a bunch of hypocrites? Many people say they don't come to church because it's a bunch of hypocrites, but that is exactly who Jesus chose to spend his last days with.
When Judas traded a little fast cash for turning in Jesus to the soldiers, it was more than he could bear, and he hanged himself shortly thereafter. How could God let this happen? Once Jesus was taken over by the soldiers, he was beaten and scourged. When we think of those words, what comes to mind? A strap, or a stick? He was beaten with many things - straps, rods, reeds, whatever they had. And then He was scourged. In those days, they would tie sharp things like rocks in the end of a rope or strap, with several of them held together and lash them at someone's body, letting them penetrate the skin and then rip it open when they drew the straps back. This happened repeatedly until he was physically drained and exhausted. He was most likely barely recognizable. He was so weak that the tradition of carrying your cross for your execution was impossible, and someone else had to carry His cross for Him. Again, how could God let this happen?
The act of placing Him on the cross was just as awful. Driving spikes through His hands and feet, and then roughly setting the cross into a hole is something I can't even grasp. Today, our world gripes because someone left a dog out in the cold. Then, as if that wasn't enough, they stripped Him of His clothes, removing any human dignity He might have had. They spit on Him, mocked Him, and then gambled for His clothes. He wore a crown made of thorns, which they had roughly put on his head, ensuring that the thorns pierced his scalp. They pierced His side with a spear to make the blood loss even greater. They were trying to speed up His death, because by their tradition, bodies couldn't remain on the crosses on the sabbath day. They said if He was really who He said He was, that He would save himself, and though He had that power, He chose to obey God's will and remain there, becoming the ultimate sacrifice for the world. He even asked God if it was possible for there to be some other way...there was not. How could God let this happen?
In the final hour, even God couldn't look any more - it was too much. He turned His back and the world grew dark. Jesus asked why God had forsaken Him, though He knew why. And finally, it was over. When He died, the earth shook and trembled. I suspect that at that very moment, all those who played a part in the death of Jesus had a scary realization that He was who He said He was. What a frightening moment that must have been.
They took His body down, and prepared Him for burial. He was washed, and wrapped with swaddling clothes - the same thing He was wrapped in when He was born. Coincidence? I think not. He was anointed with oils and perfumes, and placed in a borrowed tomb, and a huge rock was rolled in front of the opening. The soldiers were concerned someone would steal his body and then claim that He rose from the dead, so they placed guards there day and night just to be sure no one tried to pull off a scam.
Then, three days later, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, and saw the stone had been rolled away and the body was gone. The guards had no knowledge of how anyone could have gotten past them. She ran to tell her news to Peter and they ran back to the tomb, seeing that the linens were still there, but the body of Jesus was not. And the napkin that was on His head was folded together and laying in a different place. Mary stood outside His tomb and cried, and leaned over to look inside one more time. This time, she saw two angels in white, one sitting where His head would have been, and one sitting where His feet would have been. They asked why she was crying, and she replied that someone had stolen the body of Jesus and she didn't know where they had taken Him. When she turned back, she was looking right into the face of Jesus! He asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for. She thought He was a gardener and she wanted to know if He had information about Jesus' body. Then, Jesus said, "Mary." She looked again and knew it was Him! He told her to run and tell the disciples what she had seen.
That night when the disciples met, Jesus came and stood with them and showed them His hands and His side, which bore scars of His crucifixion. He showed Himself to His disciples several times in those days after the crucifixion, still performing miracles. It is estimated He remained on the earth for about 40 days. He wanted people to see Him and know He had truly risen from the dead. Then, He ascended to Heaven to live eternally with God, His Father.
Those left on the earth were left with His Holy Spirit. He left instructions for all of the generations to come. The perfect, holy, sinless, blameless, Son of God died a horrible death on the cross as payment for all the sins of the world. He paid a debt He didn't owe, because we all owe a debt we cannot pay. The punishment for our sins is to spend eternity in hell. He is the only way out of that punishment. What greater news is there than this? He left us instructions on how to live, how to die, how to conduct ourselves, and the best part - how to make sure that our souls go to Heaven when our earthly body dies.
Before His death, paying for sins was a physical act. People had to kill a lamb or make some other atonement, physically. But after His death, He was the atonement, and He did it all for us as a gift! He said that all we have to do is make a choice in our hearts. The Bible says that if we believe that He is the perfect Son of God, and that He was crucified on a cross to pay for our sins, and that God raised Him to have victory over death, we can be saved! All we have to do is admit that we are a sinner, and that we have no power to pay the price for our own sins, and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, and ask Him to come into our hearts and abide with us forever! How could God let this happen? I truly don't know, but I am so glad He did!
To those who are not saved, there is no way I can translate to you the feeling of the Holy Spirit. It is like the wind - you can't see it, but you know it is there, occasionally blowing this way or that, guiding us on our journey. The inner peace is indescribable. True joy is on the inside, regardless of what is happening on the outside. We still have trials and sorrows, but we have the comfort of God within us to help us. It is amazing.
Want to know more? Just ask me. Message me. Call me. Come to church with me. Don't let this free gift pass you by!
Happy Easter!
