Our Lord and Savior would have to be smitten, however, in order to save His people and all peoples of the earth from their greatest enemy, the penalty of sin, the second death (cf. Isa 53:3-12; Rom 6:23). Sadly, the tradition of the elders had usurped OT authority in Jesus’ day (cf. Mk 7:9, 13). Their focus and anticipation were on a victorious Messiah, not a suffering One.
Jesus
would point out their sins (cf. Jn 15:22), and though they were far from sinless,
His criticism of them rolled off like water on a duck’s back. The judicial and
religious authority (Sanhedrin) took personal offense to the words of Jesus
because they did not see themselves as sinful like the Gentiles, Samaritans,
lawbreakers, tradition-breakers, and those detestable Romans!
In
their eyes, the real sinners were this sinful group, not them. Whenever Jesus
exposed their sinfulness and hypocrisy, they hated Him the more for it! The
Jewish leadership suffered from a stupefying self-righteousness (cf. Jn 15:22;
Rom 5:12). They did not see themselves in any need of spiritual redemption but
only of political emancipation from Roman occupation.
A
man suffering from a messiah complex and hanging on the cross like a common
criminal was not the kind of Messiah the Jews had envisioned or would support. It was
inconceivable to them that the Messiah prophesied of old would be nailed to a
Roman cross. It projected weakness, defeat, and a false messiah.
In spite of their rejection and belligerency, Jesus died for sinners anyway to
provide a way of escape for mankind from certain destruction (cf. Lk 13:34; Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8). The
greatest victory known to man was what Jesus achieved on the cross at Calvary,
and His resurrection on the third day undeniably confirmed it! Are we too
easily forgetting His work for us on Calvary and the significance of it?
Do
you see Jesus like the gray-minds do? Perhaps you can’t see Jesus doing
anything for you personally because His brand of holiness doesn’t fit your
lifestyle? Jesus has omnipotent power; I say this in the present tense because
He is alive and seated on the throne as I write (Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; 8:1; 10:12;
12:2; 1 Pet 3:22).
You
know He could have destroyed His creation and called it a day when Adam fell or
when nearly an entire civilization (all but eight) turned its back on God in
Noah’s day. How about those who were turned a deaf ear to the voice of
creation, making and serving false gods (Rom 1:22-25)? Though the canon of
Scripture was still being written, ending with John’s work on Revelation ca. 94-96
A.D., the Jews traded the Word of God for tradition way before Christ died (ca.
30 A.D.) and rejected His offer of the kingdom (cf. Jn 1:11).
What
a slam in the face of God! They crucified Him to show their contempt of the One
who came to save them from themselves. Again, the Jewish leadership stubbornly refused
to believe and submit to His authority. To do so would mean that they were
guilty of sin and under a living condemnation in need of salvation. They only
cared about the debilitating effects of Roman intrusion and breaking the yoke
of military and political bondage. If Jesus was the true Messiah, what was He
doing bleeding out on a crucifix like a common criminal? “Some Messiah Jesus
turned out to be, eh?” They thought. Yes, He was and more!
I
am sure Pilate scoffed at the idea that all Jesus had to do was ask His Father
to provide more than 12 legions (72k+) of angels to come to His rescue (Mt
26:53), but Jesus literally stayed the course for us because He was committed
to the Father’s will in order to provide a way of escape for man from having to
personally pay for the penalty of sin (Lk 22:42; Jn 6:38, 40). Halleluyah!
Glory to God! Faith in Jesus can make that payment go away in an instant. Zero
faith in Jesus, as an unbeliever, will take an eternity to pay for the penalty
of his/her sin! Talk about the work of Christ having a positive significance! Selah.
What
makes us different than those who fail to see who Jesus really was/is (cf. 1
Cor 1:18; 2:14; 3:19; 2 Cor 4:4)? We are so busy we don’t have time for Jesus
anymore, yes? Elizabeth Elliot who lost her husband, Jim, to the Auca Indians
in the Ecuadorian jungles back on 1.8.1956 once said, “If you are too busy for
God, you are too busy.”
Why
do we treat Jesus the way we do? I mean; we want to spend eternity with Him
in heaven, yes, but we are not so inclined to give Him much time of our day
here on terra firma! Will an hour or two out of a 168-hour week suffice? Is
that being a lifestyle witness for Christ? No.
We
have lost sight of who Jesus really is because our eyes are distracted by the
world. Distractions do not promote relationship, worship, nor service. Whenever
we take our eyes off God, we always wind up in a place where we don’t belong;
it’s a given (cf. Gal 6:7). Are we in such a place now? Are we thinking,
speaking, and acting like the world while claiming to be a Christian?
In
some sense, we think, speak, and live in such a way that we reflect the idea of
the mob mentality before Pilate, “We will not have this Man to rule over us!” Maybe
not with such intensity, of course, but we claim to be a Christian who loves
Jesus, but our lifestyle clearly reveals we are not under His rule in our
lives; we honor Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him. And so, our rule of life is patterned after
the ancient prevailing spirit during the time of the Judges (Jdg 21:25),
In
those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was
right in his own eyes.
Just
because something feels right does not always mean the same thing as what is
right, yes? Making up truth as we go or being the sole arbiter of truth is
nothing but subjectivism, replacing the objective truth of Scripture for
subjective stupidity: “what is true to me is truth!” Cf. Prov 3:7. What a
difference it would have made in the land of Israel if Jdg 21:25 had read,
“In
those day there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in the
eyes of the LORD” (cf. Deut 13:17-18). They still had the Law of Moses back
then but willfully chose to ignore it much like believers do today with the Bible!
That is what the world does, yes?
What
a difference it would make for any believer to chuck the world’s ideas of
subjective gray matter and rely on the objective, the absolute truth of Scripture
and live out our lives doing what was right in the eyes of Yahweh (cf. Prov 3:5-6)!
As weird as this may sound, we can even become practical atheists in our
thinking, saying, and doing! God is predominantly absent in our daily routine,
not because of Him but because of our bad choices!
Perhaps
like Adam, we are being willfully stupid, or like the antediluvian civilization
(before the flood) who could care less for the Creator, or the Jews rejecting
the authority of His Word for tradition, or Jesus being nailed to a cross for sinners.
What makes us any different than the world in how Jesus is being treated when
we willfully disregard Him in our daily affairs?
If
the Holy Spirit does not truly live within the heart (cf. Jude 1:19), or if
there is no love (agape) for Him by
believers which is measured by God through our obedience to His Word (Jn 14:15,
21, 23; 1 Jn 5:3; Rev 2:4), are we not treating Jesus like the world does? The
world doesn’t know Jesus; they don’t care about Jesus; they don’t love Jesus;
they simply ignore and forget Him as if He never existed. Do we revert back to
some kind of practical atheist after our OMG moments? Is that said of us?
Life
is so much better with Jesus than without, yes! No doubt, this will be notably
seen on the other side of eternity, but here on terra firma, there are more burdens
than blessings whenever we treat Jesus like the world does. We just hadn’t
figured that out, yet. It doesn’t pay to be disobedient to Yahweh; it is the
clearest evidence of a lack of love (agape) for God (Jn 14:15).
The pattern of our life should be like Christ according to the Word of God, the absolute and final authority on all matters of faith and practice. Sons and daughters of God should never have a spiritual deportment like the upside-down world that nailed Jesus to the cross. We are in the world but not of it, remember (Jn 17:11, 16, 18)?
I implore you, brethren, by the grace of God; don’t live like those without Christ. Positive significance in maturing in the faith is found only in being in agreement with the Word. Stay true or return to your first love (Rev 2:4; 1 Jn 1:9; cf. Mk 12:30-31; 1 Jn 5:3).
(Rom 12:1) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
(Rom 12:2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. <><
