So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself he sent to the placed called “Place of the Skull.” There they nailed him to the cross…. And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.‘ John 19:16b-19.
I couldn’t watch Braveheart a second time. It is the story of William Wallace’s war against King Edward I of England. The end of the movie depicts Wallaces brutal torture and death. The first time I saw it I thought about the cruel death that Jesus suffered for me. And therein lies the reason I couldn’t watch it again. Too painful to watch.
I think that it is possible to get too consumed by the death of Jesus and miss the point or purpose of the death. That’s not to say the death itself is unimportant, but more importantly is what Jesus was accomplishing through his death. Jesus was not dying for the sake of dying.
The New Testament describes the reason for the death as redemption or salvation. Human sin entraps us in a cage that you might call addiction or darkness or loss of our self that can only be opened by taking away the power of our sin. The cross demonstrates how far God is willing to go to rescue us.
On the cross Jesus proved that the power and grip of sin can be broken and the gate to death can be broken down through his resurrection from the tomb. Also, from the cross, God calls to us to join the march of discipleship.
Gnosticism is a philosophy saying that material things are evil and things belonging to God are good and not material. Some believed that God could not have possibly died on the cross, because it would have required God to have a physical, evil body. This, of course, is false. God had to die in a physical body because that was the only way to face sin and death head-on. And to also walk straight out of the tomb, unassisted.
N. T. Wright says that on Monday after Easter we should be drinking Champagne instead to taking a day off. Celebrating the extraordinary thing God did. Amen.
Prayer: God of Resurrection. We give thanks to you for the way that you took on Sin and Death and defeated them finally, in the embodiment of your life and the searing victory over Death. May we be Champagne people, celebrating the triumphant victory of your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.