Me: Howdy Prodigal! What are you doing over there?
Prodigal: I am at the cross and wondering what it really means with Jesus?
Me: There is a lot of talk about that but I like what Ravi Zacharias said in his book Jesus Among Other gods The Absolute Claims of The Christian Message.
The first and foremost reality is that suffering and death are not only enemies of life, but a means of reminding us of life’s twin realities, love and hate. Here, the love and hate did not just happen. The paths were chosen. Those who hurt Him hated Him. Those who hated Him, He loved. Those who killed Him wanted to be rid of Him. By allowing Himself to be killed, He made it possible for them to live. The crucifixion of Jesus was the embodied expression of rebellion against God. His desolation was a profound attempt to break apart the very being of God, in the Holy Trinity.
But here is the point. He did not die as a martyr for a cause, as others have done; nor was He just nonviolent so that the enemy would surrender through public outcry, as still others have done. He did not even die because He was willing to pay the price that someone else would live. He came to lay down His life so that the very ones who killed Him, who represented all of us, could be forgiven because of the price that He paid in the hell of a world that does not recognize His voice. Those who had rejected the text and manipulated the context of His Word saw and heard what God incarnate disclosed of reality. Every feeling they experienced, every state of mind, every utterance was the opposite of what Jesus felt, did, and said. His counter perspective stands in brilliant and sharp contrast, even as He invited them on the basis of that death to come to Him for forgiveness, because He longed to reach out to them.
Do you see how Jesus stands for something different? This is not the world. This is not even something me or you would think of. We choose to follow lesser people and ideas. Why not follow something as amazing as this?
Jesus is reaching out to you!
Matthew 7:24
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
