Wednesday, August 10, 2011
John 19:28-30 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
BLACK: THE COLOR FOR SIN AND ITS CURSE
When a murderer comes before the judge, everyone expects him to hand down a punishment for the crime. Justice demands it, right? That is what the civil government is supposed to do -- it is supposed to punish the evildoer. If the judge were to say to the convicted killer, "We won't worry about it this time. You're free to go," people would consider it outrageous.
When we come before God's justice, we are black with guilt. From birth we have been stained with imperfection, with sin. We don't love and trust God the way we should. We do not treat others in loving ways. We hurt others by what we say and do. We think thoughts of hatred, lust, and other things that are unholy and impure. And these are not things at which we can just shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well, nobody's perfect, it doesn't matter as long as I'm not really bad." No, these are sins against God and as such they require His punishment. For if human justice demands something when its laws are broken, how much more so shouldn't God's justice demand something when His law is broken? And it does. God requires the death of the sinner -- every sinner, every person, who is black with evil.That means we're in real trouble. But that is where Jesus steps in.
There is one day of the year when the church is colored in black. It is on Good Friday, the day we celebrate the death of Christ on the cross. On the cross Jesus took all our sin, all that blackness and transferred it to Himself. He became the sinful one, as if He had committed every evil ever done by every person ever. And so the Heavenly Father did in fact punish—everyone's sin -- —but He did it in the person of Jesus. The requirements of justice were indeed met, but He took our place on that cross. He died the death that we deserved to die. He was forsaken by God when it was us who deserved to be forsaken.
Black is the color for sin and its curse, and it's a color that often makes us sad and scared. In a way, though, we could also look at it as a color that makes us happy, because it reminds us how Jesus was punished instead of us. Truly all who believe in Him will be saved!
