Monday, April 6, 2009
Matthew 27:35 Then they crucified Him,
Mark 15:24 And when they crucified Him,
Luke 23:33 there they crucified Him,
John 19:18 where they crucified Him,
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
One question: Why? "What does it all mean?" The simple historical facts of Christ's crucifixion enable any reader to find the answers to most of those basic questions a well-written news story develops. Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why? The first five are obvious in the few short verses referenced above. But the answer to the question "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" is not just a matter of history but of revelation. This is something God the Holy Spirit reveals to the human heart through the Word of God.
Why? That question has resonated from the cross from the day Christ was crucified. What does it mean? What did it mean for Christ? What did it mean for those who stood there, for those who betrayed Him, for those who forsook Him, for those who wept for Him, for those who sought Him? What did it mean for Rome? What does it mean for this earth? What does it mean for me?
Currently there are many churches -- even churches who confess the Bible to be God's inerrant Word -- who are locked in deadly contention over this very question. Surely, there is nothing more fundamentally important to any church than the answer to the question: Why did Jesus die?
Left to their own resources, people have always viewed the cross of Christ differently. To the Jews it meant, "We have won." To Pilate, "I have survived." To the disciple, "He has failed." To the world, "He is a fraud." To history, "A good story." To the religious, "A good example."
But those through whom and to whom the Spirit has spoken are agreed in what they see at the cross of Christ. Isaiah and Jeremiah, David and Moses, Abraham and Adam, all agree with John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
What does Jesus' crucifixion mean to you?
