Tuesday, March 6, 2012

John 18:4-6 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?" They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground."

HE CHOSE THE CROSS

There are an estimated 6 septillion stars in the universe. That's 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, and Jesus brought them all into existence simply by speaking the words, "Let there be ..." Imagine if you had even a portion of that power. What would you do if a group of mere mortals came to take you with the intent of beating you, torturing you and crucifying you? I can imagine laughing at their feeble attempts before blowing them away.

Oh the foolishness of those soldiers who thought they could take Jesus by force! The priests and Pharisees had seen his power so they brought a detachment of troops, literally a Cohort. At full strength a Roman Cohort was made up of 600 men. Jesus showed how ridiculous the idea was. He caused the whole troop to fall to the ground just by saying, "I am He." Jesus was handing Himself over to them and they couldn't even step up to take hold of Him. Yet, Jesus did nothing to hurt them in any way. He just wanted to make it clear to them and to us that He was going with them completely willingly. Not all the armies on earth could take Jesus against His will.

Here we see the power of His love. His love was even greater than His power. How dreadfully shameful that creatures should treat their own Creator in this way. How amazing that the creator willingly submitted to it rather than striking them dead!

How wonderful for us! Jesus chose to go to the cross for us rather than strike us down for all the abuse we have heaped upon Him by our sins.