Hanging out with Jesus XXIII: Free but
not cheap
Mark
15
Cheap
grace is grace without the cross. When
you hang out with Jesus, the best comes from facing the cross daily. Through
the cross, he gives hope and takes life to its fullness. When you forget the
cross, it is very easy to take God's grace and salvation for granted.
Often
people who receive an expensive item as a gift tend to take it for granted.
They fail to appreciate its value and the effort and expense the giver put into
making the gift possible. As a result, they do not maintain the item well.
Because salvation is a gift, you also may fail to recognize how much of a treasure
it is (Mathew 13:44). You therefore will
not take it seriously. You neglect the disciplines and commitments required to
maintain and sustain the experience of the gift. You lower its standards of
right living.
Something
special existed between Paul and knowing Jesus. He longed to know him better by
focusing on the cross and pressing toward the mark of his calling. He preached
the cross (1 Corinthians 1:17, 18; 2:2).
Without knowing him, he had no message – for he preached nothing but the
crucified Jesus who conquered the grave.
He would have enjoyed preaching from 'Mark 15'.
Looking
at Mark 15, one can answer three questions about Jesus and the cross - how much it cost, why the trouble and what it
achieved.
How much it cost
You
and I receive the benefit of salvation from the showroom. Mark 15 gives a tour
of the bloody mess in the workshop. Quickly you realise that salvation was free
to us (Ephesians 2:8, 9) but at a great expense to Jesus. He paid an infinitely
high price. If sold no one would afford Salvation. No human payment or
performance can be good enough. No wonder it had to be a gift. What price can you
attach to the life of the son of God for He gave his son (John 3:16). You will
never know how much it cost because you will never know the metrics of
God. To start, he paid heavily to come
and live in a sinful world (Philippians 2:5ff). He went through all the
pressures, troubles, and temptations of human life. He was burdened, opposed,
betrayed, denied, rejected, despised, treated unjustly, beaten up, and in
Chapter 15 handed over to Pilate.
Before
Pilate, as a sheep led to the slaughter, Jesus did not answer questions and
false accusations they bombarded him with except for the charge of being the king
of the Jews. To that, he responded 'You have said so'. Still not convinced
Pilate appealed to the crowd. Surely, they followed him in mass and sang his
praises when he entered Jerusalem
Handed
over to the Roman soldiers for crucifixion, they whipped him as much as 39
times with a whip loaded with pieces of metal/bones. Mercilessly they plowed
through and ravaged his flesh. They pierced his head with a crown of thorns.
Beat him on the head, mocked, and spat on him. After the brutal assault, he
still had to carry his cross to Golgotha . It was so unbearable that on the way, Simon
from Africa (A Cyrenian) was compelled by the
soldiers to help him carry the cross. It became an unexpected privilege to identify
with Christ’s suffering at a point of his greatest need.
At
Golgotha , they nailed him to the cross. Two
criminals were crucified alongside him. Both made insults to Jesus. However,
Luke notes that one in the end confessed faith in Jesus. Jesus suffered from
bearing the sins of billions of people one by one all in one crucifixion. He
was sentenced to death billions of times to cover each person that ever lives.
He cried to God 'why have thou forsaken me'.
You
need to be aware that he would still have died even if only one person lived in
the world. When you see him on the cross see yourself. You can hang out with
him up to Gethsemane , the place of prayer. At Golgotha the place of the skull, you can only be IN him.
He hides you in himself. He was nailed and suffered on the cross for you. He refused the wine vinegar that could reduce
pain thus taking the full measure of your pain. For at least three hours, he
hung there in excruciating pain until he made his last breath, gave up his
Spirit to God, and died. Joseph of Arimathaea was granted the body of Jesus and
he buried it in a tomb whose entrance he sealed with a big stone.
A centurion who observed what happened
acknowledged 'surely this was the son of God.'
No people involved including the disciples knew what they were doing.
Jesus alone knew what he was doing. That is why he prayed to forgive them for they
have no clue of what's going on. The
same is true in your life as a believer. He knows what is going on in your
situation. You may not know what is happening, and others may not understand but he
knows what he is doing. No one understood him until meeting him at the cross
and the empty tomb. You also will not know what he is doing until you meet him
at the cross. Until you have become conscious of its reality. The cross, explains the puzzles people have
about Jesus.
Why the trouble
The
cross was not a divine kneejerk crisis reaction. It was God’s ultimate
expression of love from the foundation of the earth. The lamb was slain from the beginning
(Revelation 13:8). God in his self-originating nature chose to put mercy at the
core of his being. No wonder at the core
of the tabernacle was the mercy seat. He deposits the same in believers, the
current temple. His mercies never cease and are fresh every morning. One is
closest to God and being like God not when feeling goosebumps but when showing
mercy.
When
mercy is translated to action, it is compassion. His compassion for humanity
brought him from heaven and took him through the torturous and treacherous
process to the cross. Compassion allowed his persecutors to have their day.
Compassion kept him on the cross. Compassion made him even die for his
crucifers. He could have walked away anytime. He could have blinded them. He
could have withdrawn breath from them. He could have called a legion or even
one angel to sort them out. His options were limitless. But his compassion was
deep enough to endure the cross for the joy to see people reconciled to God.
Compassion will bring him back.
Jesus
came to deal with the problem of human separation caused by sin. He died to
take away the punishment that all sinners deserve (John 3:16). He did not
deserve to die for he knew no sin. He however paid a debt he did not owe
because you owed a debt you could not pay.
What it achieved
Jesus
did not die in vain. The cross crossed out our debts and removed them away
completely. The curtain in the temple
was torn into two from top to bottom. That signified that the way to the
presence of God (Holy of Holies) and all he represents and offers - his mercy
and favour was now open. Praise God, you now have access to come before God
boldly. By placing faith in him as your lord and saviour you gain forgiveness,
freedom, a new identity, a new position,
wonderful promises and provisions highlighted in the bible (e.g. Isaiah 53, Epistles)
Surely, he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
mouth. (Isaiah 53:4-7)
So
amazing, what cost God so much you simply believe and receive at no fees. Refuse
to pay. Fees must fall. Fears must fall.
Sin must fall. Barriers must fall. Faith
must rise up. Eyes must open.
Whatever
he went through you do not have to go through. All your curses are broken and
removed for cursed is he who hung on a tree. It can come but it can no longer
cause pain or harm (Psalm 91). It does not need to make you sleepless. He took
its sting away as he did with death. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. The
obstacles you face are ignorance, sin, doubt, inaction, and spiritual barriers.
The cure for sin is repentance. The cure for doubt is to believe. The cure for ignorance is prayerfully reading
and meditating on God’s word. The way to deal with evil spirits is to resist
them. Curses and barriers persist until a believer who knows his authority
gives a stop command.
Freely
you received freely give. Whatever he gave, you ought to share with others, if
you received forgiveness you ought to forgive. When you release your offenders,
you release yourself from the burden of offense to God's favour. Jesus released
himself for resurrection when he prayed for the Father to forgive them.
Message by Dr. Kurai Chitima.
