At the start of his ministry, Jesus is baptized, and as he comes out of the water, the Bible says,
"And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Mark 1:11
At the end of his ministry, Jesus is on the cross, and he finds himself alone, crying out,
"My God my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46
The same Father who found great joy in his beloved son, now has to turn his back on him as the full wrath of God that was intended for mankind, for you, for me, is placed completely on Jesus.
That's what happened because of our sin. Sin isn't just something that makes us feel bad about ourselves. It is our sin, that as a great hymn says, "held Him there, until it was accomplished." Our sins were the nails in his hands, the spear in his side.
We are all like Peter. We will deny Christ as we pretend that we don't know him as we live our lives in sin. We abandon him. Yet even though our sins condemned him, Jesus decides to save us.
A man without sin can't be held by the grave. If the wages of sin is death, then the grave has no reason to hold Jesus, the one without sin, but the one who took on the sins of the world so we didn't have to.
A good man who taught lessons through metaphors couldn't do that. Jesus is not simply a good moral teacher. He is not just a historical figure who was crucified for causing a ruckus in Roman occupied Israel. He is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords who fights for a world he loves, and wins.
So Jesus rises from the dead. He conquers it. He defeats it forever. The battle, the war, the victory is his, and he shares that with us. That's grace. When we were the ones that put Christ on the cross, yet when Jesus complete's the ultimate comeback story, he wants us to share in the victory with him. So we rejoice, we sing hymns, we worship, we celebrate.
The greatest story ever written as a dramatic ending. The hero dies in the middle, but he wins in the end.
#TrueStory
Happy Easter
Happy Easter
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