It Had To Be Done

The disciples and their swords did not understand the depth of salvation that Jesus would accomplish through His death.  It had to be done….   

It was not the brave desire of Jesus to die.  He did not fit the description of an epic figure marching to a pious death by which He would solicit greater support for a fantastic cause.  No, Jesus really did not want to die!  “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death, remain here, and watch with me.’  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’,” Matthew 26:38-39.  The Son of Man coveted life over a heroic, praiseworthy death.  Life retained value in His good perspective.  The Son of Man knew the preciousness of His own life in the eyes of His Father.  His humanity, despite its representation of our sin and death, was still a desirable creation that brought a smile to His Father’s eyes.

Jesus Christ carried deep down depths of sorrow and agony over the justified human condemnation He would experience.   “..a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief..” Isaiah 53:3.  It genuinely pained His heart that the Jewish people, to whom he had preached salvation, healed their sick, cast out demons, raised their dead and fed, wanted to kill him.  “…rejected… .despised… .esteemed not..” Isaiah 53:3.  Rather, the brave desire of Jesus was to save them.  The only possibility for the reconciliation of God and man, was for Jesus Christ, the God-Man, to receive all vengeance, both justified and unjustified, upon Himself. Mankind placed their anger on Jesus….  And this was the Father’s will to allow it.  “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him…” Isaiah 53:10. God the Father allowed His own character in His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment for every human assault against humanity.  Jesus paid the life that we owed.  He would extend salvation to the moment of His last breath and beautifully offer it again with the inhalation of His first renewed breath.  He was and is always a Savior!  

Jesus did not saunter to the cross that day as a heroically dying man.  He bore our shame.  “…oppressed…” Isaiah 53:7.  He bore the weight of our condemnation.  “…upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace…” Isaiah 53:5.  Our cries of anger over justice fell upon His heavy heart.  “…he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” Isaiah 53:4.  He lingered under hard wood and words.  “…stricken.. .afflicted… .wounded… .crushed,” Isaiah 53:4, 5.  Yet, Jesus went to the cross that day full of Life.  He carried a load upward, closer to the heart of Heaven than ever before, with a deep passion for Life to prevail… .not only for Himself, but for the whole human race.  Jesus accomplished what had to be done to work reconciliation.  

He embraced a vision before every Golgothan step.  A vision of us, you and I, seeing, hearing and knowing the Father once again.  “..when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many; and makes intercession for the transgressors,” Isaiah 53: 10-12.  Selah, He is truly a Savior!