Tuesday 7 April 2020

The Crucifixion

Years ago I presented a Christian program on the radio called Time For Reflections. The same title I chose for this Blog.

The program consisted of me playing Christian records, readings from the Bible, sometimes guests like Father Francis Maple, and often me talking about various Christian subjects and views. You can listen to some of the old tapes I've rescued by clicking on the tab "Reflections Soundtracks" at the top of this Blog.

One Sunday I was getting ready to start my program and the disc jockey who had just finished his program was packing up to go home. He said en-passant, "I can never understand you, Christians. You revel in the cruel death on the Cross of an innocent man!"

I regret to this day that I did not have the time to discuss his statement with him. I was due to go on air and he said good-bye and left.

I think the problem here is that often, even we Christians, do not understand the meaning of Christ's death. We may wear a cross or Crucifix on a chain round our neck, have a Cross at home, or pray beside one in church; but do we really understand what it represents?

Let's consider the Crucifixion for a moment or two.

As Christians, we believe in only one living, omnipotent, creator God who made us all and made everything and everyone else. We believe that He made Himself known to humanity over the ages through the prophets and by various means ever since. There has not been a generation since which has not had the opportunity to know about the existence of God.

To make Himself better known to humanity, God chose, at a time of His own choosing, to appear in human form by sending His only Son, Jesus, on earth. He was born by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and grew up amongst us as a human being, albeit He was/is God. We saw Him, spoke with Him, and witnessed His many miracles.

When God sent us Jesus, He knew from the start how we would behave. He knew that some of us would rebel against Him, and even put Him to death. He predicted all that through the prophets. Did you know that when we study the life of Jesus, there are more than 300 prophesies about Him in the Old Testament that He fulfilled in His life. Some prophesies He had no personal control over - like where He would be born, the manner of His death and suffering, where He would be buried. The fact that on His death the Romans would not break His legs as they did to the other two crucified with Him. The fact that the Roman soldiers would divide His clothes amongst themselves and gamble for His robe whilst He hung from the Cross.

God knew all these things would happen and He taught the prophets to write about them. Yet, knowing what was to happen, God did not interfere. Did not try to stop it from happening. Why?

Had He interfered He would have been interfering with our freedom to choose; our freedom to do evil; our free will! A freedom we have used for generations to sow death and destruction throughout the world.

God gave us the great gift to choose right from the very beginning of creation. Some angels chose not to love and follow God, and became evil led by Satan. Many amongst us have made similar choices ever since. And God allows it to happen because of His loving gift of free choice to choose. Even to choose to rebel against Him.

It is we, humans, who nailed Christ to the Cross. Not God. It is our hatred, our anger and our rebellion that nailed Him to die a most cruel death. God allowed it to happen because of love for us.

But the story does not end there. As in the death and resurrection of Lazarus; remember when Jesus said, "The final result of this illness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the son of God will receive glory."

Well, the same applies in the death of Christ Himself. His Resurrection was the means by which God, and His only Son, Jesus, would receive glory.

I wish I had the chance to explain all that to my disc jockey friend.

26 comments:

  1. Jesus' death was the cost of mankind's rebellion. Jesus' resurrection was the guarantee that it was paid in full... past, present, and future!

    Great thoughts today Victor!

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    1. Thank you Ryan. You are of course correct.

      God bless.

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  2. What a sad individual, your colleague. Years ago when pressed, a dear friend shared (that) God 'allows' things to happen. At the time I didn't 'get it', but your easy-to-understand philosophies are valued. Please, don't stop!

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    1. Thank you for your kind compliment, Mevely.

      Yes, I believe God allows things to happen, rather than interfere and stop them.

      When we pray, "Thy will be done"; we must remember that it is NOT always done in the sense we think or believe. It is NOT His will that bad things happen; murder, theft and so on. This is NOT His will.

      BUT, and this is an important BUT, it IS His will that we should have the freedom to choose how we behave. Whether we behave badly or not. It IS His will that we have the freedom to choose. He gave us that gift out of love. He will not take that gift away from us; not matter how badly we behave.

      God bless, Mevely.

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  3. So much about God is difficult to understand, much seems implausible, some refer to bible stories as fairy tales and I expect many bible exaggerations were created to make a point.

    When I am having difficulty with beliefs I choose to just look around at the world, air, water, fire, other creatures...it is all pretty implausible when you get right down to it isn't it.

    If fish can swim underwater, birds can fly across continents and I can talk to my son 3000 miles away while watching him on a 4 inch screen, then what in the bible is really implausible?

    Keep preaching Victor!

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    1. Yes JoeH, there is so much about God which is difficult to understand. But then God never asked us to understand Him. He asked us to believe in Him and to trust Him. Can you imagine that? To trust someone we have not seen, without any hard-proof evidence or facts. I guess that is what Faith is.

      To quote Hebrews Chapter 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

      God bless, JoeH.

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    2. I'm working on it Victor...it's not always easy. Your posts do help.

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    3. You are very kind, JoeH. Thank you for your friendship.

      God bless you and yours.

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  4. Amen, Victor, Amen! ALL things bring glory to God.

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  5. Wonderful presentation Victor. yeah...to bad your dj friend did not get a chance to hear.

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    1. I regret that he just left to go home. In those days DJs used to meet each other every few weeks or so as program schedules allowed.

      God bless, Bill.

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  6. I wish you could have explained it to him, too. Maybe someone else down the line had the opportunity and reached him the way you wish you had been able to. You explained it so beautifully here.

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    1. Thanx Cheryl. Yes, I hope someone did speak to him about God and Jesus. I have now lost contact with those people from my radio days.

      God bless.

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  7. You have a way with words Victor. There is so much about God that we don't understand, we just have to believe and trust. It always comes down to that, doesn't it.

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    1. Thank you for your kind compliment, Bill. Yes, it comes down to having faith in the end.

      God bless you.

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  8. You explained this perfectly, Victor. Hoping, like Cheryl, that your DJ friend met someone who could share with him the lucid thoughts you've expressed here.
    Blessings!

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    1. Indeed Martha. I wish that someone did speak to him about God. I enjoyed those Christian radio programs I did.

      God bless always.

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  9. We do not revel in His cruel death, we celebrate that He chose to undergo being "abandoned" by His Father, thus taking our punishment. Big difference.

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  10. We serve a LIVING GOD. :)
    Great post!!

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  11. What a wonderful post, Victor. My heart trembles when I read the passages on the crucifixion, to realize each time it was MY sin that nailed him to the cross, and HIS LOVE FOR ME that kept Him there.
    I pray that the DJ had someone else come along and further what you started. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase and gets the glory.
    I'm reading a devotional The Path of His Passion, and I find myself drawn into the scene as if I were there. It has cased me to do some personal fasting, prayer and discipline this Holy Week. Blessing dear friend for sharing the TRUTH of God's Holy Word.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Wanda. I try my best here in this Blog to spread the Word of God as best I can.

      God bless you and your family, Wanda.

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  12. Jesus paid the price for our sins and became the sacrificial lamb. Without Him doing this we could not be reconciled back to God and would not have access to everlasting life.

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