1. How do you view his cross? Do you ask that haunting question ‘What have I done?’ Are you conscious of your sin that put him there? Do you feel shame?
2. Do you question ‘Why?’ Why would he die for me? I am not worthy of such suffering. Do you feel unworthiness?
3. Do you feel grief at the depth of his suffering – Shuddering as you try to imagine how horrific it all was? Do you feel a deep sympathy for him?
4. Do you look with longing at such love, such amazing grace, such a stupendous plan that has dealt once and for all with the problem of sin and our separation from God and think ‘I wish it really worked for me?’
5. Or do you look with wonder – do you marvel at this master stroke of our loving God - who has changed the course of history by this one death…and say ‘Love so amazing, so divine shall have my soul, my life, my all.’ Does this love call you to surrender, to trust, to rest?
I read recently a book with the curious but wonderful title. ‘The Relentless tenderness of Jesus’. It’s a great word isn’t it ‘relentless’ – unstoppable – untiring – unceasing.
I remember standing many times by the Victoria Falls which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a huge waterfall a mile wide and a 400 ft. drop. A massive volume of water pours over it for 7-8 months of the year. It is mesmerising. It is relentless – pouring, pouring, pouring…. Absolutely fascinating. I thought many times - ‘This is like the love of God’ – relentless, unstoppable, undiminished, unending.
Every step Jesus took towards the cross was a demonstration of this relentless, unstoppable love conquering every obstacle every resistance, every challenge. He embraced humility in being made into a man, he ‘humbled himself’ says Philippians 3 – he left his glory behind and came as a naked baby to a peasant couple in an obscure village in an oppressed and brutalised land.
He pushed through misunderstandings, opposition, disappointments – he endured threats, insults, rejection, contrivances, plots …he was bruised by hard-heartedness, unbelief…. he was wounded by mockery, betrayal, anguish, heart-ache…. he experienced fears, unimaginable physical pain, inconceivable defilement, and felt devastating abandonment.
He was demonstrating to us that love never gives up – love never fails – love is not self-seeking – love always hopes – always perseveres. Unrelenting… unquenchable…
One writer – Baxter Kruger describes it like this:
The reality that drives the coming of Jesus Christ, and pushes him even to the cross, is the relentless and determined passion of the Father to have us as His beloved children. He will not abandon us. It has never crossed the Father's mind to forsake His original plans for us. Jesus is the proof.
Why did Jesus Christ die? What happened in his death? Jesus Christ died because the Father would not forsake us, because the Father had a dream for us that He would not abandon, because the love of the Father for us is endless and unflinching. And Jesus died because the only way to get from the Fall of Adam to the right hand of the Father was through the crucifixion of our old Adamic existence.
Jesus Christ did not go to the cross to change God; he went to the cross to change us. Jesus Christ went to the cross to call a halt to the Fall and undo it, to convert our fallen existence to his Father, to systematically eliminate our estrangement, so that he could accomplish his Father's dream for our adoption as his children.
Jesus was demonstrating to us that when the Fall happened the whole God-head said “NO!” – we will not walk away and abandon those we have created in love and for love.” Immediately, in that garden, a promise was given that this evil plan would be undone. And century after century God prepared a time and a place and a way that love would redeem this broken world. And it happened here at the cross. Here is what the world calls ‘foolishness’ but what God calls wisdom, and power, and glory – the perfectly perfect and completely complete answer to all sin and brokenness and destruction.
