I have always been a Christmas kind of girl. The manger, the wisemen, the virgin birth – it just never gets old.
This week, however, my heart is overwhelmed with thoughts of Easter. Thanks to this post, I have been
following Easter week in real time and I’m captivated by the drama of it all.
As the week progresses, I find myself anxiously awaiting what I know is to come. I become tense as Friday draws near. I long for the happier anticipation that Christmas brings. Yet, without Friday’s cross, Christmas is reduced to a nice story. And Christ did not come to be a nice story. God did not wrap Himself in human flesh so that we could have warm fuzzies as we sit in the glow of Christmas lights.
Christ came for the cross.
I can not escape the reality of this week. Even as I follow the children of Israel on their exodus out of Egypt, I am reminded.
The blood…will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. – Exodus 12:13 HCSB
From the very beginning, it was about the blood. When God passed through the land of Egypt, he was looking for the blood on the door frames. And today, when God looks at us, He sees us as covered in the precious, redeeming blood of His Son.
Because Christ chose to receive what He did not deserve…we, in turn, do not receive what we do deserve.
I wonder as the week progresses whom I would have been during this week? As a Christian, I would like to think I would have been the only person to stand up beside Him during the entire ordeal, but somehow the wiser part of me knows that it probably wouldn’t have been so. You see, NOW I have the advantage of knowing the entire story. At that time, they were right in the middle of the story, and even Jesus’ closest friends and followers were shocked, scared and bewildered by what was going on. Would I have been a follower, scared and bewildered? Would I have been one of the scribes and Pharisees who sought Jesus’ death, either out of a wish to keep in place a hierarchy on which I was the top rung, or out of a blind refusal to see who He really was or out of a belief that I was sacrificing one man for the greater good, to keep the Romans from asserting authority over the temple? Would I even have had the courage to speak out about the many illegalities in His trial under the Mosiac law?Would I simply have been one of the people in the streets who didn’t bother about what was going on up in the temple, thinking that what happened up there didn’t apply to me at all? Would I have been like Nicodemus, believing in Jesus in secret, but not proclaiming Him aloud? Would I have been one of those who mocked HIm as He was scourged, suffering, and crucified? Would I have been throwing lots at the foot of the cross for His clothers? For me, these are uncomfortable questions – but necessary ones.
workmomad – I’m right there with you. I marvel at the faith of the believers of Jesus’ time, who, as you said, WERE the story being written and didn’t have the benefit of knowing that we know now because of the Bible. It really does make one question their faith. To me, there is real genius in God’s overall plan. While those who lived in Jesus’ era had the honor of knowing and being taught by Him personally, we do not. Jesus WAS (and is) the Bible of their time. While we don’t have Jesus in the flesh, we do have the inerrant Word of God, not to mention a record of the mistakes made before us so we don’t have to repeat history.
Wow. You both make some great points and raise some very thought-provoking questions. I love it! You ladies have a wonderful day!