"Crucify him! Crucify him!" The crowd incited by the Pharisees cried and Pilate gives in to their demand.
Jesus was crucified, nailed to the cross.
But He was not crucified for His own crimes. He was nailed to the cross because of the sins of humanity - our sins. Just like a sacrificial lamb that has nothing to do with the sins of the people making the offering, the Lord - fittingly called the Lamb of God - freely accepted this kind of death. He obediently accepted the Father's will who sent Him into the world because of the Father's great love for mankind which Jesus Himself declared by saying, "The Father does not want anyone to be lost!"
We are so precious in the eyes of the Father that He did not spare His own Son from dying for us. In the Old Testament He commanded Abraham to offer Issac but when Abraham was about to stab his son the Lord sends an angel to stop him. But when God was about to offer His Son nobody stopped Him. For mankind was so engrossed with its selfish and worldly goals that it didn't care about anything - even if it is about its ultimate destination.
Jesus our Lord had to die on the cross because we cared not for our own salvation; because we don't want God telling us what's good for us - we have already decided for ourselves what's good for us and it is having absolute freedom and unlimited enjoyment of our rights here on earth! We don't even care enough about God at all: many of us don't even acknowledge His place in our lives anymore. For many God is only about religion and religion is only talked about on Sundays, in the church, and needed by the weak, the sick, the poor, the lonely, the marginalized, the elderly, that is, the trash of society! [Probably the ones who will be eliminated first when overpopulation finally consumes the earth!]
The strong, the powerful and the wealthy do not need God nor the Church. They are the ones who have the influence to crucify anyone who will disturb the worldly peace of the society - a society which declares itself free from any spiritual power or objective moral foundations. In this age, the crucifixion happens every moment people deny the truth of God, disregard the truth of objective morality, and embrace ideologies and systems that allow the lusts of man to overpower his rationality. Ironically, in their quest for mere human freedom, they rely on logic, reason and science which actually naturally affirm the divine truths: but they just won't accept this!
For us, friends of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must face the challenges of the modern world each moment of our lives with steadfast faith and full trust in the Lord. May we never be on the side of the crucifiers even if our cause seems to be leading nowhere for even the Lord faced the certainty of death and experienced it and yet rose from the dead afterwards. Let this and His love comfort us and strengthen our resolve to be faithful to the Father and obedient to His Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment