MUSINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE
‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Luke 9:22
All the events of Easter were foreknown by the Savior. This key point emphasizes the resolute love that Jesus had for all those who were given to him by the Father. The Son of Man was determined to fulfill the will of God, though the cost was enormous and terrifying through the duration of his passion. Jesus knew he would rise again and that his chosen ones would be marvelously saved. He yielded himself to the certainty of the divine purpose. There would be no reduction of the horrendous suffering he must undergo and every minute would be fearfully anticipated and the actuality unbelievably agonizing. As Isaiah so vividly describes the bitter plight of our Redeemer ‘he was struck with affliction by God’ [53:4]: ‘It was Yahweh’s good pleasure to crush him with pain [53:10].
Here we find that God’s good pleasure is not always equivalent to his enjoyment. His ‘good pleasure’ is the reality and result of his sure plan crafted by his infinite wisdom. Absolute sovereignty is his incontestable prerogative. We cannot envision how the Father’s heart was rent by the Son’s rejection by men, and the crucifixion engineered by Israel’s religious leadership. Human rejection of the sweet and holy Lord Jesus was the crystallization of all the hatred and hostility of our race toward the Lord and the precious One whom he sent. Divine Majesty came among us as Mercy and we repudiated its arrival in the gravest rebelliousness ever perpetrated and recorded in the annals of the universe. Every planet in our solar system, and far beyond, must have trembled on Good Friday. The enormity of our crime is beyond measure. We foolish, contemptible creatures of dust arrayed ourselves against the authority and beauty of Paradise; the awesome Ruler, Governor of all, seen and unseen. We were happy to facilitate the suffering of the Son of Man.
But God, not for a moment, was shaken at our furious assault. Through everything that occurs he is always Commander of events and effectually advancing his purpose. Our hatred for Jesus was turned to the healing our breach with him because of Adam’s Fall. He deigned to quell our savagery toward him through his intended sacrifice as the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, who, more powerful than death, rose again and by his substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection effected justification for all those that trust him as bearer of sin and donor of life.
Contemplation of the great facts of Easter is enthralling and potentially endless. Every word of the Easter narrative demands that we pause upon it. One tends to read Scripture too hurriedly, publicly and privately. A Happy and Holy Easter.
RJS
‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Luke 9:22
All the events of Easter were foreknown by the Savior. This key point emphasizes the resolute love that Jesus had for all those who were given to him by the Father. The Son of Man was determined to fulfill the will of God, though the cost was enormous and terrifying through the duration of his passion. Jesus knew he would rise again and that his chosen ones would be marvelously saved. He yielded himself to the certainty of the divine purpose. There would be no reduction of the horrendous suffering he must undergo and every minute would be fearfully anticipated and the actuality unbelievably agonizing. As Isaiah so vividly describes the bitter plight of our Redeemer ‘he was struck with affliction by God’ [53:4]: ‘It was Yahweh’s good pleasure to crush him with pain [53:10].
Here we find that God’s good pleasure is not always equivalent to his enjoyment. His ‘good pleasure’ is the reality and result of his sure plan crafted by his infinite wisdom. Absolute sovereignty is his incontestable prerogative. We cannot envision how the Father’s heart was rent by the Son’s rejection by men, and the crucifixion engineered by Israel’s religious leadership. Human rejection of the sweet and holy Lord Jesus was the crystallization of all the hatred and hostility of our race toward the Lord and the precious One whom he sent. Divine Majesty came among us as Mercy and we repudiated its arrival in the gravest rebelliousness ever perpetrated and recorded in the annals of the universe. Every planet in our solar system, and far beyond, must have trembled on Good Friday. The enormity of our crime is beyond measure. We foolish, contemptible creatures of dust arrayed ourselves against the authority and beauty of Paradise; the awesome Ruler, Governor of all, seen and unseen. We were happy to facilitate the suffering of the Son of Man.
But God, not for a moment, was shaken at our furious assault. Through everything that occurs he is always Commander of events and effectually advancing his purpose. Our hatred for Jesus was turned to the healing our breach with him because of Adam’s Fall. He deigned to quell our savagery toward him through his intended sacrifice as the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, who, more powerful than death, rose again and by his substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection effected justification for all those that trust him as bearer of sin and donor of life.
Contemplation of the great facts of Easter is enthralling and potentially endless. Every word of the Easter narrative demands that we pause upon it. One tends to read Scripture too hurriedly, publicly and privately. A Happy and Holy Easter.
RJS
RSS Feed
