There he hung, dead on a cross for all to see.
But he was the one they were waiting for…they waited so long. He was supposed to lead Israel in the great rebellion. He was suppose to make Rome look weak. He was supposed to replace Herod as the true king of Israel.
He was a rebel, so they made an example out of him. This is how rebels end up, dead on a cross.
Don’t be like Jesus or you’ll pay. Challenge the authority of this world and you will die.
He said from the beginning that he would be handed over to death but they just didn’t believe him nor understand him.
He knew it would come to this. He knew that the world wasn’t ready for his message. They weren’t ready for his song.
***
Each year on this day we face the question, “why did Jesus die?” We usually respond by talking about substitutionary atonement (he died to pay for my sin-guilt because the wages of sin is death). This is correct, yet there’s more to the story.
This Good Friday I want to ask a different question.
Why did they kill him?
To this question we can offer any number of (good) answers:
They killed him because he claimed equality with God.
They killed him because they were jealous of his ministry.
They killed him because he rebelled against the powers that be.
The answer I want to focus on (that I believe sums up the rest) is that they killed him because they didn’t understand who God Is. He stood amongst them and they still didn’t recognize him.
Love Himself walked amongst them and they rejected it. They rejected to light of the world because they loved the darkness. They were afraid of being revealed. They were afraid that the content of their true hearts would be revealed. They faced shame and guilt when a holy God entered their presence.
He came to shed light into the darkness of the human heart. Light reveals. It reveals the mold; it reveals the truth. Where shame hides in the darkness, its terrified of being revealed. It wants more than anything to stay hidden, to stay secret. Shedding light on the corruption, decay, and evil means being found it; it means being truly known.
We will do anything to prevent being found out. We will do anything to keep what’s hidden in the dark. We will even kill the light that enlightens all men if that’s what it takes.
What we fail to understand is that he doesn’t reveal in order to shame, he reveals in order to heal. What they didn’t understand was that when the holy God enters the room, he comes to forgive, not to condemn.
We kill(ed) him because we’re afraid of being known. Yet, he goes willingly to the cross to make the claim, “You can trust me. I’m not here to shame you, I’m here to heal you. I’m not here to condemn you, I’m here to hear you. I want to know you…the real you. And I want you to know me.”
They killed him because they didn’t understand that yes, while God is a sovereign judge, he is also a Father, and he is love.
Jesus was bent on revealing the true nature of God. Miracles wouldn’t suffice. Walking on water wouldn’t suffice. These things were external. He needed something internal that would take root in the hearts of people. He know that the only way we can understand is if we taste and see that the Lord is good. He gave up his own flesh and blood to be consumed simply so that we could truly understand the heart of God.
