There is a high level of irony at work in the moments of Christ’s death at Calvary. To fully understand the irony, we must grasp that it is the moment of Christ painful death on the cross that Jesus’s Messiahship comes to a head. This is the moment that Jesus came for. Jesus came, as the long-awaited Messiah, to die. The greatness of Jesus as the Messiah is manifest in this moment of agony, this moment of defeat. How ironic!
The idea that Jesus’ greatness is precisely in his defeat is diametrically opposed to what we would humanly consider as the “great climax” to the best story ever told. How is it that God’s great mission to put right what went wrong in the Garden comes to a wonderful and glorious climax in the horrifying moment of the cross, the greatest injustice known to humanity?
To answer this, consider the elements of royalty present at Calvary. To start, he’s dressed in purple (royale). Second, he’s crowned with a crown of thorns. Third, he has a sign posted over his head reading “The King of the Jews,” not just in one language, but in three! While hanging on the cross, Jesus utters verse 1 of Psalm 22 thereby clearly indicating his Messianic identity in David. All of these things point to the fact that Jesus’ Messianic Kingship reaches its fulfillment in this moment of suffering, in this moment of death. The irony is in the fact that humanity is mocking Jesus claim to Messianic Kingship when in fact, He is, in actually, fulfilling his greatest Messianic duty: death.
The irony is so strong that everyone misses it. No one sees this event for what it actually is. This happens quite often in Jesus ministry. The disciples and those who followed Jesus were constantly confused about what he was telling them. The most evident example of this is Peter rebuking Jesus for foretelling his death. Peter understands that the Messiah is not to die, to the contrary, the prophecies tell us that the Messiah is to live forever! The Messiah, like Moses, is to lead a national rebellion agains the ungodly nations and establish Israel’s hegemony over the earth. Die? That’s exactly the opposite of the Messianic duties. Death is not a part of the Messianic job description!
The question that remains, then, is how in the world does DEATH function as the great Messianic event? Jesus was doing something so much greater than that which was expected from a human perspective (this is ALWAYS the case, by the way). The problem of Eden was not the oppression of a gentile people or foreign nation. The problem of Eden is the corruption of the heart. The problem of Eden is that the Divine Image bearers have abandoned their mission from God to reflect God’s love into the world. You see, with Jesus’ death he is putting to death the old corrupt age of humanity and creation so that the new creation can be launched through the resurrection. Rather than establishing an earthly kingdom (which he will do upon his second coming and final judgment) he’s thrusting the problem of death, the central problem of humanity, into the grave. He’s nailing to the cross the old age of depravity and perversion. On the cross, in this horrific, yet glorious moment, Jesus puts death to death. This is the culmination of God’s great mission in the world.
What Israel could not accomplish, Jesus, the true and faithful Israel, accomplishes in his perfect obedience to the Father. And, Hallelujah, this act of Jesus will provide a means for the justification (forgiveness) of believers so that they can received the long-promised, and glorious gift of the Holy Spirit which enables us to live as members of the New Covenant,citizens of the New Creation, citizens of Zion, of the Holy Mountain. The Old has gone and the New has come. Praise be to Jesus.
© Matthew I. Ayars and Tea In Solitude, [2013-2014]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matthew I. Ayars and Tea In Solitude with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
