Christ's Heart Breaking Victory

What would you do when the very people you call family reject you? How would you feel when the very children you brought into this world call you a lunatic and spit at you disgraceful insults? What would transpire in your heart, when they treat you like a leprous prostitute? Or how would you react when the ones you love so dearly, jeer and hurl insults at you on the very day you are going to die (and apparently they are the ones who are plotting your death)? If I were present amongst you, I would like to know how you would feel, knowing that the very ones you love know that they are ardent to see your end come in such a devastating manner. Perhaps, you could try and imagine how it would all feel when your spouse ties you to a chair and makes you a witness to his or her violation of your marriage vows together. I would say that that is just a fraction of the magnitude of sorrows Jesus suffered for you and me and the entire human race throughout his life.

Sold off is what you would feel like at that moment! But one can only imagine what Christ suffered on the day of His crucifixion.

Imagine having not slept the whole night through and having a night that was extremely eventful. Imagine having to visit three police stations for no crime you have committed but knowing you are going to be sentenced anyways (because corruption is the yeast in the whole bread). And the sentence is excruciating death. Also bear in mind that all of these happen when most of the people who walk and talk with you are sound asleep.

Imagine a time when every one is waking up to have breakfast, when the sun has just begun its course through the day sky and that's exactly when your sentence is finalized. You are going to die! And that's already been decided by the authorities.

Oh wait, I forgot something. Your visits to all three police stations weren't as decent as you thought it would have been. You're walking with 35% or so of the flesh on your back cut and torn and you're bleeding profusely. Last nights dinner was only a few pieces of bread and that implies that you're not about walking tall in a situation like this. It's a lot like being skinned alive, slightly toasted over slow fire and then forced to walk on your very own feet again.

You're extremely tired from everything and you have yet another unknown number of hours to endure. At this time all you can think of is either a wife or a mother to care for your fresh wounds and a comfy bed or death to sting you faster than you can watch it coming.

It's 8 a.m. and the commoner is preparing to begin the race to win bread for his family but you're just about to begin a race to your death for all humanity. It's a known road you're walking on and everyone from every family in the city rush out of their houses to witness what they thought was a rumor of your execution. You are after all, a prominent figure in the society and a respected one indeed. But here, you appear before the very people you lead with love, as one utterly despised. Some think of you as a political outlaw when all you spoke of was what was wrong with what they thought was right. You shed the light and they could not endure the sight of their nakedness. Consequently they plotted to turn you into an animal for the slaughter but released a bear like Barabas from the cage.

Nonetheless, you start the march towards your destiny with a heavy yoke upon your back (something like an 8 feet tall Christmas tree fresh from the woods). Your eyes are fixed on the road ahead of you for what glory lay before you. If soldiers are rendered medals in a war, your insignia on this very day would be the nails and splinters that would pierce your hands, feet and your live rotting back.

Your mind is tired from everything that has transpired and just when you're about to fall from in the grief you are suffering; your mother comes amidst the crowd calling your name and pleads with you to return home with her. What would you do?

You would give up! That's exactly what anyone would do, for the battle is against life to achieve death. How can anyone take pride in such an undertaking?

But Jesus did not give up. He was very much a lion as He was a lamb. His eyes were fixed on Calvary. His feet fought to stand while sweat and blood fell off His brow in the shimmer of the morning light. He had a goal and an adversary to devour down in hell; He wasn't on giving up at all instead He was leading a massive war against sin and death. It was a war He was determined to win and He won indeed.

Jesus was eventually nailed to the cross one hour after He began pursuing death and an hour later He breathed his last. About an hour after everything had ended, the soldier pierces His side to find water and blood flowing out. Today, conflicts arise about whether or not Jesus died of a broken heart but we don't need science to tell us if that was true. Simple human-sense will certify that He did indeed die of a broken heart and one of the possible reasons why would be Adam himself. Wasn't it because of Adam, the one whom God created out of love; Jesus had to endure a shameful death that his descendents should be saved from the clutches of death and inherit eternal life.

It's not difficult to discern or even come close to experiencing what Jesus experienced, for He did not leave us clueless. In Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, it is written that Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli Eli lama sabachtani?" which means, "My God, My God why have You forsaken me?" A patient search through the Old Testament will reveal this very line tattooed in the first line of the 22^nd Psalm. This entire Psalm appears to be describing every aspect of the Passion and the details of what transpired in Jesus' heart on that day.

One can only imagine what it was like on that morning when Christ walked towards His destiny, the very purpose He had come to fulfill. One can only make attempts to feel what He felt on that day when He was to die on the cross not for a crime, but the sin of the very first man that was brought into existence, Adam and of all humanity. There on Golgotha, it would be Him alone standing in the middle of the beginning and the end of times only with bandits for escorts on both sides. He could have turned back anytime, but he didn't at any cost and it was for you, me and all humanity His blood was shed on Calvary.

It was this atonement sacrifice that the God of Heaven and Earth was pleased with and not the blood of bulls and the fat of lambs. God has again given man the choice to choose life from the sins he indulge in. Today, if you hear His voice calling out to you, do not harden your heart and ignore the call. Turn before you realize it's too late. To ponder upon the truth that God allowed His only begotten Son to suffer the cross is to realize the work of salvation and the definition of love. Indeed Christ died of a broken heart but it was no vain sacrifice that He made. It is a gloriously insuperable victory He delights in and He is returning very soon. Even so Lord, come! Amen.