Hope in the Darkest Time
Easter is everything to anyone who knows and loves Jesus. The entire Bible, from creation onward, pointed to this moment in time. Think about it this way: In Genesis 1-2, God created man. In Genesis 3, man chose sin over God. Poof. Just like that, the fellowship between God and the pinnacle of His creation was severed by sin. And the rest of the Old Testament is one big love story of a creator setting up the greatest surprise party ever for His creation. (It was such a good surprise, in fact, that many of them missed it or misunderstood it.)
I spent several weeks writing posts about the importance of studying scripture (overview as well as details) as well as memorizing and meditating on God's Word. God's word is how He communicates with us. It's what gives us hope, it's what makes us wise, it's how we know who He is, it's what leads us step by step through life (Psalm 119:105). We need it daily to make decisions, to hear the Holy Spirit, to know what to say, and to become a more complete disciple of Jesus.
But we need it even more in the hard times. And this is where Easter and studying Scripture collide: Jesus on the cross.
You know the setting: the One who was completely God had chosen to humble himself and become a human man. He spent His adult life teaching, sharing, healing, loving, touching, and helping the humanity (and, in particular, the chosen nation of Israel) that had rejected His Father. And He knew from the start that He had one task in His earthly life: to become the atoning sacrifice for sin.
He wan't just going to die for His sin; He was going to die for every sin that had ever been committed. In God's structure of justice, blood was required to atone (cover) sin, and He had created a very specific system of sacrifices to do just that. But the blood of lambs could never completely take away sin because the sacrificial animal was not perfect. And God ordained the first sacrifice to cover the first sin (Genesis 3:21), but He also knew that the blood of animals could give a glimpse of just how heinous sin was to God, so He worked history according to His perfect plan until "the set time had fully come" (Galatians 4:4) and He would bring mankind back to the fellowship He created in Genesis 1-2.
With one, final, perfect, complete-for-eternity sacrifice.
So Jesus lived to die. He had all the power of the heavens to save Him at any point (Matthew 26:53), yet He chose to hang on that cross until our penalty for sin had been fully paid. Rising from the dead was never the challenge; allowing Himself to die was the struggle.
{I'm finally getting to the point! I promise!}
And what did He cry out as He hung there, life fading, bones protruding, blood pouring out?
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46)
If we look at this scripture at face value only, we think, "Of course that's what He cried out! Surely He felt completely betrayed by God!"
WRONG. Oh sweet sister do you know what He was doing?
The Word made flesh (John 1:14) was quoting Scripture. GLORY.
Psalm 22 opens with the very words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In His lowest moment, at His worst time, in His most desperate situation, Jesus knew that Scripture was His hope. His promise. His assurance.
You really should spend the next 10 days leading up to Easter studying Psalm 22 so that you can more deeply understand how Jesus was foretold so plainly. David was writing about himself but, at the same time through the Holy Spirit, he was also writing about His promised descendant, the Messiah.
Jesus was the Word (John 1:1). He fulfilled every promise, every prophecy, every hope that existed since the creation of man. But as a man, He had God's Word in His heart, in His mind, and flowing from His lips at all times.
If Jesus found peace and hope and strength in the Word of God, how much more do we need it?
Easter is everything. God's Word is the only way to know and believe it.
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myleslienotebook@gmail.com
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