This weekend we celebrate the dying and rising again of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is enthroned as Lord over all the nations of the earth. But Easter was not the only route Jesus could have taken to reclaim that which he had created.
At the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, the gospel writers record that he was led out into the desert to be tempted. Satan took him to a high place and in an instant showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
"I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
Here it is. The expedient path. The painless alternative. The shortcut to glory. No cross. No friends abandoning him. No lashes from a cruel whip. No long, painful, agonizing, excruciating death. No being cut off from the presence of His Father.
Just a little mis-directed worship, and Jesus gets what he came for.
Of course, most of us know what happened: Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"
In one sentence, Jesus seals his fate. There is only one way now to re-claim that which is rightfully his. Jesus carries the cross three years later, but he embraces the cross here. Jesus declines the expedient solution and goes the way of the cross.
This is instructive for us as Americans--our culture is built around expedient medicating of difficult circumstances, from fast-food to the pharmaceutical culture to the therapeutic self-help culture. Some of this is good and right. Much of it is simply built around expedience and pain-relief.
But Easter, and the decision Jesus made three years earlier to not bend the false knee, tells us that there are some pains worth embracing. There are deaths worth dying. Not all deaths are final. Some deaths lead to life. And, of course, others do not. But before we go with our instincts and select the path of least resistance, it would be wise to allow Easter to speak into our decision-making process.
2 comments:
"Jesus declines the expedient solution and goes the way of the cross."
This was a really eye-opening explanation of what it means to shoulder ones cross and follow Christ. It's an almost cliché thing to say, and I'd always been a bit fuzzy on what exactly it meant for me in my daily walk. Great encouragemnt to look to embrace my cross, meaning not copping out, not taking the easy route because it leads to instantly gratifying personal gain, but undertaking something, sticking to beliefs, and acting in a way that builds my character and glorifies God...
thanks Alex.
Even in the details, your observation holds: While on the cross, Jesus refused the wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23) which was a pain killer.
Why would he do this? I suggest that this is another hint that what's happening in God's redemptive work in & through Jesus is more than just a simple death transaction. That is, while Jesus' death & resurrection are the culmination of God's redemptive work in Christ, they not the total of God's redemptive work in Christ.
The Apostle's Creed notes this when it says, Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilot." It doesn't just jump straight to Jesus being "crucified, dead & buried." There's something significant about Jesus' Life that's every bit a part of his redemptive work .
And, here I get back to my point (finally!), that redemptive work involved suffering. Such that he even refused a mild pain-killer on the cross!
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