Jesus Died for the Sins of Humanity.
Story based on Matt. 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, & John 18,19.
Behold the Man!" The Roman ruler gestured toward the bruised and bleeding form of Jesus. During the night, Jesus had been tried, abused, beaten and mocked. Pilate had examined the evidence and found Jesus faultless. Now he brought Jesus out before the crowd, hoping to get popular support for His release. "Behold the Man!"
As the people looked at Jesus, they remembered much about what He had done. Here was a man who had traveled around the countryside for the past few years. He had healed the sick and freed people from the control of demons. They remembered His teachings about the love of God and how ready He was to forgive and accept any who would come to Him. Before His teaching career, He had worked for many years as a skilled and diligent craftsman in the carpentry shop.
"Crucify Him, crucify Him!" This was the demand of the mob. As Pilate searched in vain for a way to make the crowd consent to release Jesus, they only became more determined to destroy Him. "If you release Him, you are not a friend of Caesar." Such a charge, if they showed how likely it was, could put an end to his job and perhaps also his life.
Calling for a basin of water, Pilate washed his hands. "I will not take responsibility for this Man's death," he told the mob. "You take Him and crucify Him."
Then Jesus started toward Calvary. On His bruised and bleeding shoulders there was laid the heavy cross on which He had been condemned to die. So weak was Jesus after the ordeal of the night that He was not able to handle the weight and He fell under the load. When curses, threats, and beatings proved that Jesus was just too weak to go on, a stranger was forced to carry the cross for Him.
When Jesus reached Calvary, soldiers began the ruthless and gruesome task of nailing Him to the cross. They had done this ugly work before, but this Man was different. There always were outbursts of cursing and violent struggling when they were putting criminals to death in this way. With Jesus, there were none. His cries of pain were the same, but rather than angry words, they heard words of pity as Jesus prayed for them. They heard Him say, "Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing."
Many came by to mock and ridicule Jesus, yet He did not say one word of anger in return. The pain He suffered was terrible. The abusive words of passers by made it even worse. Yet, He took time in the midst of it all to see to the well being of His mother. From the cross He asked the disciple John to care for her. Finally crying out, "It is finished!" Jesus bowed His head and died.
"Truly this was the Son of God." It was the centurion by the foot of the cross. He had seen what had taken place and believed that Jesus was God's Son. His conclusion was right. Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself. By making the sacrifice of His life, He made it possible for all people to have forgiveness and hope. Satan was a defeated enemy. All who would accept Jesus would share in His victory.
How easy it is to overlook what it really cost Jesus to buy our salvation. His love was not appreciated, but rejected with scorn by the very ones He came to save. He died in a manner especially designed for shame and torture. The guilt of the sins of the whole world, which He took upon Himself, made Him feel that even God must have forsaken Him.
Jesus found the sacrifice needed to save us to be a bitter experience indeed. He had offered willingly to take the sins of humanity on Himself. Even so, when the time came, He shrank back in horror. He prayed three times for some way to escape the ordeal.
God loved the world and gave His only Son to save it. Jesus had to submit completely to His Father's will and trust in His wisdom. Then He decided to go through with the sacrifice to save us. When He submitted Himself to the will of His Father, He was given the strength He needed to endure.
The awful death that was necessary for our salvation was not a horror that Jesus did not know of ahead of time. It was a deliberate choice He had made. He declared that nobody had the power to take His life. By His own choice, He would lay it down so that we might live.
If He was not forced to do so, why did Jesus go to the cross? We are told that it was for the 'joy before Him.' He considered our eternal life to be worth enough to make the needed sacrifice a good investment. What Jesus went through for us is overwhelming. This tells us something about what it means to Him for us to live forever. We are that valuable to Him.
There is another important thing to consider when we think of Jesus' sacrifice to save us. That is when Jesus made the sacrifice. Jesus paid the price for our sins before we accepted Him. We were still sinners--enemies of God, when Jesus gave His life for us. Could there ever be any greater or more unselfish love?
Consider how Jesus suffered when He died for us. Count the cost to Jesus of offering us peace with God and eternal life. It is only as we do so that we can begin to understand what we are worth to Him. The value Jesus places on us calls for our response. There is no way for us to begin to repay what Jesus has sacrificed for us. For us to think we can is insulting to say the least. Yet, to offer no response to such love is inexcusably rude. How should we respond to Jesus? We should remember that we are children of God, and seek to live in a way that shows it. By our living, we should try to bring honor to our Savior. In response to Jesus' love for us, we should love Him. We can show we do by obedience and praise to Him.
Thank You, Jesus, for loving me enough that You died for me. Thank You for showing me how much I am worth to You. I love You and want to show You that I do.
Review Questions
- When Pilate tried Jesus, what did he find Him guilty of?
- What did the mob demand for Pilate to do to Jesus?
- How did Jesus feel toward those who crucified Him?
- Jesus was not forced to endure the cross. Why did He do it?
- What makes Jesus' death for us even more amazing?
- Do you understand that Jesus died to save YOU?