After the events of Palm Sunday, things began to take a dramatic turn in the life of Jesus. At least from an onlooker’s point of view. But nothing caught Jesus by surprise; the gospels are emphatic on that point. Time after time, Christ predicted that He was going to be arrested, beaten, murdered, but then He would ultimately rise from the dead. For example, in Matthew’s gospel, just before the Triumphal Entry in Matthew 21, Jesus states this in chapter 20:
“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be
betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn
Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life”
(verses 18-19)! Even though the disciples
never comprehended what He was saying to them, everything began to transpire
just as Jesus had predicted it would.
On Thursday night, Jesus remarked to His disciples, “My
soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). He agonized in prayer in a place called the
Garden of Gethsemane; He submitted His will to His Heavenly Father. Then Judas entered the scene with a mob, he
betrayed Jesus; he chose to sell Him out to be arrested, just for 30 pieces of
silver. Ultimately, after being
subjected to several mock trials, Jesus was condemned to execution, even though
He had done nothing wrong. Humanly speaking, this was a momentous example of
injustice. But, as I stated last time,
this was all part of God’s divine plan.
Scott Bayles, in his excellent book, “Holy Heroes” devotes a chapter to the character of Black Widow A.K.A.
Natasha Romanov (it may seem like I’m going in a completely new direction here,
but just stay with me). Natasha’s
case study is fascinating to consider.
Bayles writes:
“After years of working as a mercenary and paid assassin, Black
Widow was well aware of her moral faults and failures. In a revealing scene from Marvel’s The Avengers, Black Widow is
sent to interrogate Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki. Baiting Loki to let his guard down, Widow
confesses, “I’ve got red in my ledger.
I’d like to wipe it out.” With a
malicious tone, Loki replies, “Can you?
Can you wipe out that much red?””
Later in the same chapter, Bayles writes, “We each have red in our
ledgers, and left to ourselves, not one of us is able to wipe it out. We need to look elsewhere for our
salvation.”
So where do we look?
I submit that we look to Jesus the Christ, who gave His life on the
cross as an atonement for sin. This is
the truth of Good Friday! Bayles puts it
so well when in this same chapter, he declares: “All our faults, failures, and
foibles went with Jesus to the cross, the selfishness of the glutton, the
bitterness of the angry, the shame of the adulterer. Jesus took it all…After six hours of agony
upon the cross, Jesus whispered, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
What makes these words so meaningful is that the Greek word translated
“it is finished” is tetelestai, an
accounting term that means “paid in full.”
When Jesus uttered those words, he wiped out all the red in my ledger
and yours. He paid the debt that we could
never pay.” I add an “amen” at this
point!
Incidentally, someone may think putting their faith and
trust in Jesus for salvation from sin is the finish line, but it’s actually
just the beginning. After being put in
right relationship with the Lord, out of gratitude for what He has done, we
work and serve. This is illustrated so
well by Natasha Romanov. Once again, as
described by Scott Bayles in his book “Holy
Heroes”: Natasha’s life was forever changed when she met Nick Fury, the
director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He would wipe
her criminal past clean if she would join S.H.I.E.L.D. “Given a fresh start and a clean slate,” says
Bayles, “Natasha put her combat and espionage to use for the greater
good…Natasha’s story resonates with those whose lives are changed dramatically
by an encounter with Jesus Christ.”
Kevin
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