Remember The Cross - the journey from hell to heaven
“But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:40-43 NLT
Pesach, or the Jewish Passover started on Saturday, 27th March 2021 and ends on Sunday 4th April 2021. It is one of the relatively rare years when the day before Passover falls on Shabbat or Sabbath. The Passover commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt - their transition from slavery to freedom. The main ritual of the Passover is the Seder - a celebratory meal to remember how God had miraculously set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt:
“On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:12-13 NLT
Jesus transformed the Passover into the Holy Communion or Eucharist for us to remember his death on the cross and set us free from our slavery to sin. The first Easter was during a Passover which is like the Passover this year when it falls on the Sabbath. The Jewish Passover this year would then be in effect, Maundy Thursday, which commemorates the celebration of the Seder by Jesus before he was betrayed. Jesus was then brought before Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and King Herod before he was crucified on the day before the next Sabbath. It had not seem possible to me that all these events could be fulfilled in the five to six hours beginning from the night of Maundy Thursday to the morning of Good Friday in Israel at the time of Jesus where there is no public transport nor mass communications. It was more probable that all these events happened during the week of the Passover. But what is most important is to remember that Jesus celebrated the Passover before he was betrayed and crucified. We can only truly understand the Passion of Christ in the light of the Jewish Passover.
By dying on the cross, Jesus became the Lamb of God to set us free from our fears, guilt and pride. He rose from the dead to be our Shepherd of Love to lead us in our Exodus from slavery to sin to freedom in the Promised Land of the kingdom of heaven. Before he died on the cross, Jesus instituted the Holy Communion is to help us to remember the cross of Christ - that his body was broken for us and by his stripes we are healed:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
The cross of Christ is the greatest demonstration of the wonderful magic and miracle of God’s amazing grace - the suffering of Jesus on the cross is to show us the horror of sin and evil that we see in the world but which is also present in our very own hearts. Jesus did not die to appease an angry god - he died on the cross to open our eyes to the horror of sin and evil and to see the awesome and wonder of the power of God’s healing love:
“No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” John 3:13-15 NLT
On Good Friday, I received the story of a man in China who was caught praying to Jesus and was sent to jail. The guard challenged him to cut out a cross from a piece of paper with a single cut of the scissors to prove that God is real. The man prayed for an answer and amazed the guard and the other prisoners by creating a cross with a single scissor cut of a folded A4 paper. Furthermore, he used the remaining pieces of the paper to form English and Chinese words to demonstrate the consequences of life with and and without the Cross:
1. With the cross, there is “love,”
2. Without the cross, there is “hell” but with the cross, there is “life” or living with happiness.
3. Without the cross, there is “death” (word in Chinese) but with the cross there is “eternal life” (word in Chinese)
4. Without the cross, life is “empty” (word in Chinese) as well as “bitter” (word in Chinese), but with the cross, there is “glory” (word in Chinese).
On the cross, Jesus was mocked by one of the criminals who shouted insults at Jesus: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Then save yourself, and save us too!” This is a reflection of the response of someone with a hardened and unrepentant heart and who is spiritually blind to sin and the judgment of God. This is in sharp contrast to the response of the other criminal who had a repentant spirit and whose eyes were opened to the mercy of God and the reality of the kingdom of heaven. He told the unrepentant criminal:
“You should fear God. All of us will die soon. You and I are guilty. We deserve to die because we did wrong. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you begin ruling as king!”” Luke 23:39-42 ERV
The good news of Good Friday is that the cross of Christ is God’s vaccine for the most deadly virus of sin. The cross is the demonstration of the power of God’s love to overcome evil and to set us free from the fear of death. God is calling us to face the reality of the hells of anger, gluttony and envy that we create for ourselves when the sin of lust leads us to the desire for control, when the sin of greed draws us to the desire to look good and when the sin of pride tempts us with the desire to be right.
Jesus went through the hell of the cross in order to open the way for us to live in heaven here on earth. Like the repentant thief, all we need to do is simply to pray, ”Jesus, remember me” as we lift our eyes up to the cross of Christ and to remember Jesus’ promise on the cross:
“Then Jesus said to him, “I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43 ERV
Holy Week marks the journey of Jesus to the cross - a time of remembrance of the Passion of Christ. It is a time to reflect and understand who truly Jesus is to us. During Lent this year, as I meditated on the parables of the Sower and the Wheat and the Weeds, I became more aware of the need to check on the condition of my spiritual heart. When my heart is a path, a rocky ground or a thorny ground, the seed of the gospel of God’s love cannot take root in my heart.
It is only when I come to my senses like the Prodigal Son and see Jesus as the Lamb of God and my Shepherd of love that I can go before God’s throne of grace, to seek God as our Heavenly Father and to find Jesus as my Divine Lover through the Holy Spirit. Then Easter becomes the spiritual springtime of my life and the beginning of my Exodus from slavery to sin into the Promised Land of God’s loving embrace.
SDG
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