Approaching Easter - A Violent Death - From Timothy Keller

Jesus' death had to be a violent one. The writer of Hebrews says that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin" (Hebrews 9:22).

This is not a magical view of blood.

Rather, the term blood in the Bible means a life given or taken before its natural end.

A life given or taken is the most extreme gift or price that can be paid in this world.

Only by giving his life could Jesus have made the greatest possible payment for the debt of sin.

Jesus' death was not only a payment, however; it was also a demonstration.

James Edwards writes:

       The prediction of Jesus' passion conceals a great irony,
       for the suffering and death of the Son of Man will not
       come, as we would expect, at the hands of godless and
       wicked people...rather at the hands of "the elders, chief
       priests, and teachers of the law".....Jesus would not be
       lynched by an enraged mob or beaten to death in a criminal
       act. He will be arrested with official warrants, and tried
       and convicted by the world's legal jurisprudence -- the
       Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman court.

The Jewish chief priests, teachers of the law, and,
of course, the Roman rulers should have been standing up for justice but instead conspired to commit an act of injustice by condemning Jesus to death.

The cross reveals the systems of the world to be corrupt, serving power and oppression  instead of justice and truth.

In condemning Jesus, the world was condemning itself.

Jesus' death demonstrates not only the bankruptcy of the world, but it also reveals the character of God and his kingdom.

Jesus' death was not a failure. By submitting to death as penalty, he broke its hold on him and on us.

When Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins, he won through losing; he achieved our forgiveness on the cross by turning the values of the world on their head. He did not "fight fire with fire."

He didn't come and raise an army in order to put down the latest corrupt regime.

He didn't take power; he gave it up -- and yet he triumphed.

The corrupt powers of his world have many tools to make people afraid, the worst one being death.

But since Jesus died and rose again from the dead, if you can find a way to approach Jesus and cling to him you know that death, the worst thing that can possible happen to you, is now the best thing.

Death will put you in God's arms and make you all you hoped to be.

And when death loses its sting, when death no longer has power over you because of what Jesus did on the cross, then you will be living a life of love and not a life of fear.

       -- From King's Cross, Chapter 9,
                                      by Timothy Keller



       When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,
          and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is
          written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in
          victory.'

         "Where, O death, is your victory?
           Where, O death, is your sting?"

         The sting of death is sin...But thanks be to God! He gives
         us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
                                     --1 Corinthians 15:55-56