Thursday, March 24, 2016

How Can A Day Seem Like An Eternity?

               How can a minute seem like an hour?  How can a day seem like an eternity?  The shadow of the sundial in Jerusalem moves slowly…slowly…ever so slowly…

            The doors of the Governor’s building open…Roman soldiers lead the grim procession…two thieves sentenced for execution appear…then a third figure is pushed over the threshold…the cross beam lashed to the back of His shoulders…His back is lacerated from beating…His eyelids crusted with blood drawn from a crown of thorns…His hair matted with blood…His body swollen…black and blue…from torture…

            The crowds are there…the same crowds…the same voices…but where are the palms?  Where are the cloaks being laid before Him?  Where is the red carpet?  Oh, oh, there it is…ah…but not a carpet of celebration…not a red carpet of welcome…but a red carpet of death…for the blood of Jesus dripping from His body marks the way…the way…outside the city walls…and up another hill…a hill named Calvary…a place called Golgotha…

            How can a day seem like an eternity?

            As the shadow of the sundial inches forward…the nails piece His wrists…up He is lifted…up…up…the vertical beam is centered on the hole…and the Cross is dropped into the ground…the body jarred…and the shadow moves…it is 9:00 AM.   How can a day seem like an eternity?

            The first three hours is party time. “If you’re so great…come down from the Cross.  Come down, come down and save yourself!”  Trying to outdo each other in insults…the crowd works itself into a frenzy…and the religious leaders stand with smug satisfaction…admiring their work…

            The shadow of the sundial advances…10 o’clock, 11 o’clock…”Soon it will be noon…maybe we’ll break for lunch and then come back and see the end of the show. ”

11:30, 11:45, 11:50, 11:59…”Now it’s about lunch time…white, rye, wheat or sourdough?  Mayo or mustard?  What’s your pleasure?”

            But the shadow will never mark noon of this day on this sundial…for Jesus is drinking a cup…Jesus is drinking a cup that only He can drink…and as that cup is turned up over His lips…the wrath of God is poured out on Him…the holy, pure, spotless, sinless Lamb of God…and darkness envelopes the land…from noon until 3:00…and there is no light to mark time on the sundial…for this is no longer time…this is eternity…

this is that beyond which man and woman cannot pass…this is where we cannot go…not go and return…this is the abyss of the judgment of God…the canyon with no bottom…with no turning back…the bottomless pit filled with our sins…our iniquities…our death…our pride…our self-righteousness…our egos…our selfishness…our agendas…our obsession with control…our obsession with ourselves…

            How can a day seem like an eternity?

            And then the cry…the cry…the cry that pierces the ages…the universes…that causes angels to tremble and the earth to quake…the cry rising up from the pit…rising up from the abyss…”Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?  My God, My God, WHY have you forsaken me?”

            Forsaken by the crowds, forsaken by His friends, forsaken by those closest to Him, and finally…could it be…is it true…forsaken by His Father?  “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!”

            How is it that an hour, three hours, from noon until 3:00 can seem like eternity?  Because it is eternity, it is that place where time, space and eternity intersect in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

            Who is this…this Man…to utter such a cry?

            A good man?  A well intentioned man, but delusional?  A good example?  How could a man’s death 2,000 years ago affect my life?  What meaning could it have? 

            He was forsaken that we might be accepted.

            He was hated that we might be loved.

            Sin was laid on Him that it might be removed from us.

            He died that we might live.

            He was beaten and bruised that we might be healed.

            As Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

            We are well aware that there are hereditary diseases passed on from generation to generation.  Diabetes runs in one family, sickle cell anemia in another, heart disease another…this is why medical histories are of such importance. 

There is one disease that permeates the entire human race, whether of African, Asian, American Indian, Arab, or European descent…it affects the way we think, the way we behave, the way we feel, the decisions we make, the way we think about ourselves, the way we treat each other, and the way we relate to God…and that disease…my friends…is sin…and sin leads to eternal death.

            How can three hours seem like eternity? 

The Lamb of God…the Eternal One…drinks the cup for us…takes our sin upon Himself…takes us upon Himself…and cries out, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?  My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

            Is the answer too much for us to bear?  Is it too heavy for us to contemplate?  Let’s keep it in the abstract…let’s keep it in the realm of high esoteric theology…let’s keep it locked in a closet…who wants to hear God’s answer to Jesus…the answer of Father to Son?  Do I?  Do you?  Do we?

            “Why have you forsaken me?”

            And the answer…from the bowels of eternity…as darkness covers the land…with no shadow falling on the sundial…the answer from the heart of God is….

            “For John and Susan and Cathy and Ryan and you and you and you…for you dear reader…for you Jesus was forsaken.”

            And as the sun breaks through the clouds…and the shadow resumes its march on the sundial…it is 3:00 PM…and Jesus is crying out, “It is finished.  Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  And Jesus willingly gives up His life.

            The sacrifice is complete…the penalty paid…the reconciliation accomplished…the victory won…His relationship with His Father is restored…for eternity has intersected with time and space…and we have been redeemed!!!!

            The God who created us has come to redeem us…dying for us…rising for us…paying the price that we could not pay…the love story of the ages…the song of eternity…that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

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