This week is for me the most important time of year in the liturgical calendar. It is a time to read and reflect on God's many precious gifts to us: His incarnation into the world as Jesus, His ministry and teachings, and His final sacrifice on the cross. This one event changed the course of history, making it possible for us to be in communion with God forever.
I have been asked by my church to reflect on the situation of the two criminals who were crucified alongside Jesus. Both were criminals and thus subject to the penalty of the law. Yet they demonstrate polar opposites in terms of the attitudes of their heart. The first criminal, as related in Luke, scorns Jesus by saying, "So you're the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself - and us too while you're at it!" The second criminal rebukes him, saying, "Don't you fear God, even when you have been sentenced to die?" (NLT)
These two men are prime examples of the two options we have when faced with the person of Jesus. We can hang on to our ego, our selfish natural (and sinful) human nature, and decide to "take our chances" when it comes to our own death. Or, we can accept that Jesus is who He himself claimed to be, the Messiah, God incarnate in this world who came to save humanity through His death and resurrection.
"I am the way,the truth and the life," Jesus said in John 14:6. "No one can come to the Father except through me." To those who believe, Jesus promises, "For it is my Father's will that all who see His Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:40)
C.S Lewis describes this choice we have most eloquently:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Clearly there is no "in-between option" about who Jesus was and is. I have made my choice, and it has transformed my life in a way that I never could have imagined. Have you made your decision?
May this Easter time be one of deep reflection and joy as we celebrate what God has done for each of us in our lives!
And here is a wonderful opportunity to share that joy with some people who have been giving their lives to make sure others know about this wonderful day.
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