My heart is so full and tender today that I don't even know how to begin to express it. As I continued my reading from yesterday, I was overcome with truth. After cursing the fig tree, Jesus goes on to hammer the Pharisees, Sadduccess, and Herodians. Each group questions and prods Him, trying to find tangible evidence that He is a heretic and should be put to death. However, Jesus, of course, passes all their tests, and proceeds to condem these religious leaders. In Matthew 23:13-36, Jesus proclaims a long list of accusations against them, pointing out their hypocrisy. Their hunger for power, money, and status, have made these men lose sight of God, the very One whom they claim to "live for."
Not only does Jesus use beautiful imagery and metaphors, but you can tell that He is furious with them, and this got me thinking. I imagine Jesus, fully God, fully human, standing there, looking at this group of pitiful, pious, staunch men, being so disgusted. I imagine he was so full of disgust, that the words couldn't come out fast enough. Here He is, God in the flesh, looking at men who claim Him, and yet all they do is dictate, and judge, and destroy. How shiny they were on the outside, how respected and noble, yet their hearts and thoughts were rotting, and Jesus could see right through them.
Have you ever loved someone that hurt you deeply? Have you ever had a loved one, or a child, that chose to do something that just sickened you? Have you ever felt slapped in the face? I imagine this is how Jesus felt in dealing with these religious leaders. Here the God of the universe, THEIR CREATOR, is standing right in front of them, and all thier energy is spent trying to kill him, trying to protect "their positions". And yet, even as furious as Jesus was with them, I imagine He was just as deeply saddened for them, broken for their ignorance and the consequences that would befall on them. After all, they too were His children.
As I was flipping through my Bible, a verse came to me, that to me, sums up Jesus' whole purpose.
Isaiah 61:1-2 1
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
In Luke 4, Jesus actually reads these words at the synagogue and proclaims "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus knew why He had come. He knew that His death was inevitable, and that only through His death would humanity be restored. This scripture makes me think of those Pharisees. In the midst of their plotting and hardened hearts, their freedom stood waiting...freedom from the law, freedom from greed, freedom from sin, and freedom from darkness. Jesus came that even those distestable leaders would be released and restored. I wonder if Jesus thought about that as He rebuked them. I wonder if He so badly wanted to open His arms, open their eyes, and say "It's me! I'm Him! I'm here to set you free! You no longer have to be in chains for I am your Savior! Hear the good news! I love you, I forgive you! I am with you!"
He could have, but He didn't. He didn't, because He knew, that the only way for them to see, the only way to be made right, was for Him to bear their sin...
your sin...
my sin.
And with each sting of their words, with each slap of the whip, with each pound of the nails, He endured that sin. This my friends, is the greatest act of love the world will ever know.
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