Who is this Jesus anyway? Was He just a man? Was He really what He claimed to be, the Son of God; the Messiah? Can anything good come lout of Nazereth? Well, these are questions we can never answer with solid evidence to those who do not believe.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”
(II Corinthians 4:3)
Even if anyone does not believe in Jesus Christ, no one can deny that this man has been the most influential man ever in the history of mankind. From a small number of 1200 believers, there is now an outstanding 2.1 BILLION believers in the world! We have to also remember that all the religions of that time, the Greek and Roman religions and so on have ceased to exist. Furthermore, the years are also counted in terms called B.C, which stands for before Christ and A.D (Anno Domini), which means the Year of Our Lord.
That day as I was browsing through the papers, I saw an article about a man who raised from the dead after a few hours. The doctors called this phenomenon the Lazarus Syndrome. Of course these medical phenomenons or syndromes would be called after the first person who contracted it or described it. Therefore, these people must have believed that the story of the resurrection of Lazarus must be true. Who was the person who raised him back from the dead? He was no one other that Jesus Christ.
On top of that, have we wondered why we have public holidays on Sundays, instead of Fridays in most parts of the world and even in Malaysia? It is in honour of the Sabbath day. What about the best selling book of all time? It is also the Bible which sold more than 6 BILLION copies, which outsells the second best selling book, The Quotations of Chairman Mao by 5.1 billion copies!
Plus, have we actually observed and made a hypothesis on the most widely seen symbol on earth today? It is also the cross, which actually was a reminder on how Christ died for our sins on the Cross of Calvary 2000 years ago. Sadly, people wear it for the sake of fashion, not knowing the meaning behind it. In fact, we should remember that the cross was not something which was beautiful. It was just a wooden cross which criminals died on in the past. This has led to many people believing that the cross has mysterious and magical powers instead of the Christ who died on it for the sake of reuniting us sinners to a Holy God.
Coming back to the point here, the only religious figure who has died and resurrected was Jesus Christ. None others who claimed to be prophets, Gods, avatars, deities, or even those who are worshiped not by their own will have died, and remained in the grave.
Yes, Christ died on this day 2000 years ago. On that day, the devil thought that he has won the battle against God. However on the third day, Jesus rose again by the power of God. The devil must have almost gotten crazy on that day.
I hope that all of us will remember this day, Good Friday as a time to reflect on our lives, for every time we sin, we are like one of those people who shouted for Jesus to be crucified, one of those who pierced Him with those nails, one of those who whipped Him and one of those who mocked Him while He was on the cross.
I always remember this song, How Deep The Father's Love when I think about ow Christ died for our sake on the painful and bitter cross. 1 line of that song really strikes me. "Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer". Why? Why did Christ, who is God have to die for sinners like us? Why did God Himself have to be a curse on our behalf to remove our curses pronounced by the Law? Why did the Creator have to suffer for the sake of His Creation? Do we even appreciate Him for that? Sometimes, we take His forgiveness for granted that we sin more and more, thinking that our sins have already been forgiven.
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase? Certainly not! We have died to sin---how then can we go on living in it? Since we remember what Christ had done for us on the Cross of Calvary, we should always give thanks to Him, promising to serve Him all our days. It is only fair for Christ that after all He has done for us, we surrender our lives to His command, for we have been redeemed and bought with a price. We are now slaves of Christ. In fact, it is still not fair for Him, for nothing can repay the love Christ has for us.
Ephesians 3:17b-19a
I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God's people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love. Yes, may you come to know his love---although it can never be fully known.
This also reminds me of the question Uncle Herbie asked us in the Jeremiah School 2011 page that day.
"Are you still willing to drink the cup if following Jesus means being misunderstood by your loved ones, being made fun of by your friends, being let down by fellow believers, being abused emotionally by your leaders, being discriminated against by your fellow countrymen, being short-changed by your government, being unsure of your future, .... would you still drink the cup if it means pain, suffering, even death on the cross?"
Theoretically, every good Christian will answer yes. However when the time comes, who can be sure that his or her answer will still be yes? My prayer would be that after all Christ has done for me, I will be willing to choose the path of martyrdom which people like Paul and Stephen chose. I hope that when the day of persecution comes, I will be able to say out loud that I AM A CHRISTIAN!! Even Peter, the leader of the apostles denied Christ 3 times after Christ was captured. I am not saying that Peter has no faith or whatsoever. He was the only one who recognised Jesus as the Messiah. I am trying to say that we can talk all we want, but the real test comes when the day of persecution comes because it is not easy to leave everything and sacrifice our very own lives. Talk is cheap, as I like to say.
Therefore, let us reflect on our lives on this day, which Christ laid down His life for all us sinners so that we would not have to suffer damnation. Let us remember that every time we sin, we are piercing Christ's hands and feet to the cross with nails.
3 nails + 1 cross = 4giveness........
As Easter Sunday draws near, I hope that we would not get too carried away with all the trash like Easter Bunnies, Easter eggs, Easter presentations etc etc... Let us watch this video as we meditate on the lyrics of this song, We Are The Reason.
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