[This is the MILLERWRITES contribution to the 2012 Blogging A to Z April Challenge Here is my INTRODUCTION to this particular series, and an opportunity for you to influence which alphabetically aligned weird words I will comment on this month. THANK YOU for stopping by!]
Maybe Jesus was just a really really clever fellow who grew up to play the best prank ever! He was well read enough in the scriptures to know what the Messiah would be like, and decided to try and manually fulfill all the prophecies written about that long sought-after hero. (open this link to kind of follow along)
His first trick was to plot out that he would be born to a virgin, and then that it would happen in Bethlehem, but also that he would be 'from' Nazareth, and come 'out of Egypt'! Of course he contrived to be a descendant of David, and managed to arrange for the slaughter of his two year old contemporaries in Bethlehem while he escaped to Egypt (taking his parents with him of course).
Some of the arrangements were easy. He could teach with parables. He could just hire someone to let him ride into town on their donkey, and get his cousin John the baptist to go before him calling for repentance, and calling Jesus THE LAMB OF GOD. It got a little tricky when, at the same time he tried to prove he was the Messiah, he had to get the religious leader to reject him and the general population to ignore him. But some of the prophecies were very tricky to meet indeed! He had to pull off some very convincing miracles of healing people and raising them from the dead, for example.
And then there's the end game. Somehow he got Judas to betray him for exactly 30 pieces of silver, then have him throw the money back, and get the Sanhedrin to buy the Potter's field with the money. He fixed it so that his friends would deny him, force himself to stand quiet at one of his 'trials', have his beard plucked out, be beaten, be nailed through his hands and feet, have vinegar offered on a hyssop branch, and unlike every other crucified person, he would not have any bones broken but have his side pierced instead. He probably even suggested to the Roman assassination team, from the cross, that they divide his clothes and gamble for his robe.
Finally, even though he was fully dead, he got himself buried in a rich man's tomb. Oh yeah. And just to complete the ruse...HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!
Jesus took the place of all those sheep and goats and oxen that were sacrificed over the many centuries to atone for the sin of God's chosen people. They had to go through that awful ritual year after year, to get a sense of how God views the import of our fallen state. But Jesus, 'in the fullness of time', came to become the ultimate and final sacrificial LAMB. He went through the same ritual, for you, but from the other side of the knife.
John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Maybe Jesus was just a really really clever fellow who grew up to play the best prank ever! He was well read enough in the scriptures to know what the Messiah would be like, and decided to try and manually fulfill all the prophecies written about that long sought-after hero. (open this link to kind of follow along)
His first trick was to plot out that he would be born to a virgin, and then that it would happen in Bethlehem, but also that he would be 'from' Nazareth, and come 'out of Egypt'! Of course he contrived to be a descendant of David, and managed to arrange for the slaughter of his two year old contemporaries in Bethlehem while he escaped to Egypt (taking his parents with him of course).
Some of the arrangements were easy. He could teach with parables. He could just hire someone to let him ride into town on their donkey, and get his cousin John the baptist to go before him calling for repentance, and calling Jesus THE LAMB OF GOD. It got a little tricky when, at the same time he tried to prove he was the Messiah, he had to get the religious leader to reject him and the general population to ignore him. But some of the prophecies were very tricky to meet indeed! He had to pull off some very convincing miracles of healing people and raising them from the dead, for example.
And then there's the end game. Somehow he got Judas to betray him for exactly 30 pieces of silver, then have him throw the money back, and get the Sanhedrin to buy the Potter's field with the money. He fixed it so that his friends would deny him, force himself to stand quiet at one of his 'trials', have his beard plucked out, be beaten, be nailed through his hands and feet, have vinegar offered on a hyssop branch, and unlike every other crucified person, he would not have any bones broken but have his side pierced instead. He probably even suggested to the Roman assassination team, from the cross, that they divide his clothes and gamble for his robe.
Finally, even though he was fully dead, he got himself buried in a rich man's tomb. Oh yeah. And just to complete the ruse...HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!
Jesus took the place of all those sheep and goats and oxen that were sacrificed over the many centuries to atone for the sin of God's chosen people. They had to go through that awful ritual year after year, to get a sense of how God views the import of our fallen state. But Jesus, 'in the fullness of time', came to become the ultimate and final sacrificial LAMB. He went through the same ritual, for you, but from the other side of the knife.
John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Are you being serious, or incredibly sarcastic?
ReplyDeleteI am sorry Susan, if my sarcasm was not clearly evident. I know that Jesus was the authentic LAMB OF GOD, and that only the most desperate person might convince himself that He faked it. I stand amazed and ever grateful that Jesus, even though He knew what was coming, endured the cross to bear my sin and die for me.
DeleteThank you for giving me the chance to clarify.
LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!1
ReplyDeleteYou really made me sit here and ponder about these four words..."The Lamb of God." Thanks, Mike!
ReplyDeleteHe IS who He said He IS ... the Great I AM.
ReplyDeleteAll praise be His.
Nice post.