We’re coming up on Jesus’ last two days on Earth as a human. His closest followers, indeed almost everyone, thought they had him figured out. That doesn’t mean everyone agreed with him. After all, he threatened the positions and spiritual security of many. But they thought they had him figured out.
Then he’s arrested, questioned in several tribunals, found guilty of a trumped up charge, and executed as the King of the Jews. Jesus has shown many great powers. Both his friends and his enemies expected him to use those great powers to avoid execution and assume leadership of the Jewish nation.
They were all confounded. When it appeared that the authorities had won, his male friends disappeared. His female friends, however, watched everything and waited. His enemies taunted him with his own words, but still they thought they had him figured out.
What extraordinary power did Jesus exhibit? The power of self control in the face of nasty, false accusations and violent treatment. But nobody could figure out where that was going.
The description of Jesus dying is not really detailed. But what we do know that the way he died was extraordinary. It was different from any other execution the people around had ever experienced. It was so different that a pagan Roman officer exclaimed, “He truly is the Son of God.” That must have been a truly “other worldly” moment. The sky turned black, the curtain in the Temple was torn. It was as if (or maybe better said, he actually did) God reached through the fabric of the universe he had created from wherever God is (he must be outside the universe since he created it) and changed the course of history at that point.
Everyone was looking for evidence of who Jesus was in the wrong places. He was the one person in history who walked (in the Hebrew sense) totally with-God. So, his dying was no ordinary event. It was extra-ordinary. So significant that pagans noticed.
Are you looking for Jesus in the wrong way? Think you have him figured out? Probably not. He is extra-ordinary. Don’t trap him in a little wrist band. To meet him, you must live with-God. And that is a challenge.
Tags: Christianity, spirit
Faith Venture 
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