When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
When Jesus is lifted up the world is drawn to him. We realize the truth that he does everything out of obedience to the will of the Father who sent him. It is both easy and difficult to look upon Jesus on the Cross. It is easy because we feel the sweetness of his love for us, that he would endure the cross for our sakes. It is hard because we know that we ourselves make the suffering necessary. Jesus would have endured this pain for just one person. And the condition of that one person after the fall left no recourse but this.
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
We have all been bitten by the saraph serpents of sin. We have not been perfect pilgrims on our way through this desert. We grumble and complain even about the supernatural help God provides. We have to see this lifted up when sin is put to death on the Cross. We need our hearts to realize how serious sin is so that we can be converted.
Looking upon the cross isn't about feeling guilty, condemned, or sorry for ourselves. It is rather recognizing our terminal diagnosis so that we are willing to accept the full treatment for the disease. We need to recognize who Jesus is so that we can trust him. We need to believe Jesus about what our problem is if he is to help us.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.
Somehow it is precisely on the Cross that his full divinity is made manifest. His power is displayed no more perfectly than when he surrenders everything to the Father. If we really look upon Jesus on the Cross we are drawn by the inexorable gravity of his love and his connection to the Father. Only in this context can we ever hope to loosen our grasp on our own lives enough to helped. Let us gaze upon the love poured out for us. Let us surrender to the one whose love for us knows no limits.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
No comments:
Post a Comment