This is a
religious essay because my thoughts for days have been riveted on this most
religiously centered week of the year for the Christian world. And it comes to a point this day. It is tendered to bring some understanding to my
friends who are not Christians or those who are but whose faith has grown dim. I do this also in memoria and in gratitude for
the man Jesus, who I consider to be the Redeemer and Savior of this world.
It starts
with ‘when,’ and it ends with ‘why.’
Today is
Friday, March 30, 2018. It is 1:00 p.m.
Tomorrow, Saturday, for us, will begin at 12:00:00 midnight. For the Hebrews, it also is Friday, but their
‘tomorrow’ begins at dusk, not long after sundown today—when three ‘stars’ can
become observable or, some say, the moment when a hair from the head held at
arm’s length appears to change color from dark to light.
My point in
bringing this up is that as a Christian the saddest day for me, as measured by
Hebrew time, occurred during that 24 hour period that began not long after
sunset on Thursday of this week, about 2,000 years ago, when Jesus went into
the Garden of Gethsemane to consummate the essence of His mission at the base
of the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem. It ended, for Him, at about 3:00 p.m.
on Friday when he died on the cross after being crucified. That entire time was
a time of great suffering for Him, the most innocent man.
What
happened to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane at the beginning of what we call
the Atonement of Jesus Christ and at the end of this period, His death by
crucifixion, was done for all of mankind as God’s great gift—what Christians
call ‘grace’ for a fallen world. It
would bring immortality for all people, and an even greater ‘reward’ for those
who had faith in Christ, who did their own repentance, and who would keep the
commandments of God. It paid the price
required by Eternal law for the breaking of this law by all accountable
persons. It was done out of love—the sheer love of a
Father and His most beloved Son for His other children (us)—not necessarily out
of their love for Him. And it was
rejected, ironically, or counted but myth by most of God’s children.
It is the
saddest day for me because of the physical and emotional anguish it cost Him,
and because so many of the world’s population have rejected this GIFT of gifts. It was heart-breaking for Him as well. He wept as He came to Jerusalem for the last
time as a mortal man: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered your
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not! Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).
Still, He
atoned for all of them. “Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Even
non-scripture writers have sensed the pathos of this: “For of all sad words of
tongue or pen, the saddest are these, it might have been.” (John Greenleaf
Whittier)
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