This week I was blessed to read through the end of the Gospels and began the incredible accounts of the apostles through the book of Acts.  Specifically, my reading included Matthew 27 – 28, Mark 15 – 16, Luke 23 – 24, John 18 – 21, and Acts 1 – 8.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record some particular details about Jesus’s sacrifice that really spoke to me … as much about who He is and what He did as anything else … but the reflection it can create with us was equally visible, and it touched me.

Jesus had been betrayed by one of his 12 apostles, had been abandoned by the rest, and had been denied by one of the closest.  After He beseeched the Father to the point of stress-induced, blood-stained sweat in Gethsemane, He deferred to the Father’s will in what was to come … His sacrificial scourging and death on the cross.  The Gospels account for the scourging and beating and it was no joke.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the mental and emotional anguish bestowed on Him is mind-boggling.  What’s more is that He had to carry the very instrument of His impending torture and death to its resting place.  Clearly the concept of forbidding cruel and unusual punishment was lost on the Roman empire.  Jesus, being fully God, knew full-well what was forthcoming when in the garden of Gethsemane He committed to the Father’s plan.  Being fully man, He felt the physical pain on levels we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

That leads us to the portion of Mark’s Gospel that really pushed some buttons in me … in Mark 15:22 – 32 (CEV), we read …

The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.”  There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.  They nailed Jesus to a cross and gambled to see who would get his clothes.  It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross.  On it was a sign that told why he was nailed there. It read, “This is the King of the Jews.”  The soldiers also nailed two criminals on crosses, one to the right of Jesus and the other to his left.  People who passed by said terrible things about Jesus. They shook their heads and shouted, “Ha! So you’re the one who claimed you could tear down the temple and build it again in three days.  Save yourself and come down from the cross!”  The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses also made fun of Jesus. They said to each other, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself.  If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross! Then we will see and believe.” The two criminals also said cruel things to Jesus.

In light of the enormity of the beating, torment, agony, etc., to which Jesus was subject, it moved me greatly to read … “they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.”  Further, when I read “save yourself and come down from the cross,” I wrote in the notes in my Bible app, essentially, “imagine if He did!”  Thank God that Jesus did not come down and save Himeself!

Why?  Because it was imperative … everything … that Jesus finished the work.  He could have shortcut the process … endured less pain … taken a beating, but with the help of pain relievers.  He could have gone up on the cross and experienced it for a bit and said, “okay, enough is enough.”  But, what we need to read from the text is that He refused to do so.

Jesus knew that He needed to go all the way … to finish every bit of the job.  God’s nature as perfectly holy, righteous, truth, etc., demands punishment for sin.  Anything less than the full punishment would be insufficient payment for sin.  That would mean that you and I would still be guilty of our trespasses against God and hence, dead in our sin … eternally unable to be united with God in heaven.  There is no such thing, in this context, as “close enough.”  Even a little short of everything might as well be nothing as it relates to the payment for sin.  When Jesus refused the pain relief, it wasn’t because of a machismo He carried, it was because of the sin He carried for us.  When He refused to take Himself (and the criminals) down from the cross, it wasn’t because He couldn’t, it was because He wouldn’t leave us without His propitiation.

So driven was Jesus to finish His salvific work, He would cut NO corners.  He took every bit of the beating, bore every morsel of the pain, spilt every necessary drop of blood.  Willingly.  Remember, He wasn’t killed … He voluntarily gave His life as a ransom for us (Mark 10:45, John 10:18).  Bought our eternal life with His earthly death.  What love He showed!!!

What’s the application for us, then?  First of all … we absolutely need to realize just how far Jesus went to save us.  He had your very name on His lips and your face on His mind as he breathed His last.  Mine too.  If we ever are tempted to take that for granted … heck, just watch “The Passion of the Christ” once a year or so.  That’ll cure that!

Beyond that, though, we need to be complete as He was complete.  When we are fatigued in our work for Him, we need to recognize that He was probably fatigued, too, but never stopped short.  He did His all for us, to set an example of how we should do our all for Him.  His last words were in Greek “tetélestai” which is translated “it is finished” but also means “paid in full” in the first century Roman culture.  It was the way that debts were marked to reflect that they were paid and retired.  A debt isn’t satisfied until it’s fully satisfied.  Jesus set the tone, and we’re called to do likewise.

Scripture tells us that in everything we do, we’re to do it as until the Lord (Colossians 3:23) … this notion carries the idea of being fully complete in what we do, way beyond solely Christian or ministry stuff.  The word “everything” means “everything”.

Let’s remember to follow our Lord’s lead … to work, serve, give, lead, love, live to the fullest, because He gave His fullest for us.  He didn’t squander in the least.  We shouldn’t either.

Prayers to you for an amazing and blessed week!

MR