They Didn’t Know

Today is Good Friday. 

2000 years ago, Jesus, the son of God, was beaten and nailed to a cross, a punishment reserved for the most dangerous criminals. When he entered Jerusalem on Sunday, there was a great celebration. The people who had seen him raise a man from the dead a few days ago were celebrating the coming of a warrior to save them from the oppression of Rome.

They didn’t know. 

They didn’t know what he had been trying to teach them for three years. They knew what they wanted. They wanted someone to save them from the external oppression of a tyrannical government. They didn’t know that the oppression they needed deliverance from was from themselves. The oppression of sin, the oppression of an enemy greater than they could imagine.

They didn’t know. 

What they knew was what they could see. Taxes were taken from their hands and mouths. They did everything they could to put food on their tables as they watched their oppressors strip them bare. Surely this man who claimed to be the son of God and performed miracles they had never seen would be the man to save them, the chosen people, from their horrific fate. 

They didn’t know. 

Jesus tried to tell them. He tried to help them believe. But their hearts weren’t open, and neither were their eyes. What they saw was external. They didn’t know they had to look within to see what they needed to be saved from. That’s why his life was so dispensable. He allowed himself to be arrested. Surely he isn’t the warrior we thought he would be. Surely he can’t save us now. 

They didn’t know. 

Do you know? Do you know that Jesus came to save you from yourself? He came to free you from the chains of your sin. 

Do I know? Do I fully grasp all that he has saved me from? Am I so focused on my external problems and the conditions of this world that I’m missing the whole point of why Jesus came? 

He came so that no matter what is going on around me in the crazy chaos of this world, I can still live with peace and joy. I can not allow what is going on around me to infiltrate my soul. 

You can walk into a room that is completely filled with darkness and smile and shine because Jesus came to save you from yourself. 

That’s what holy week is. Where we rediscover the holiness of a God who sent his Son to save us from ourselves. We don’t deserve it. Not one of us. None of us deserve freedom, grace, and mercy. But it’s ours anyway. To take as much as we want to the point of abundance. 

Do you know? 

Are you living with just a little bit of joy and peace to get you through the day, or are you living in an abundance of his everlasting peace and eternal joy?

Easter is more than bunnies, eggs, and candy. Through the sacrifice of one man, you can know more peace and joy than you’ve ever experienced, through the sacrifice of one man.

“Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,

to crush him with pain.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin

so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.

And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.”

Isaiah 53:10 MSG