Prophecies about the King
Isaiah 53- The King on a Cross
For a number of years, I used to be responsible for putting the public address system up for this service. To do this each Easter, I had first had to acquire one of the most valuable assets in Harpenden, a parking space! And as I would be setting up microphones and speakers people would stop and ask me; What’s it all about then? And I would explain that it was a service to commemorate Good Friday.
Good Friday; what’s that? They would often ask. I would explain and invite them to stay for the short service, and they nearly all found an excuse to hurry on.
When this first happened I felt quite distressed. Why didn’t they know what had happened on Good Friday! Why were they surprised that we were gathering to remember it!
Then I realised that it was most probably it was like that on the day Jesus was crucified.
People going about their everyday business. Perhaps not to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose or the estate agents, but hurrying on, under pressure to get things prepared before the Passover.
A crucifixion was a common enough site in the Roman world. It was a particularly slow, painful death, but above all it was a visual aid to those lands under the Roman rule.
It said “If you step out of line, this will happen to you!”
But the man on this cross had done nothing wrong, the Roman governor had vindicated him of any crime, he’d wanted to let him go free!
As Jesus hung there, some stopped and came over and looked at the cross and said “what’s going on? What’s it all about?”
“Oh! It’s that Jesus of Nazareth. He saved others, let’s see if he can save himself! If he is the Son of God, let’s see him come down off that cross!”
But what sort of end was this?
If he was the promised Messiah, Deliverer, surely he would have led a victorious army against the Romans and been slain at the very point of success. That would have been a noble death.
If he was the King of the Jews, surely he would have been crowned and died at a ripe old age, having re-established the Kingdom of David? That would have been an honourable death for a king.
But here, hanging in agony, on a cruel cross.
For the Jews this death would be a repulsive end, not noble or honourable one.
Galations 3: 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."
The Old Testament law made it clear that anyone who was put to death on a tree, was to be treated like a criminal.
Why then the cross, what’s it all about??
The cross of Christ has always evoked a reaction
1Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The cross of Christ is intensely personal, if you really are going to stop and look up at it. Not simply the best known trade mark in the world, but the Saviour of the World hanging there for you and for me.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
If today, as you hurry by, like those on the day Jesus was crucified, feeling you are under increasing pressure. Stop and look at the cross and see the Prince of Peace, who offers you ‘ a Peace the world cannot take away’.
If today, as you go about your business and wonder what is the right path for the future, stop and look at the cross and see Him , who is ‘the Way, the truth and the Life’.
If today you’re in the middle of a relationship that is causing pain, stop and look at the cross and see Him, who came to ‘bind up the broken hearted’.
The Cross of Christ presents each of us a question, a question that all other questions in our lives are subservient to:
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Are you going to accept that, or reject it? That’s the question.
If today, for the first time, you want to know ‘’What’s it all about?’ then speak to one of us afterwards, we’ll be happy to share the good news of Good Friday.
Mike Reid
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