The Awe and Mystery of the Crucifixion and Resurrection

As Christians, we have heard time and time and time again, the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, perhaps so many times that Holy Week and Easter have become times of fasting and feasting without the awe and mystery of the events, which occurred two thousand years ago. To truly appreciate the magnitude of these events, we must contemplate the person of Jesus Christ. We must comprehend who He is? Jesus is called the Word by John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth…No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (made him known)” (John 1:1-18 KLV). Jesus of Nazareth is a mystery to us because we cannot fully comprehend God, yet, as Christians, we know Jesus is God. We cannot fully know God, but we can know God through Christ.

As best as you can, take a moment and envision God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, together as one in eternity. Paint a picture for yourself of the three as one, planning to create our universe, knowing that the pinnacle of their creation would be man who would reject God’s love and choose evil. It was at a time when there was no time that God chose to sacrifice Himself to save us, long before we even existed. Christ, the Son of God, seated on His throne of glory, immeasurably loved by His Father and worshipped by angels, would choose to take on flesh and become a human being, knowing that He would suffer betrayal, rejection, and crucifixion. Have you ever been betrayed or rejected by someone you loved deeply? Knowing this, would you choose the horrifically painful death on the cross for that person? 

When we stop and contemplate our all-powerful God, who willingly took on flesh for us, so He could die on the cross and save us, we are in awe! Reverence and wonder fill our spirits! We drop down to our knees in humility and gratitude and fear! “For God so loved the world (each and every one us) that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Amazingly, God offers us an invitation to live eternally in His love. “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Incredibly, He chose to die for us, even though we are not worthy of His love. We are not able to love Him perfectly as He loves us, for each time we sin, we reject His divine love and choose evil. When we come to realize this, we are stirred by a profound repentance for our sins. Our flesh may be weak, but our spirit loves our Lord. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). Even as sinners, God desires a relationship with us, not just a friendship, but rather, He wishes to call us His sons and daughters! “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5-6). What a good and loving God He is!

The cross, an inhumane means of suffering a painful, shameful, public death, was meant to produce fear. God transformed this instrument of execution into a symbol of hope, life and salvation. Through the Resurrection, God confounds evil by recreating the cross into a glorious banner of our faith. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled, “he will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8). Consequently in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, Paul triumphantly declares:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

    Where, O death, is your sting?”

We are astonished and in awe that Christ rose from the dead to reveal Himself as God, to free us from sin, and to offer us eternal life through salvation! Through the resurrection, we possess the hope of eternal rewards in the presence of God, cleansed from all evil, in communion with His infinite love, destined to live in unimaginable joy and peace. Paul refers to the prophecy in Isaiah 64:4 when he asserts the mysteries of our heavenly blessings (1 Corinthians 2:9):

“But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him.”

As Easter approaches, ask the Holy Spirit to reintroduce you to those feelings of childlike wonder in the awesome mysteries of the crucifixion and resurrection. Allow yourself to experience God’s infinite love revealed to us through the cross of Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to you in all His humility, meekness, and mercy, for this is the kind of love He offers us. God humbled Himself and offered to wash our feet as He washed the feet of the disciples. He offers Himself to us each time we participate in Holy Communion. We receive the blood and body of Christ to spark that mystical union we have through the Holy Spirit who lives within us as Christians. When you go forward to receive the Eucharist, know with all your being that Christ lives in you!

If you have not known Christ, ask God to reveal Him to you! God knows what it takes to make Himself real to you. Open your heart! He will create a miracle within you, and you will rejoice in experiencing His overwhelmingly, infinite, divine love firsthand. There is nothing else like it!         

© 2017  Helen Kamenos  All rights reserved

http://www.helenkamenos.com/

What Is Truth?

Pontius Pilate was the prefect of the Roman province of Judea AD 26-36. He is most known for the trial and crucifixion of Christ. Pilate asked him (Jesus), “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” (John 18: 37-38). After asking that profound question, Pilate did not wait for a reply; he simply walked away. As was true then, we often ask “What is truth?” Like Pilate, we often consider it a rhetorical question. We do not expect an answer. We also walk away because we believe that truth is not the same for everyone. Yet, we seem to recognize the truth, when we hear it. At least, we believe we can recognize it. How can we know the truth about God? Here is an excerpt from A Journey Toward Perfection, which addresses that question:

"The life of the man called Jesus of Nazareth is well documented not only by Biblical sources, but also by Jewish and Roman historians and scholars. Various ancient writings verify that He lived 2,000 years ago and was crucified with criminals. His brief three year ministry changed the world forever. Was He a prophet, a wise man, a good man, or actually the Son of God as He claimed? What was it about this man that caused so many to follow Him and even be willing to die for Him? Those who believe Jesus was simply a good man, wise man or a prophet must still be able to explain why He would claim to be the Son of God. This contradicts sound judgment. Today, a man who might claim to be the Son of God would be considered mentally unstable, at the very least, possibly even insane. Jesus is an enigma to many, yet to Christians, He is the Son of God, part of the Godhead, part of the Holy Trinity. This is difficult for our limited minds to fathom, yet as Christians, this is our faith. We believe that Christ was fully God and fully man, our Creator and our Savior.

During His three-year ministry, the disciples traveled with Him day and night. They knew Him intimately, and they believed His claims. They believed that Christ was God, one person of the Trinity. The disciples believed Him so faithfully that they willingly died horrible deaths rather than renounce their faith. They believed He rose from the dead on the third day. They claimed to have seen Him bodily after His resurrection, not as a spirit, and claimed to have eaten and drank with Him. If the Roman and Jewish leaders wanted to dispel the rumors that Christ rose from the dead, and thereby crush the Christian movement, all they had to do was to produce His dead body, yet they never could. At first, some claimed that the disciples stole His body, but this would have been impossible with Roman Centurions posted to guard the tomb.  Besides, would anyone be willing to die for what they knew to be a lie? This rumor simply faded away. Instead, the martyred disciples were the lights of the world that ignited a fire that burns to this day.

To unbelievers, the resurrection and Christ’s claim to be the Son of God must be the greatest lies ever perpetrated by one man. To Christians, Jesus is the light to which we are all drawn. He is the light that gives us hope. He is the light, which even unwittingly draws unbelievers. That light is centered on love; “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love” (I John 4:8). Even unbelievers acknowledge the power of love. God is the source of love. But why would an all-knowing God descend from His throne of glory to become a man in a world full of evil, knowing He would be rejected and even crucified? Christ became man to save us from the curse of sin and to offer us the gift of eternal life. He became a man to allow us to “see” God or to know Him, to invite us into a relationship with Him, and to teach us how to love by being a role model for us.

God dwells in a distant place, in a spiritual dimension. He is not of this world. We cannot experience Him through our physical senses. Only certain prophets had firsthand knowledge of God because He chose them. According to scriptural accounts, He spoke to them, sometimes audibly, and sometimes through angels, dreams or visions. When Christ became man, He entered our dimension, our reality. The more we understand Christ, the better we understand God. “Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). By getting to know Christ, we can know God!"

© 2017  Helen Kamenos  All rights reserved

http://www.helenkamenos.com/