Matthew 27
As I read our passage today I felt I needed to read this on my knees. These words are the most sacred words ever recorded in the history of our planet. They tell us about a love story so magnificent it has revolutionized billions of lives and caused millions of books and songs to be written over the centuries. There are two vastly different ways to read this passage; we can read this to know the facts about Jesus' cross or we can read with the trembling heart of the old Negro spiritual. There were several truths that caused my heart to tremble today.
The mocking of my Savior caused me to tremble. Of all the scenes of the cross, this one angers me the most. What kind of sick people would mock a dying man? How low and perverted to sneer at one who is laced with pain. Yet we read about the insults of the soldiers, the common people and the religious leaders. They aim their insults and mockeries at him and amazingly he doesn't fight back. In fact, he forgives them. Just this fact alone proves that Jesus is God. No human being could do this. He refused to fight fire with fire. He fought fire with love. Never has the world seen such love.
The cry of "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" caused me to tremble. We read these words earlier in the year when we read the first line of Psalm 22. A devout Jew learned the 22nd Psalm for times of great distress and darkness. When they were in such deep distress, this psalm was prayed. This was the sermon Jesus wanted to preach from the cross but he didn't have the strength. So he recited the first line and meant for us to read it. You will see that the Psalm ends with victory. "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him." This love story is not a tragedy, but a triumph.
And all of this pain and suffering was pursued so that we could be brought into a relationship with Jesus. Like the Negro spiritual says, "sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!!"
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