Passion of Christ-Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is

written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come 

on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14

 

Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss for money; “You can’t serve God and mammon.”  He tried to give back the 30 pieces of silver…the priests said,  “Seems like a personal problem to me.  “You see to it.”

Judas then threw down the silver and went and hanged himself, as if tormenting himself, harming himself was going to make a difference.  The only sacrifice that has made a difference in the world is “Jesus, the Lamb of God,” who died for the sins of the world that mankind can have eternal life as it was intended before Adam’s fall.  What arrogance on the part of Judas!  “I’ll kill myself first and that’ll change everything.”  He refused God’s plan of the sacrificial Lamb and tried to make his own sacrifice as Cain resulting in death just as Cain’s actions did.

How often we try to naturally handle things; beat ourselves into shape; discipline the evil out of our lives, without going to God and confessing.  Discipline is needful, but we must first confess and deal with what is within before we try to compensate with an outward act.

What a witness it would have been, if Judas had yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit and sought God’s face.  His testimony would have been different: “Jesus, forgives those who betray Him.  Look, He forgave me and I was the one that turned him in to be crucified.”  But instead Judas yielded to his own understanding.  He’s dying proof of the scripture, “Yield not to they own understanding…but trust in God” and “There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end therein is death.”  Judas makes the tragic mistake that so many of us do when they are caught up in sin, he went back to the very ones that helped put him in the predicament.

Their response, “Tough luck, Charley!”  The priests picked up the money off the floor that Judas had thrown down in shame, disgust and guilt.  They reasoned within themselves that since it was “blood money,” they couldn’t contaminate the treasury with the silver that had bought blood; at best, not recognizing their own sin and at worst, denying their sin.  The money was not contaminated, but rather the unholy hands that had first dug into the pot with the intent of using it to buy a man’s life.  So they bought a “potter’s field” where the wretched, the poor, and where Judas himself who bought the farm so to speak was buried.  Absolution in their minds to pay for the injustice they had caused.  So pious, so deadly, religiosity at it’s best, shortchanged righteousness.

Beware of religious men as they follow their own reason.  As Jesus said, “ your religious rules have made the word of God of no effect.”  The priests sowed to the flesh, not to the spirit.  They were not servants of the Most High God.  They were self-serving.  Prophecy was being fulfilled before their very eyes by their own hands and they could not see.  Such blatant error makes you want to hollah: “Oh, Lord help me!  Deliver me from blindness!”

Judas sowed to the flesh and he reaped corruption:  the lost of friendship, fellowship, respect and the loss of his life.    His actions ended with a field being bought that housed dead flesh.  How his actions contrasts Jesus.’  Judas sowed to the flesh and was void of life.  Jesus sowed to the spirit by being obedient to God even until death and he reaped life for all.  Judas’ actions made a place for dead bodies to decompose.  Jesus’ actions made a way for the dead to be brought to life.

Have you betrayed Jesus for money, pleasure, wine, men, women or song?  Well, welcome to the state of humanity.  What is so miraculous and glorious, “you don’t have to stay in the shape that you’re in.   My friend, the Potter wants to put you back together again” (as the song, The Potters’ House by Tramaine Hawkins states).  You can move up to higher ground.  Begin at the heart level.  Ask God to forgive you from the “white lie” that is as scarlet the most heinous crime to that secret sin you carry around in your mind that is robbing you of peace.

“We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”  “Cast your cares,” and be free of the gosh horrible sin you feel God will never forgive you of.  He forgives all.  If Judas had had the heart to humble himself before God, the prophets would have written a different epitaph about the betrayer.  Judas’ time for choice is over, but it’s not for you.  Choose life this day.  Talk to your, Heavenly Father, ask His forgiveness and know you are free because those sins are thrown in the “sea of forgetfulness.”  Now you forget them.  And do for others as God has done for you.  Forgive and forget.  In the midst of "crucifixion" is "fix."  Jesus can fix it as if it never happened.  "Earth has no sorrows that Heaven cannot heal," as the song says of the disconsolate. God can and does resurrect lives, dreams, and visions.

For those who don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, now ask him into your heart that is free of sin.  Just a simple but complex eternally life altering prayer is all it takes, “Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me of my sins.  Lord Jesus, I ask you into my heart to be my Lord and Savior.”  Now you’re as new creature (new being) in Christ.  You are not in the state you were in.  You’ve been elevated.  If you sin an hour from now, just ask forgiveness.  According to 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Read your Bible daily so that you can know more about your Father.  Talk to him often (it’s called prayer.)  Know more about Jesus who made way for you to be adopted into God’s Family and the Holy Spirit who is your confidant on earth right now.  The Holy Spirit is the reason you are reading this and you’ve responded.  Read your Bible to know more about the Holy Spirit.  Go to a church where they believe the “Holy Bible” from Genesis to Revelation, where they are not afraid to believe God heals today and miracles are for now, not just the Bible days.  “These are the Bible days.”  We read the Bible everyday to grow as God would have us grow, just like we eat food everyday we should eat spiritually by consuming the “Holy Bible.”   “ Now unto Him who is able to keep your from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”  God bless you now and always!

Jesus makes us free.  “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  I am the way, the truth and the life no one enters unto the father except by me.  Even on the day of His crucifixion, Jesus spiritually and naturally set captives free.  Barabbas, who had done the crime, murder, did not do the time, thanks to Jesus being a substitute for him.  The judgmental callous crowd condemned Jesus who came to save the world and had done no crime, yet they called for the release of someone who was a convicted murderer.  They rejected the life-giver and accepted the life-taker.   How often in life do we choose Barabbas, when we could have Jesus, accepting the world’s way instead of the way of the creator of the world?   Even those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior, sometimes call for Barabbas in our lives instead of Jesus.  And yet the Lord forgives and waits for our call of repentance.

The key to the “Holy Bible” and to eternal life can be summed up in scripture that speaks through the ages from more than 2,000 year ago: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.  God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.  He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” St. John 3:16-18.

As the angels said of Jesus during this season, more than 2,000 years ago, “He is risen.” and we too can rise as a result of the power of His shed blood and resurrection.