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Pastor Saroja M

God’s immense love – An Easter Gift

Let us look to the Cross with faith and believe that Jesus Christ’s suffering, pain, sorrow and body was completely broken for you and me.  He is truly a God who loves us very much. In spite of all the suffering and humiliation on the Cross, let us see what is Jesus’ desire for you and me, what does He tell His Father God and what is in His heart for you and me. Luke 23: 34 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”  Jesus tells His Father, even in that completely broken and bruised condition with blood profusely oozing out of his wounds, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  Even in that condition, Jesus’ heart beating for us was only with ‘Love’.  Scientist and researchers say that Jesus suffered on the Cross for six hours, Yes, all these six hours He only prayed for us to His Father God “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. This is because He loved us then and He loves us even today. Unless we come to Him with a true conscience, we will not get deliverance from our sins even today. 2000 years ago, even the ones who struck Jesus  Christ, the ones who spat on Him and humiliated Him, were also delivered by the same blood by which we are delivered today i.e. by the blood shed on the Cross of Calvary.  None of us can say that we are pure and sinless.  We need the blood of Jesus to deliver and wash us from our sins and unrighteousness. Hence, let us listen to the whisper of our conscience and put our hands across our heart and contemplate upon what Jesus said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  When we acknowledge Him and come before Him in truth, our God will be ready to wash and clean us of our sins, however crimson red they may be; whatever may be the kind of sin, we can get remission for our sins and be washed by His pure, priceless blood.

 Jesus’ inner quality, i.e. His forgiving nature, His healing touch for illness and bondage; we have seen this same nature on the Cross. Peter writes about this quality of Jesus  in 1 Peter 2: 23  “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” Peter says that when Jesus was reviled, He did not revile and when He suffered He did not threaten. When Jesus carried the Cross, He did not threaten the people saying “wait and watch when I rise again after three days, I will punish you”. No, Jesus did not threaten the people in any which way. But, rather, He continued to pray to His Father saying “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Jesus whole heartedly surrendered His life on the Cross without any murmurings, so that we get saved and we become righteous by His death. Our God is a good God, He is a God who forgives, He is a God who delivers us from any and every type of sin. It is written in Psalms 86: 5 “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” Our God is a good God and is ready to forgive and His mercy is abundant to all those who call upon Him. This is a Psalm written even before Jesus came into this world and His quality was very clearly described in this Psalm. It is the same quality that we see on the Cross when Jesus was crucified. He is a good God and merciful even at the time of His death, He intercedes for you and me to His Father and says  “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.

  The people of those times did not recognize these qualities of Jesus; they did not know Him at all. A God who never sinned, robbed, lied, made a mistake, committed adultery; there was no sin at all within Him.  Even those who reviled against Him, He did not revile back at them in return. Such a God was taken to Pilate for judgment. Pilate in turn washes his hands when He finds no fault in Jesus after all his inquiry was over. Though Pilate knew that there was no fault in Jesus and that He was blameless, yet he did not come forward to save Him. But rather, he washed his hands off Jesus.  Let us read Luke 23: 14-25 “Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him. (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.”  After all the inquiries done against Jesus, Pilate told the people “that I find no fault and blame in Him, thus I wash my hands off Him”.  Pilate knew that it was because of sheer jealousy that the people wanted Jesus to be crucified. Even after that, He did not save Jesus but rather handed Him over to the people for judgment. Let us see what Pilate’s wife tells him in Mathew 27: 19 “When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” God could have come in Pilate’s dream and informed him directly, but no God chose to speak to Pilate’s wife and in turn she said to Pilate “Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him”.   In our lives too, many a times there are some people who make the mistake, but there are others who suffer for it. Many a times, God shows our wrong doings not to us, but to others.  Hence, we cannot question what our God does., who He speaks to and how He handles a situation. No one can question God.  Let us read Luke 23: 15 “No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.” Pilate tells the people “I had even sent Jesus to Herod, but He too did not find fault as to persecute Him”. Even Herod finds no fault with Jesus. If the people believed that Jesus Christ was sent into the world for our sakes, they would never have asked Pilate to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus.  Barabbas was a thief, and had the people known the truth they would never have asked to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus. The people did not know that Jesus Christ came into this world to love us, to reunite us with Father God and to separate us from our sins.  Peter says in Acts 3: 17 “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.“  The people crucified Jesus because of ignorance, just like their rulers also did. But Jesus’ blood has redeemed everyone, even those who reviled Him.  Let us read John 19: 34 “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”  When the soldier did this, water and blood oozed out of Jesus’ sides.  What does water signify? It signifies ‘Jesus is the Living Water’,   John 7: 38-39 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”  Here water is compared to the ‘Holy Spirit’.  Through this ‘Living Water’, Jesus gave us His Love.  Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” It is only through the blood of Jesus that we have received our redemption and forgiveness for our sins, according to the riches of His Grace.

When we sin, our conscience is aware of it, Jesus also knows of our sin and there is also one more person who knows of our sins i.e. the evil one. This is very important and we must always remember this. In the olden times, the greatest of all sins was adultery. The commandment of the olden day says in Exodus 20: 14 “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Now, if we have still sinned and committed adultery, what is the punishment for it? Let us read Deuteronomy 22: 22 “If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.”   The couple had to be stoned to death. This was a big punishment that men brought upon themselves. Whoever committed this sin, whether it was the priests’ children or ordinary people, all had to face the same punishment.  Let us read Leviticus 21: 9 “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.” This grave punishment used to be practiced by the Israelites in the olden days. But, we see  that there is a bigger punishment in eternity than even this, in Revelation 21: 8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” But, we human beings, always think that nobody has watched us sin. We may have sinned any one of these sins and we must be careful for our God sees our sins and so does the evil one sees our sins. Similarly, we see in the Holy Scriptures that people bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus. We know the punishment for adultery in the olden times. Yet this woman was brought alone and the man was left out, so this was not according to the commandment of law. Jesus sees this woman and senses that the people want Him to judge her. God knows about everyone, so we cannot hide from Him; though we think that no one has seen, nothing is hidden from Jesus’ sight. Jesus says “those of you who have not sinned, stone this woman first”. Hearing this, the people’s conscience convicted them and all of them left the place one by one. Let us read John 8: 7 “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Our Jesus has not come to point out our sins in the open and He has not come to condemn us. But, since the people insisted and kept repeatedly asking Jesus, He was forced to respond “those of you who have not sinned, stone this woman first”. Hence, Jesus kept his face focused on the ground and He did not even look up at them, because He knew all were guilty. Even today, our God is the same unchanging Jesus, He intercedes with His father for you and me saying “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  Let us replace the word ‘them’ with ‘our own name’, and look to the Cross where Jesus was crucified; we will feel that it is ‘Me’ who Jesus is praying for to His Father God. Our conscience must speak to us, because our God is a merciful and graceful God, He is ready to deliver us from our sins even today. Let this not be another Good Friday that we are celebrating, let us come to Him in truth and faith knowing that He will forgive our sins if we are ready to confess it even today. John 8: 9 says “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” Hearing the voice of Jesus, all the people left one by one, and only the adulteress woman was left behind with Him. We see how Jesus gives His judgment to the woman and says to her “Go away and sin no more”. All our sins, big or small lie naked before God, but our conscience must be alive today to receive the grace of God so that we are redeemed of our sins.   

Peter speaks in Acts 2: 37 “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  When Peter preached to the people about Jesus and when they heard the Word preached about how they had denied Jesus and crucified Him, their conscience was convicted immediately and they asked Peter “What should we do?” Like these people, our conscience too must speak to us today; we should also have this question “What should we do? How can we come out of this sin?  What should we do to be delivered of our sins today?” God will wash us instantly with His blood, because our God’s blood has power, it has wonder-working power. It is important for us to ask this question to ourselves today. We know that the wages of sin is death, yet Judas Iscariot did not ask this question “What should I do now that I have betrayed Jesus? How can I come out of this sin?”  Rather, he went and threw the silver coins before the people who gave it to him and then went and committed suicide. Judas did not come with a repentant heart before Jesus Christ. Though the word says that when we sin, the wages of sin is death; yet, when we go to God with a repentant heart and with this question “What should I do? How can I come out of this sin? - Our God Jesus is prepared to deliver us out of our every sin, even today. 

We see that every ‘Word’ written in the holy book was before Jesus Christ’s birth, and it was fulfilled much later, on the Cross. Let us read what David wrote about Jesus Christ in Psalms 22: 15 “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Even before Jesus was born, David had written that Jesus would yearn for water and be thirsty. Let us read John 19: 28-29 “