The post below is by Brett Henry, Director of Administration for Ohio Ministries. I share it with his permission in the hope it will provide food for thought and a word of inspiration during this season of Holy Week.
Randy Spence
Director of Ministries
As I was driving home from work tonight I was overcome with lyrics that have spoken to me for some ten years now. When I worshipped in the Bellefontaine congregation our in-house musical-extraordinaire composed a musical entitled “How Could a King Come Down for Me?” Although I was stretching to remember all of the words, one line remained vividly in my mind “O, what is man that thou art mindful of a fallen race. Oh, what a love that you would come and take my place!” I was left for the remainder of the drive to ponder just that: how could a king come down for me?
Have we forgotten this truth? That some 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ, the ‘holy one of God’ set aside a crown of glory, forwent the majesty that he was due, and died the brutal death of the cross to leave an eternal inheritance for you and for me? He took my place to satisfy a sin-debt for which only death could atone. But not only did he die, for death could not conquer our Lord; he rose triumphant from the grave begging the question “O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”[1]
In another cantata, Joanne’s narration so accurately depicts the power of the story:
Christ’s blood poured down the rugged cross of Calvary’s altar, covering the guilt that stood between sinner and God. Because of Calvary, the cross, once a despised object or horror, is lovely and glorious. It is the place that the heavenly Father chose to redeem his fallen children. [2]
Perhaps one of my most treasured scriptural lessons is found in the twenty-third chapter of the gospel of Luke where in the thirty-ninth verse we are introduced to the first of the two criminals hanging beside the Lord. This first guy hurled insults “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” but the second rebuked the first asking “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then the second criminal asked of him “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”[3]
The lesson in this is found in the forty-third verse where Jesus answers him “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” What resonates with me here is that, contrary to what so many of our churches inadvertently prioritize; the thief on the cross wasn’t involved in any of our ‘church programming’. The criminal never went to church, never sang in the choir, gave in the offering, or served on a committee. And while I believe we are called to be about the Lord’s business, sometimes I fear that we have ceased being ‘fishers of men’ and simply become ‘keepers of the aquarium.’
This Easter season, I encourage you, and your church, to reflect on our mission- that we are called to make disciples, called to remember the death on the cross that culminated the story of the birth in the manger. A king set aside his majesty and died for us so that we may realize eternal life. Remember with me that no works of man can secure for us that eternal inheritance- for “what is man that thou art mindful of a fallen race”? The thief on the cross is surely today enjoying the splendor of eternity and experiencing the freedom of forgiveness- not because of any program or ‘good works’ but because he talked to an omnipotent God!
“Calvary, the place of redemption and cleansing;
Calvary, the place of pardon and justification; Calvary, the place of Holy
Sacrifice; Calvary- the place where his blood was spilled.”
[1] 1 Corinthians 15:55; New
International Version
[2] “At the Place Where His
Blood was Spilled” Copyright 2001; Joanne Wiley
[3] Luke 23:39; New
International Version
