Wrongly Accused, Abused Then Crucified??

Jesus had all the powers of heaven to call on, to halt or even annihilate his abusers if He chose to, but He didn’t defend Himself when He was wrongly accused, beaten and eventually hung on that cross.
Did you know?

Jesus left all His Heavenly entitlements behind when He came to earth as a baby.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. Did you know sheep have no way to defend themselves and this verse shows that for Jesus to fulfil His role here on earth he also chose to have no defence.

When He told prayed to God saying Not my will but yours, at that moment all the sins of the world was placed upon Him and God could no longer look at Him.

When the crown of thorns was thrust upon His head, not gently placed, He wasn’t free to show any reaction to the pain…. because He was doing this for us.

He carried a cross estimated at between 136 & 181 kilograms (300 – 400 pounds) in weight! He was eventually too weak to carry this cross because he had not been given water to drink.

Seven inch nails (17+ centimetres) were thrust into His hands and feet to attach His body to the cross before it was thrust into the the ground, effectively dislocating his shoulders so he could barely breathe.

God had already turned His back on His beloved Son giving up His all for us.
How did He get the strength to say ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’?
Such love and selflessness from a Lord who gave up His all to free us!

This horrific event was actually His fulfilment, the reason why He came to earth and it brought rejoicing in the heavens because now God had provided a way of escape for us. It was all about us!

Back in around 700 BC – that’s before Jesus was born – by the Prophet Isaiah so accurately prophesied about Jesus and the life He would lead – read it here for yourself:

Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave of a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.

Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.

Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.

Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honours—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.

He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
From Isaiah 53 The Message Bible

Jesus was ridiculed by those who believing he must have deserved what he got but He didn’t defend Himself. He suffered in silence so that you and I could live the way He all along planned that we should. If He hadn’t died for us there would still be no escape from Satan and the evil that surrounds him. I’m so grateful for the cross.

“….The cross is not about the wrath of God finding a suitable sacrifice. The cross is about the love of God offering humanity a way out of the vicious cycle of producing endless victims. The cross of Christ is the end of sacrifice. It’s not the appeasement of a vengeful deity, but the supreme demonstration of God’s everlasting love…”–Zahnd

Do you know Jesus? Do you know how to take advantage of His sacrifice gift? Click on this link to find out more

Please share this message with those you love and bring hope and God’s light to someone else’s world!
2016 Elaine Costin – Capturing Sunrise / Blog