My Beautiful Jesus

Once in a while I get carried away when I write in my devotional journal.  And it happened today.  I felt like sharing it with you.  So be blessed!  

Ralph

Monday 11-3-2014  (Location: Oran, Salta)  Texts read:  Job 25 and Mark 13-14    (SOAP S=Scripture, O=Observation, A=Application, P=Prayer)

S.  Mark 14:60-65  Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, "Well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?" 61 Jesus made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the blessed God?" 62 Jesus said, "I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God's right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven." 63 Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, "Why do we need other witnesses? 64 You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?" And they all condemned him to death. 65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and hit his face with their fists. "Who hit you that time, you prophet?" they jeered. And even the guards were hitting him as they led him away.  NLT

O.  Accusations!  Jeers!  Mock trial!  Men dressed in religious paraphernalia and flowing robes direct their hatred against my Jesus.  They had heard all they could take from this guy from Nazareth of Galilee.  He was a nobody.  He was uneducated.  But He had roamed the entire country denouncing their hidden sins and openly revealing their hypocrisy to the public.  Enough!  Away with Him!  Who will testify against Him?!  Let’s hear it!  But their testimonies contradicted one another.  Okay, Mr. Jesus of Nazareth, speak up.  Defend yourself.  Not a word uttered in His defense. 

Could it be that my sin was already crushing Him with its weight?  Could it be that in God’s sight He, Who had never sinned, was already being declared a filthy sinner because the sins of those men and because of all my accumulation sins, like a huge burden was pressing on His back, already sending Him to His death?

Speak, Jesus!  Say something!  You never lacked for words!  You spoke before and Your words made the finest of them cringe before You.  Speak up, Jesus! 

But not a word until they asked Him the “Who are You, anyway?” question.  “Are You really the long awaited Messiah, the Son of the Living Jehovah God?  There You are a helpless wretch with Your hands tied behind Your back and no one to defend You.  Come on, Mr. Jesus!  Who are You anyway?  Are You the Son of God?” 

And now He finally speaks and His first two words penetrate to their hearts.  “I am!”  Those words were more than the beginning of a sentence.  They were the famous words of Jehovah God spoken from a burning bush centuries before. A voice from a flaming bush was sending Moses back into the deadly teeth of a powerful Pharaoh.  But Moses, filled with fear, says “Who shall I say sent me?” And the voice of God penetrates the silence of that desert saying, “I am! Tell them that I am sent you.”  Every Jewish student knew this story and it had already reached their ears that this Jesus was going about making statements like “I am the bread of life”, “I am the resurrection and the life”, “I am the light of the world.”  “I am the way.”  “I am the truth.”  “I am the life.” So now the question is put to His face.  “Who are you?”  And without hesitation He speaks His first two words among them.  “I am!”  They had to identify this with a burning bush from ancient history.  This guy is claiming to be God Himself!  Look at Him.  He has dirt on his robe where he was kneeling in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane!  His face is not shining like a god.  There is nothing in his looks that might identify Him as a god. 

Isaiah had written it centuries before. Isa 53:2-3 “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.” NLT

“I am!” and these two words echoed through that hall and reverberated in every brain there.  “I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God's right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven."

 

That did it!  “Did you guys hear that?  He claims to be the Son of God Himself standing here before us!  A pretty sick-looking god, don’t you think?  What do you guys say?  What verdict do you give?” And the crowd of blood-thirsty pious clergymen scream, “Away with Him!  He is a fake!  God wouldn’t look like that!  Smash Him!  Kill Him!” 

His hands are tied.  So they spit in his face.  “Take that Mr. God!”  And they blindfold Him and start hitting Him in the face.  “Hey, Mr. God, tell us which one of us just smashed You in the mouth and made Your lips bleed!” 

          

A.  Silence.

P.  Oh!  My beautiful Jesus!  My beautiful Jesus!  How You shine there in that darkness!  Without speaking a word to defend Yourself from their false claims.  Blindfolded and seemingly helpless.  You are condemned.  You are treated as the worst of sinners, because You claim to be the One Who You really are, the Son of God.  

Hebrews 12:2-3 calls me to “…fix my eyes on You, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” NIV 

So today, Jesus, here in a humble ancient hotel room in the city of “San Ramon de la Nueva Oran” in the province of Salta, northern Argentina, I bend my knees before You. And through Your Holy Word my eyes behold a beaten face covered with spittle and blood.  There is nothing about this scene that should be beautiful.  It should be ugly… a scene of horror.  

But somehow my eyes see something else.  Something deeper than the surface.  I “see Jesus, who, for a while, was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Heb 2:9 NIV and I fall at Your feet and by faith I stare in wonder at You… My beautiful Jesus!

Amen