“So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up” (John 18:12, NLT).
They arrested Jesus for being Jesus! Eventually they killed him for claiming to be related to God. They thought he was acting like the devil, but their view of God was so twisted they had become themselves the emissaries of evil.
They arrested Jesus for indiscriminately showing compassion to all (regardless of their religious belief, nationality, gender, or ethnicity). That was a serious mistake in the eyes of the religious bigots of his day!
They killed Jesus for saying God would forgive anyone for anything! In the eyes of the religious aristocracy, that defanged God and made him look like a wimp. How could God love sinners, wouldn’t that encourage people to sin? And, of course, their definition of sin was totally whacked! They manufactured hundreds of rules that Jesus ignored, which made them all the more angry!
We have all sinned and are powerless to stop doing so without God’s grace and forgiveness! Jesus knew that if people could just grasp this it would transform their lives, and he believed it so strongly he was willing to die to bring it to reality!
Death Is Not Our Enemy
Barring that Jesus returns in our lifetime, death will come to us all. But death is not our greatest enemy. Jesus said,
“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” (Matthew 10: 28-31, NLT).
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California.
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