20060525
    As I pointed out in the Bible Study for the Day for yesterday, we often see Jesus’ passion as being a tragic thing. To our sinful eyes, it appears as if Jesus were being defeated by the forces of the world, sin, and the devil, yet if we listen to Jesus even in these hours of humiliation, torture, and ultimately death, we do not see a man, our Savior, defeated by His enemies.
    Consider Jesus’ words to Caiaphas as He was being accused by many false witnesses, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.” [Mark 14:62 NASB]. Are these the words of our Savior defeated? No indeed, they are the words of our Savior defiant, telling the Truth to those so blinded by their own sinful ambition that they could not hear.
    In Jesus’ passion, we need to remember our Savior as the fulfiller of God’s promise from the ages, Jesus as the Savior of all mankind. To be sure, Jesus was afraid. Jesus did not want to suffer and die, but He did because, in doing so, He paid the price we could not pay for our sins.
    In Jesus before Caiaphas, we see the battle between Heaven and Hell being waged, and even as those men tore their robes and beat our Savior, they could not imagine that they were losing. Let us be comforted in our Saviors victory, for if He could suffer and die and rise again on our behalf, how much less will He do for those of us who are alive in Him?
DLH
