Irony of the Cross #3

‘The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him!’ Matt.27:41-42

 The third irony of the cross is the man who can’t save himself saves others. The man who hung on the tree and could not save himself actually saves others. To the thief by his right hand, Jesus said ‘today you will be with me in paradise’. ‘Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him’ Will they? They are just hypocrites, Jesus raised a couple of dead people and they still did not believe him. He that has not died, if He were to come down from the cross they still would not believe him. They probably would say that He should die first. Yet He actually died and rose again and they still did not believe Him. Many times we ask God for signs to aid your believing Him. The truth is you actually won’t believe even after God shows you a sign. The ideal thing is to believe God because God has said so. You should not wait for a sign before you believe Him. The truth is that even if you see the sign you would deny its authenticity. It happened to Gideon even after seeing an angel he still was looking for signs. Despite the fact that God obliged his request Gideon did not believe any of the signs.

The mockers were speaking to Jesus and they said if Jesus is God, he should save himself. But you see the irony is that, if Jesus is to save others, he really cannot save himself. If Jesus were to save himself on the cross then we would have been lost forever. So Jesus chose to die because the only way of saving us is precisely not by saving himself. ‘For this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many’ Matt.26:28. While he hung on the cross they said save yourself. Some times as believers, we have to go through the ‘Physician heal thyself’ situation. Instead of getting frustrated by people’s mockery, look to the One who ironically could not save himself but saves others. The salvation of Jesus even though its primarily about saving us from our sins encompasses all things – healing, deliverances, everything.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for choosing to endure the cross so that I can enjoy a loving relationship with the Father today. Thank You so much Lord Jesus.