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| THE DAY OF EXECUTION |
| The disciples were totally unprepared. |
| And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" 15:39 |
| Events in Jesus' life - the birth in a manger, the death on a cross - can become so familiar that we miss the point. They're too close to us. In thinking about them, it sometimes helps to let the mind wander and search out whole new images. A Bible study group was asked to suggest word images that might apply to Jesus. Common ones surfaced first: a Shepherd, a Lamb, a Door. Then out of nowhere came a wildly different metaphor: "fireworks in reverse." Everyone turned, puzzled, to the middle-aged woman who had spoken. "Think about it," she said. "Fireworks explode with brilliant, dazzling colors and loud noises . . . yet they start out in an ordinary-looking paper package. When God became a man, the opposite happened. The Creator of everything in the universe confined himself to an unimpressive human package." When the Impossible Happened No event in the life of Jesus fits the woman's metaphor better than his execution in Jerusalem. The idea was inconceivable, even to Jesus' closest followers. The Son of God die? How could this be? Could the Creator of all things succumb to his creation? Disciples who had slogged through every other confrontation by his side now forsook him. It made no sense for Jesus, the Messiah, to die. Not until later would other thoughts click into place: memories of Old Testament customs that hauntingly pointed to a cross, prophcies of a Messiah who was King |