The Challenge 25 February, 2004

Not really much to report this week. Really have been having a good week overall. Getting back into the Bible with all the flurry of activities going on with our church doing the 40 days of Purpose study. Also getting ready to go to Willow Creek for the Youth Conference this coming weekend and am really looking forward to getting to see and hear Rob Bell speak and David Crowder Band!

What Else?

I mean it! What else could any of us be talking about but the Passion of the Christ movie? By the time you read this many of you will have already seen it or should I say, "experienced it". My wife and I are going tonight. As I am typing this at about 0515 this morning (yes I'm a crazy early morning kind of guy) I am feeling extremely apprehensive about the whole thing. Why? Why would a Christian who believes in the Gospel of Christ be apprehensive about seeing a movie about the last 12 hours of Christ's life? Because we as Christians really do not understand what happened or if we think we understand we block the true picture of what happened from our minds.

I mean we all see Crosses everywhere. On Churches, on bumper stickers, diamond encrusted ones that we hang from ladies necks. We have ones made out of nails, wood, and gold. And we all wear them as a reminded that Christ died on the cross for my sins. But what does that really mean, "Christ died on the cross"? We are calloused to the true meaning of that statement. We don't typically like to think of death and when we do, we like to think of it is a mild way. Like dying in your sleep or something. Now, we don't typically think of Christ dying like people do mildly in their sleep but I think we tend to put the truth out of our minds as to what he really endured for us.

Let's start out with this thought; the cross was a brutal method of execution. Wearing a cross in the first century would be the equivalent of you and I wearing a golden electric chair today. How about a Golden syringe or a diamond encrusted gas chamber, a platinum noose, a gold and silver guillotine. Can you imagine wearing one of those? Can you imagine the company that puts out jewelry to hang from your neck or from your ears that looked like those things - we could call it "execution wear ". Some of these examples don't even come close to the description and the graphic portrayal of the crucifixion we will see in the Passion tonight because we like to think that our methods of execution are sophisticated in these modern days. The Romans, they were not worried about some advocacy group trying to stop them from being brutal. The cross was said to have been one of the most brutal methods of execution that there has ever been in the history of the human race. It was designed to keep a person in the maximum amount of pain for the longest period of time and provide for a slow and excruciating death. It was torture not just execution. You will know that after the movie tonight.

Can you imagine people walking around with jewelry around their necks of various torture implements? Neither could the first century Christians. In fact, the "Cross" was not even used as a symbol of the Christian faith until the end of the second century according to the history books. It was too brutal of a symbol.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth." Isaiah 53:7

A friend of mine was recently visiting a foreign country where he and his family are going in order to be missionaries and he was discussing with us just last Saturday night how he and his wife had to watch the slaughter of an animal. This animal was to be food for a family there and their guests (my friends). This animal did not give its life up willingly. My friend told us how three people had to hold the animal down while it was killed to provide food for their feast. My friend's animal was not tortured and the animal was not being made to endure pain and it was not easy to kill. We don't know these kinds of things. We have been shielded from real death. The only death we see these days is in video games and nobody really gets hurt. And yet Jesus was killed in the most brutal way known to man and he did it willingly for you and I.

God has been preparing me to see this film. Just a few days ago I was listening to another Rob Bell sermon on CD and Rob went through all of the personal and physical torture that Jesus went through. Personal torture? Yep. Jesus torture did not start when the Romans got a hold of him. If you read through the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus torture started with people questioning him... questioning his motives... calling him a liar... calling him the devil... I know that I just love it when people talk about me that way... NOT! He had 12 very close friends here on earth and one of them betrayed him for 30 pieces of Silver. A man who hung out with Jesus for about 3 years betrayed him. When Jesus was in the garden before being turned over to the Romans, he asked His friends to watch and pray with him. They fell asleep - three times. His friends abandoned him when He needed them most. The list goes on of the things Jesus had to endure. He was: Deserted, denied, spit on, struck in the face, slapped, stripped naked, mocked, insulted, falsely accused, scorned, rejected, stared at, convicted, lied about, condemned, bruised, had thorns driven into His head, whipped, beaten, hated, and made to carry His own means of execution through the streets. Then He had his hands and feet nailed to a cross, He was hung in front of all to see and left to die.

Can any of you imagine in your own minds watching someone you love - your wife, your husband, mother, father, brother, or who ever being executed? Could you watch while that person is lead to the electric chair and then killed? What if the reason they were being killed was not even valid? What if the reason they were being executed was not because of anything they did? Could you stand and watch that happen. I could not. Now bump the stakes a little higher... could you watch that loved one be tortured and then killed for something they did not do? There are none of us so sick as to be able to say yes. We could not do it. I have a pit in my stomach just typing the words and thinking about watching anyone I know or love being killed in front of my eyes. Especially if they did not deserve it!

Let's raise the bar one more time - to God's truth!

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Put your own name in that verse...in while I, Dave Hansen was still a sinner, Christ died for me!

Could you watch someone get tortured and executed knowing full well that the reason He was going through all that was for YOU? Every bone in my body cries out and say no... Kill me instead. I would not let any family member or friend ever die for something I did! I could not bear it. Yet Christ died for me... Dave Hansen! Fill in your name...!

I have heard all kinds of people say that this movie is "too brutal", "It is too graphic", "That they can not watch" Look at some of these reviews...

... belongs as much to the realm of sadomasochism as to Christian piety. New York Magazine

... has more power and gore than power and glory, more blood and guts than blood and redemption. Chicago Tribune

When was the last time you head people say that about some slasher film? One of the best reviews is...

... makes you look at things you'd rather not look at, and feel things you'd rather not feel. New York Press

They've got it! Go. Watch a portrayal of your Savoir for 2 hours in a movie theatre. Know that He really did this and took your place! Know that His torture lasted more than 2 hours. He endured it for probably somewhere between 12 and 24 hours. Watch, when you don't want to! I already feel anguish and pain and I'm hours away from even sitting in my seat at the theatre.

Ultimately, you must come to realize the truth and power of the last half of the above verse... that He died for _____ ________________ [fill your name in the blank]. But what is even more important is that you read the first half of the verse as well...

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us" Romans 5:8a

God demonstrated His own LOVE towards me Dave Hansen or you _________________ [fill in your name]. This is important folks please catch this... God was watching and HE is the one would could not stand to see HIS loved one die. He could not sit by and watch us endure an eternity of torture so HE took our place on that Cross. Just like every bone in my body would want to switch places with any one of my family members if they were being executed - whether or not the execution was for something they did or not - I'd do it, I'd take their place. That is what God did for us.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15:13

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us." 1 John 3:16a

Go, Watch. Yes, it will hurt. Yes, it should bring about feelings that you don't want to feel. Yes, it will be hard to endure. Watch Love in action... I Challenge you!

Until next week ~ Dave

To make comments, to suggest topics you'd like me to tackle, to get past devotionals, or to be added to this weekly "devotional email" please write to: Dave Hansen at philip419@earthlink.net