THOUGHTS ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST

Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2004

THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST

This week many people will go to the cinemas to view 'The Passion of the Christ'.

The suffering of Jesus Christ, traditionally known as his 'passion', will impact us all with its brutality. Doubtless we will cringe; doubtless many will cry. Some will wonder what makes the human race capable of such horrific violence and irrational hatred. Others will wonder what motivated this one man, this Christ, to deliberately submit to these atrocities.

Behind this passion, this suffering, is a deeper passion: the passionate and powerful love of the Christ for the people he created.

Because of this powerful love, this powerful passion, Jesus Christ 'resolutely set out for Jerusalem'. Because of this passion Jesus Christ refused to avoid the cross and its suffering: 'Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.'

The deep and powerful passion of Jesus Christ for sinful human beings ' for us ' brought him deliberately, purposefully to this place of suffering. Here his love, God's love, is demonstrated: that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, chose to die as our substitute to bear the full penalty for our sins:

• The Christ was rejected so that we can be accepted.
• The Christ was condemned as guilty, so that we can be acquitted as righteous.
• The Christ was subjected to the law of sin and death, so that we can be set free.
• The Christ died, so that we can live.

He, the sinless One, took the sinner's place, bore the sinner's punishment, paid the sinner's price, so that all that justly and legally hung over the sinner, was taken away from us, nailed to his cross, forever purged off our record.

This love, this incomparable grace, is the power behind the passion of the Christ. He knew that there is no other way. He knew that only this way, only this death, could bring us sinners back to peace with God.

From the depths of his powerful love he calls

Come to me 'and I will give you rest.'

Scriptures: John 1:1-4; Colossians 1:16; Luke 9:51; John 12:27; Matthew 16:21-23; 26:52-54; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:8-10; John 3:16; Matthew 27:46; Isaiah 53:4-11; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; Romans 8:1-4; Colossians 2:14; John 14:6; Romans 5:1; Colossians 1:19-22; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Matthew 11:28-31.