Psalm 22

Matthew 27

"They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'" - John 12:13 Fulfilling prophecy, On Sunday before the Passover Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the shouts of the people "Hosanna!" The crowds waved palm branches welcoming Him as King, and hoped He would overthrow Rome and restore Israel. They were right in proclaiming Him King. But Jesus was not the King they expected, but the one they (we) needed. A week that began with praise would quickly turn to persecution. By Thursday Jesus was arrested in the cover of the night. By Friday morning He was beaten, mocked, and sentenced to death instead of and in the place of a true criminal (Barabbas). By Friday afternoon He was hanging on a Roman cross. We cannot gloss over or make light of the cross. To properly understand it we must feel the weight of it. Under Roman law, Roman citizens could not be crucified. It was a punishment reserved for foreigner felons guilty of crimes against Rome. It was a method of Rome's to make an example of someone who would not comply with Romes rule. That being said, it was intended to be as slow, brutal, and torturous as possible. Interestingly Pilate the Roman governor of Judea found "no guilt in Jesus". Our word we use today "Excruciating" is derived from Roman crucifixion and literally means "from the cross". The pain and torture Jesus endured in facing his death is more than often not fully comprehended in the modern mind. But if we wish to know Him, we must acknowledge and embrace the cross for all that it was and meant. When we begin to do so, we may be lead to question "Why the brutality?" "Why such merciless suffering?" When we read the Old Testament through the lens of the cross we begin to find our answer. From the beginning (Genesis 3), The cross was God's plan to redeem mankind. The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, but in the process He would be bruised. There would be a sacrifice. Because the wages of our sin was death. "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" - " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In the gospel according to Matthew these are some of Jesus' last words from the cross. they stir uneasy feelings in all who read them even today, but they were not just an outpouring of His heart in that moment. Well read Jews in attendance would know that Jesus was referring to Psalm 22. In the passage we see the Psalmist David, the man who slayed Goliath, King of the golden age of Israel speak to and prophecy the cross of Christ a thousand years before crucifixion was invented. In His last words Jesus was saying "remember the Psalm." more importantly "Remember how the song ends": 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. "he has done it." He had done it. "It is finished." were His final words from the cross. The debt of the sin of the world was paid. on the day of Passover "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." - (John 1:29) had laid down his life, and in doing so once and for all crushed the head of the enemy. God is inviting you into His story. Without thinking of all you've been told that "you ought" to do in response to Jesus and the cross, ask yourself: "Who is Jesus to me?" "What is the cross to me?" Was He merely a man full of wisdom and good teachings? if that's all He was we must also assume Him to be a lunatic for His claims to be God. Or, it's all true. Jesus Christ. God incarnate, come down from his throne to bear our cross. His life and all that He did were the purpose and plan of the Father that we would know Christ and through Him know the Father. If the latter is true, then it is the single most important thing in the history of the universe.