“Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:44-46).
As we hold our Holy Bible in our lap while reading these verses, we can picture this scene so very clearly. We see the thunderously dark and ominous sky, and our gaze then pans the horizon until it rests sorrowfully upon our Lord and Savior, the Son of God who died for our sins.
We take in Jesus’ battered body, as it sags against the cross. A body that, as the Holy Bible relates, is beyond recognition as that of a human being. Our Lord’s beloved head is bent downward, his mission now fulfilled.
We know that our sins were the thorns in Jesus’ crown — and that knowledge hits us squarely in the gut, a knockout punch if ever there was one.
Why would anyone do something like this for us — something so undeserved? Scripture tells us that the angels were astonished that Jesus would take on human form, leave his home in the sinless and perfect heavenly realm, and wallow in the sludge of sin with sinful humanity. Every moment for Jesus had to have been miserable compared to heaven.
However, our Lord saw that there was much evil on earth, iniquity that had existed since the fall of Adams and Eve in the Garden of Eden — wickedness that to this day has only gotten much, much worse in all of its decadence.
Thankfully, God did not turn a blind eye. As the late Billy Graham explains: “God undertook the most dramatic rescue operation in cosmic history. He determined to save the human race from self-destruction, and he sent his son Jesus Christ to salvage and redeem them. The work of man’s redemption was accomplished at the cross.”
In the most intense act of selfless love ever exhibited in the history of mankind, Jesus Christ tasted death up close and personal, on behalf of every sin of every human being for all time — all sin was transferred to him. This brings to mind that horrendous moment when Jesus was banished from the presence of God, because sin cannot coexist with God his Father.
But there’s more to this Easter account. There’s the ‘rest of the story,’ which involves Jesus’ resurrection from the dead — thus defeating sin, death, and the devil on our behalf for all time.
This brings three very wonderful blessings for those who believe that Jesus was the Son of God, who died for our sins and then rose again.
First, it brings the forgiveness of our sins, which means that we are clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ — so that we do not have to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus paid on our behalf.
The second blessing is best explained in another insightful quote by the late Billy Graham: “Before the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon individuals only on certain occasions for special tasks. But now, after the resurrection, Christ through the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every believer to give us supernatural power in living our daily lives.”
This power cannot be underestimated. Without it, life is a very risky matter, to be sure. But for the believer, all of life’s challenges are filtered through God’s loving fingers. Also, with the veil of the temple being torn in two, we now are able to pray to God for his help and guidance, whenever and wherever we choose. A wonderful security blanket indeed!
And the final and third blessing is the guarantee of living forever in eternity with God. Jesus assures us of this in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” We picture heaven, with its perfect peace and contentment — which the Bible says is beyond anything that we can even imagine.
As we glance down at our Bible, closing its treasured pages, we understand that Jesus’ death on the cross took care of everything in terms of granting us peace from our birth throughout our eternity, if only we believe in Jesus Christ — whose last words to the disciples confirmed this fact: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
And this assurance brings us such incredible tranquility, as our gaze turns heavenward. Oh, how we yearn for Christ’s triumphant return, when we will see him as promised ‘face-to-face.’ Yes, my fellow believers, this would be what we would joyously refer to as: ‘The Rest of the Story.’
Kari Lee Fournier is a member of Calvary Lutheran Church in Green Bay
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