Nobody Took Jesus's Life.

(I'm reposting this from my Facebook status.)


Fact of the Day:

Nobody took Jesus's life.

Yesterday, the Friday before Easter, is named by the Christians, "Good Friday." It's the day that Christians have historically remembered Jesus's walk down a dusty stone road in the Middle East, sweating, stumbling under the torture device upon which he would be nailed, hung, and executed. If it had all happened in America in the 1960's, Christians would be wearing little electric chairs as jewelry. Why? Why is this "Good"?

The Christian understanding is not one of "cosmic child abuse," nor of the sad loss of a great man or prophet. Christians call this Friday "Good," because Jesus, God with us, died on that torture device intentionally.

He went in love.

He went because he knew that the only way to show love for someone was to "lay it all down" for them, and in his case it meant physical death.

He went because he knew that we've done things that we can't pay for, that we can't bear thinking about, that we hate ourselves for.

He went so that he could say, "You are loved more than you can possibly imagine, whatever you've done, whatever has been done to you. You are forgiven. You can have peace with yourself, with everyone in your life, and with the One who made you. I have finished all of the work already. Trust me."

Nobody took Jesus's life. He gave it.