It wasn’t the nails that held Jesus on the cross, it was the joy set before Him. It was the thought of His soon-coming resurrection, and the joy that would entail for us, the family of God, His bride, from the time we believe throughout an eternity with Him. He even told His twelve disciples with a grin on His face and in His heart, “I’m going to die, but I’ll rise in three days, and meet you in the Galilee.” But they didn’t get it. They couldn’t see it. He did.
He didn’t defend Himself before Pilate or the High Priest. He simply told the truth, and went resolutely to the place of the scull as hundreds of passover lambs were being led up, bleating in His hearing, to the Temple Mount on preparation day, April 3, 33 AD. He knew the pain and suffering would be great, as was the humiliation, and now he was feeling the full weight of it, quietly.
He knew He could have stopped this injustice in the Garden the night before when He was arrested and betrayed, and He could stop it now. I suppose He was still thinking of obedience to His Father, and of the Joy set before Him.
He heard of Barbarbas, a convicted murderer going free while He Himself died in his place. He granted salvation and eternal life to criminal dying beside Him. Then shortly thereafter, He summoned what air He could in His collapsing lungs and told His Father in a quiet prayer that He was finished, and sending His spirit back to the Father from where it came.
Earthquake
God the Father wasn’t finished honoring and testifying about His Son. It was about three in the afternoon, and dark for some reason. Then at the moment of Jesus quiet prayer and expiration on the cross, there was a violent earthquake. These manifestations of supernatural power, and revelation from the Spirit of God, caused Jesus’ executioner, a gentile Roman centurion, to come into the family of God confessing the truth of the matter to all who could hear, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Resurrection Tied to Joy
The resurection was Jesus’ goal and the joy of His heart. At our Wednesday Nehemiah men’s meeting we watched a video teaching by John Piper that made the best case for this I’ve heard from the Bible and history. Jesus said, “No one takes it [My life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” He also said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” in the context of suffering. Then we’re told to keep, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
1993 Years Ago
This evening, about 250 people filled the space where our community of believers worship together on Sundays. We were a bit late and it was dark in the room except for the stage when we entered. As our eyes grew accustomed to the dim lighting of the seating area, we could see almost all the seats were taken. There were children, youth, college students, young adults, and older adults — generations, worshiping, singing songs, reciting Scriptures, and remembering what happend on that Friday in Jerusalem. On a Friday night in the USA in 2026 we experienced this. That was 1993 years ago, almost two millennia, and people still remember, reverence, and revere “the Lamb that was slain” and raised from the dead for us all and with all who believe. It would be a joy to know how many were celebrating this day around the globe. Someday we will, in His presence, and experience even more of the Joy set before Him.
His name be praised. Amen.
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“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
