Easter Day 2 - Victory Through Suffering
This is the second of three Easter meditations. The first one can be found here:
The Saturday is a strange day in the Easter story. At the time nothing much happened, for it was the Sabbath. The previous day was literally an excruciating day, and then a day of numbness, of seeming nothingness. What had happened? It all seemed like the end, what had begun with such hope had ended in tragedy and disaster. And now the disciples, men and women, were left to pick up the pieces.
But that was not what had happened. It is true that the Friday was day of utter humiliation and suffering. The Romans devised crucifixion to be as humiliating and painful a death as possible. It was meant as a warning to all “this is what will happen to you if you dare defy the Roman Empire”. But that is not all that the cross was. It was an act of authority! It was an act of power! Read what Paul writes:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col 2:13-15, NIV)
On the cross Jesus exerted His kingly authority and defeated sin, death and the devil. He did this not despite the suffering, but through the suffering. He paid the price in full for my sin and sinfulness, and your sin and sinfulness. Some people object to this concept, I do not understand such people at all. My sin is so serious, something needed to be done about it. If Jesus has not paid the price for my sin, not taken upon Himself the punishment, the penalty, I deserve, then I am an enormous trouble. I am lost without hope. But He has paid it, so I am free!
He defeated death. If I die before Jesus returns, then when He does return I will be raised from the dead, I will be given a new body, a resurrection body. I will reign with Him forever!
He defeated the devil. The devil no longer has any hold over me. I do not mean any cheap, superficial victory. The devil still has teeth, still causes much suffering and trouble. But James 4:7 says “resist the devil and he will flee”. We may face much opposition, but if we stand firm it is the devil who will flee. In Eph 6:11 Paul urges us to “stand against the schemes of the devil”, and in Rev 12:11 it says of the devil “who leads the whole world astray”, that “They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony”.
Jesus won this victory through the suffering, not despite the suffering. And we see this pattern repeated throughout history and the world. The kingdom of God grows when God’s people are prepared to pay a price. Today there are many Christians in the world who daily face persecution, but “they do not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev 12:11, end). They continue to love Jesus and to rejoice in Him.
If we are at a Saturday stage in our lives, wondering what has happened, thinking it has all gone wrong, may we meditate upon the victory of the cross, achieved through suffering. Tomorrow the victory that has already been won will be realised, will burst into life.
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