Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The biblical picture we have of Jesus is of Someone always happy, always on top of the world, healing the sick, cleansing lepers, cuddling children in His arms, healing Peter's wife's mother of fever, raising the dead son of the widow on her way to the funeral, calling Lazarus out of his tomb, miraculously feeding five thousands--here's the one Man on earth living in the bright sunshine of His heavenly Father's blessed approval, "in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). We want to live like Him!
But never has there been anyone so plunged into the horror of deepest depression, as this Jesus. From the highest top He must be cast down to the lowest bottom. Writhing in the agony of the darkest curse of God, He cries out in anguish, "Why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). This is no Hollywood acting; the cumulative pain of the entire world's horror of despair is penetrating His deepest sense of feeling and conviction. Not only is the burden of the world's guilt of sin being laid upon Him, He is being "made … to be sin" (2 Cor. 5:21) in His own deepest soul. At last we see what it's like for a man to be in real hell where the last ray of hope is gone.
The crucified wretches that the pagan Romans torture by the thousands are given a sedative so they can black out; not Jesus. He won't taste it (Matt. 27:34). Every cell of His being must remain conscious to know the utmost horror of hell.
But wait: "You will not leave My soul in Hades," He says (Acts 2:27). Before the resurrection can come the third day, He must believe His way out of hell on His cross; His soul must be resurrected there in spirit, so He can die in glorious triumph, shouting so heaven can hear Him, "It is finished!" Take your Bible and read Psalms 22 and 69.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 17, 2005.
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