In Search of a Suspect and The Unwrapped Gift...

We all remember the movie "The Passion of the Christ"... we sat there... awed... inspired... frozen... guilty... The movie inspired emotions of many kinds to sweep through us... We were angered and felt as if we were jurors sitting in on a trial but this time with pictures... not just words... that we scanned quickly... denying any responsibility of the death... of a King... this movie awakened us.. To the grim reality... the truth...

Whether we were a believer... or a student of the Arabic language... even those who have never taken one second of their life... to listen to "the message" or watch a humble man flogged and humiliated not just in front of the Roman people so many years ago...but in front of us... in a single movie.. We were exposed to the shame and lack of justice that none of us like to see...

Why??? Because we want to see the guilty punished... not the innocent... this is why for ten years we have watched a full hour of CSI, Law and Order, Monk, and the Closer.. We want the guilty identified...whether it’s a senseless homicide, a hit and run, an abused child, or an elderly person scammed... as individuals, we want justice for the victim... Nancy Grace helps vocalize this with her rants and raves of injustice...but she understands, as all of us, the unfairness and illegality of life, the court of opinion, the laws, evidence, errors in trial, and most of all ... an unfair verdict....

While we search for the "accused" in this senseless death of a Savior we are pointed to many accomplices... we see Judas the betrayer... who with his kiss of betrayal, Jesus calls him friend... this word letting Judas know that he was loved... we can blame Pilate the governor, the Pharisees who were intimidated by Jesus, the "religious" high priest who encouraged the Roman people to put Jesus to death, Jesus’ disciples who left him in his greatest time of need, and countless others...

When this movie first came out, "anti-Semitism" was thrown around by outraged groups who were afraid of being singled out as responsible for the "greatest casualty of all time"... who wants to be tied into something as atrocious as the death of the Messiah?... we do not want our fingerprints left in any way at this crime scene... it is easier to accept that we are clear in conscience from any involvement in this event... It is a "cop out" to blame a single snake... Satan... the Jews... as the solo "fall guy"... when in turn, many hands were bloodied in this blanket conspiracy...

In searching for clues leading to suspects, one must search the greatest book of all time "The Bible"... the words inside are as stinging as the pictures we observed... they are chilling and reminiscent of the proof of all involved... it is like handing an investigator a list of suspects... all the evidence pointing to the obvious... was it drugs? Sex? Pills? An affair? Money? Power? yes all these motives were reasons for the insanity...who is responsible for this?

Paul wrote in Acts to the gentiles who pointed to the Jews "Men of Israel...this man... You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death" HUH? how so...2 Peter 2:24 "And He Himself bore OUR sins in HIs body on the cross, that WE might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds, YOU WERE HEALED...

I am not identifying a specific suspect... but am trying to get the point across that Christ died because all of us are sinners... we all fall short every single day.. Because of this... a requirement was needed to save a people... a sinful, stained, unkind, perverted, murderous thief... could not have died that day to save the world....That person would have deserved to die.. Instead... an innocent, clean-minded, self-controlled, tender, merciful, loving God had to come to this earth and take our place... some say that we all deserved to be mocked, beaten, shamed, and crucified that day... but we were spared...We were guilty... but the wrong person paid the price... the electric switch was hit... and while millions watched... an innocent man was sacrificed... it was the only way........

Many of you will not agree with an interpretation of this magnitude... churches wane away, pew by pew, because no one likes the truth... the mega-churches are filled with pastors who candy-coat our responsibility and sin... they sway us with big words, and masters degrees, and best sellers, and pretty wives.. We are spoon-fed with encouraging words that give us excuses to continue to sin and sin and sin and sin...

This Christmas season... as we tear through wasted, non-recycled paper that destroys our environment... and buy overpriced items that require no thought... only money... (The biggest marketing scam of all time)... let us not forget the sacrifice... though it’s not pretty... we all hate endings without a suspect identified... a 48 hour special that wasted an hour of our time with the case yet unsolved... the point is.. To remember what life is really about... an I-phone will bring temporary happiness. .new socks and underwear will assist us in our daily life... but when you compare what we have wrapped to what Jesus would buy today... what do we say to the eyes of a murdered God-man... what do we possibly offer Him for the best present we have ever been given... how do you compare an iphone to a life saved...... how did we get so caught up in things..... That we reject the most amazing unwrapped gift... from the ONLY ONE in our life, whoever cared to give their life for ours...........

Merry Christmas!