Meditation

It was while my elder daughter was a student at the, then, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, that I first came across the beautiful piece of music by the French composer Massenet, that is named "Meditation". Indeed, it caused a wee bit of friction between my daughter and me when she asked me to purchase a copy of the score while I was in Glasgow. She merely asked if I could obtain a copy of the "Massenet" (probably because the Meditation is his best-known piece). However, what my non-professional ear heard was a request for a copy of "the Mass in A"!!! "By whom?", I asked. "Massenet!", came the reply. "Yes, I heard that. But who is the composer?" "Dad, Massenet is the name of the composer!" The conversation was actually a little longer than that - but left one somewhat chastened father!!!

However, the meditation referred to at the top, is the mental exercise of giving deep and focused thought to something. Today is known, in the English-speaking world, as "Good Friday", and is the day on which disciples of Jesus especially recall His death on the cross at Calvary, just outside the old city of Jerusalem.

People often ask the understandable question: "Why did Jesus die?" The New Testament writers don't go into a lot of detail about the crucifixion,. They had no need to do so. It was an all-too-common occurrence in the Roman Empire! In his record of the event, Mark simply writes: "And they crucified Him ..." (15:24). But why was He crucified in the first place? This was One Who had never committed any crime; Who had gone about doing good; Who was loved by children (who seem to have an instinct about adults who may be trusted!). Why would He suffer and die in such an agonising fashion?

Jesus did not die as a frustrated "super-star, in spite of the name of a well-known musical from last century. He did not die as an exemplary hero for some cause. Indeed, the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (Messiah) was not even, primarily, an act of love! His death was, primarily, a sacrifice for sin. There was love, deep love, in it. It was His love for you, and for me, that held Him to that cross. But, first and foremost, it was a sacrifice.

Jesus "...gave Himself for our sins ..." (Gal.1:4). He Who knew no sin, became sin for you, and for me. Paul writes to the Corinthian believers: "For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him [the Son] we might become the righteousness of God." (II Cor 5:21). It is not too many years since I came across that verse and, in spite of having read it countless times before, something of the horror of it suddenly hit me. For a brief moment of human time, the spotless, sinless, Son; the Second Persona of the Trinity; Himself God; became sin! Sin - that upon which Almighty God cannot bear to look. Sin - the very opposite of the Holiness and perfection of the Father . Sin - that vile, filthy, rejection that spits in the face of the Father Who loves with an everlasting love (Is.54:8). Sin - in all of its blackness, its obnoxiousness, its evil, its nastiness, and any other similar description. He became sin - for us!

I realised, on the day when that verse first "hit" me - as it had never done before - that it was at that moment, in time, that Jesus experienced what He did not experience in all of eternity: the Father turning away from Him. That was when He uttered those words, known as "the cry of dereliction" - "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt 27:46). It was, surely, at that moment that Jesus experienced separation from the Father. How that happened, in the unity of the Godhead, I do not know. But it would have been, for Him, much, much worse than all of the physical pain and agony that He had already endured. And it was for you, and for me.

On this "Good Friday", take time to think deeply on this truth. Take to heart those words uttered by John the Baptiser: "Behold, the Lamb of God , Who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), and rejoice that He did it for you!