From Tension To Certainty - Short

From Tension to Certainty - short

John 12:27-34

IT was Jesus’ claim that when He was lifted up. He would draw everyone to Him.

There are some who take this to refer to the Ascension and who think that it means, that when Jesus was exalted in His risen power.

He would draw everyone to Him. But that is far from the truth.

Jesus was referring to His Cross - and the people knew it.

And once again inevitably they were astonishment by what Jesus said.

How could anyone possibly connect the Son of Man and a Cross?

Was not the Son of Man the invincible leader at the head of the irresistible armies of heaven?

What had the Son of Man and a Cross to do with each other? Was not the Kingdom of the Son of Man to last for ever?

"His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7: 14).

Was it not said of the prince of the golden age: "My servant David shall be their prince for ever" ? (Ezekiel 37: 25).

Indeed Isaiah had said about the ruler of this new world: "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end"? (Isaiah 9: 7).

And the Psalmist sang continuously of this endless kingdom "Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations " (Psalm 89: 4).

The Jews connected the Son of Man with an everlasting kingdom, and here was He, claiming to be the Son of Man, talking about being lifted up upon a Cross.

Who was this Son of Man, whose Kingdom was to end before it had even begun?

But the whole lesson of history is that Jesus was right.

It was on the magnet of the Cross that Jesus pinned His hopes.

And Jesus was right because love will live long after might and power and force is dead.

It is a fact of history which has taught us that empires founded on force have vanished, leaving only a memory and with the passage of time the memory become dimmer.

But the empire of Christ founded upon a Cross, each year extends its sway.

When Joan of Arc knew that she had been betrayed to the stake and the flames by the leaders of her own people.

As George Bernard Shaw has it in his play, she turned to them and said: “I will go out now to the common people, and let the love in their eyes comfort me for the hate in yours.

You will be glad to see me burnt; but if I go through the fire I shall go through it into their hearts for ever and ever."

That is a parable of what happened to Jesus, His death upon the Cross made Him go through into the hearts of every believer, for ever and for ever.

The conquering Messiah of the Jews, but a Messiah of love.

The Prince of Love reigning on the Cross, a king indeed who has His throne for ever in the hearts of all.

The only secure foundation for any kingdom is the foundation of sacrificial love.