DEAD MAN WALKING
The specially invited, all-be-it reluctant, audience stands transfixed. Their eyes are focused on the figure the other side of the glass. His gaze fastens on to the woman. Unblinking, he continues to stare at her, seeming to gain strength from her very presence. The tubes attached to his body feed the lethal substance into him, milliliter by agonizing milliliter. His eyes slowly close as the spark of life ebbs away and is ultimately terminated.
A little while earlier, as the doomed man was lead from his cell to his appointment with the executioner, a solitary voice could be heard echoing through the passages of death row, "Dead man walking. Dead man walking." And so, with this morbid proclamation, the condemned prisoner is lead to his rendezvous with death. The proclamation prophetically prefacing his impending permanent punishment
For those who saw the 1996 movie, "Dead man Walking", starring Sean Penn as condemned rapist, Matthew Poncelet and Susan Sarandon as the compassionate nun, Sister Helen, you could not come away from the film without a sense of abhorrence at the act of capital punishment. If you can remember, around the same time the saga of the Texan ax-murderess unfolded in the media. She had been condemned to die by lethal injection because of the murder of her husband. While in prison she reportedly became converted. Despite numerous public petitions and requests for pardon, she eventually paid the ultimate price for her crime. The movie, Dead Man Walking, gave us an insight as to what transpired on that fateful day.
The cry -- Dead man walking -- how final. How seemingly irrevocable. Regardless of our views on capital punishment -- the death penalty -- we cannot help but be left with a sense of uneasiness at the execution of a fellow human being. Questions naggingly haunt us -- what if the prisoner was not guilty. What if society had made a mistake? What if the evidence was misrepresented?
"Dead man walking." A harbinger of doom. An ultimate declaration of guilt. An appropriate appellation to a deserving inmate on death row.
But how would you feel if you visited the maternity ward at Jan S Marais or Tygerberg or Groot Schuur or Coronation of Livingstone or any of the other hospitals in the country, and as the cries of new born babes rise to blend with the exhausted, excited gasps of brand new parents, the sonorous, sepulchurial, cry of a black-cloaked figure could be heard resonating in the deserted passageway -- "Dead man walking, Dead man walking?"
And yet on that night in Bethlehem, as myriad’s of angels burst into ecstatic praise heralding the birth of a special Baby in that hastily arranged labour ward, an alternative to that celestial composition entitled "Glory to God in the Highest" could very well have been "Dead Man Walking."
For on that night in the little town of Bethlehem, while shepherds did what shepherds do and wise men studied the stars and kings assessed their political futures and priests sought to defend the faith by upholding the status quo and adhering to tradition, a Baby was born to die.
The very announcement of His birth was a proclamation of His impending execution. For it was not to live a charmed life of "Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild" that Christ came to this earth, but to face execution. Not to receive the adulation of ululating crowds, but to be murdered. Not to ride in regal grandeur on royal transport, but to be exterminated. Not by lethal injection or the electric chair or the hangman’s noose. No, nothing as merciful as that. But on an object of abject torture.
On a hill far away, on an old rugged cross, on an instrument of torture devised in the cauldron of the Devil’s workshop by Satan himself along with his fiendish assistant’s and ultimately applied by his human agents. Some of those human agents had raised their voices a few days prior to His death in shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David." They now joined the very forces of evil in human form standing in the courts of Pilate chanting "Crucify Him, crucify Him."
Born to die -- in agonizing tones of bewildered prediction the prophets had scratched out on tablets of clay, on papyrus sheets, and scrolls of parchment the sometimes-cryptic clues as to the destiny of the Son of God:
Gen 3:15
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."
(NAS)
Isa 53:1-12
1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no {stately} form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke {was due?}
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; if He would render himself {as} a guilt offering, He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it} and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
(NAS)
The heavenly herald of awesome joy that appeared to the peasant teen-ager in that little town of Nazareth did not initially allude to the ultimate purpose for His coming to this earth:
Luke 1:26-32
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth,
27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And coming in, he said to her, "Hail, favored one! The Lord {is} with you."
29 But she was greatly troubled at {this} statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
(NAS)
But in appearing to Joseph, the purpose is outlined in the explanation of His Name:
Matt 1:18-21
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly.
20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."
(NAS)
The composer, George Frederick Handel, captured this passage in the moving strains of the oratorio "The Messiah." Listen with me as Larnell Harris, Steve Green and Michael English interpret the song "Surely He hath born our Griefs."
Coming down closer to our time the writer Ellen White records for us:
Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. "With His stripes we are healed." (DA 25)
Today, as the world focuses on the glamour and glitter, the glory and grandeur of the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, let us recognize that His birth, death and resurrection had been determined from before the beginning of time as the ultimate solution to the problem of sin in our lives.
Let us recognize that the ultimate Gift was provided by the Supreme Giver -- the gift of forgiveness of sin, the gift of freedom from guilt, the gift of unconditional acceptance, the gift of the assurance of salvation, the gift of eternal life.
For on that night in the little town of Bethlehem, while shepherds did what shepherds do and wise men studied the stars and kings assessed their political futures and priests sought to defend the faith by upholding the status quo and adhering to tradition, a Baby was born to die for you and for me.
Today, shepherds still do what shepherds do; wise men still study the financial and economic indicators, politicians still assess their political futures and the church still seeks to defend the faith by upholding the status quo and adhering to tradition, -- and the Son of God, no longer as a baby, no longer as a suffering servant on a hill far away on an instrument of torture, but this time as a conquering King in royal splendour riding on the clouds of heavenly majesty, prepares to come the second time!
Yes, He was born to die, but He arose in triumph over sin and death. And He is preparing to come again. I pray to God that as we celebrate His birth today that we will not reject His death on the cross for us and that we will be ready for His Second Coming to this earth.
Maranatha. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
