Experience The Passion… Part 1:
“Experience Pure Love”
Isaiah 53:1-12
It’s a blood-fest. In fact, it’s probably one of the most violent films that’s ever been made. Full of disturbing images of evil and horrific scenes of brutality it’s stirred up more controversy than any other film since “The Last Temptation of Christ.” As a work of art, the buzz has been phenomenal. Perhaps this was the kind of clatter that took place after da Vinci coded the final color on to his Last Supper. Who knows? And what many predicted to be a total failure grossed $216 million in its first week.
The cinemas have been sold out for many of the showings with people filling the theaters long before the show even begins. And no is asking the question, “Did you enjoy the movie?” because it’s not a movie to be enjoyed.
Mel Gibson’s the Passion of the Christ is an experience. It’s as if you are actually there to watch the final hours of the life of Jesus. You’re there experiencing the agony of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. You watch as Jesus is arrested and is tried and you cringe as he is flogged. You’re among the crowd on the hill observing the crucifixion. And you shed tears with Mary as her son’s lifeless body is taken down from the cross. At the end of the film when Jesus is raised from the dead you’re left wishing you could see more…
Perhaps what makes this movie so powerful is not the violence but the fact that we know that this piece of human history is so central to who we are. What seems to set this film apart as being different from other violent movies is the fact that the story is a story that means so much to us. Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’ve got to recognize that there’s no other event in the history of humanity that has shaped the world the way the life and death of Jesus Christ has done. Our calendar is based upon his life.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, let me encourage you to go see it. Please keep in mind this is not a film for all ages. Children should not be in the audience and preteens might get nightmares from all the gore and the supernatural stuff that takes place.
The reason that I believe that it’s so important to see this movie is that when you see it, the story that you’ve heard told for so many years becomes real. We wear crosses on necklaces and sing hymns about the beautiful cross. But what we’ve forgotten over the past two millennia is that the crucifixion was a horrific form of execution. This film gives you a new understanding of what actually happened.
It’s a film that you feel deep within your emotions. As I watched the film tears were constantly running down my cheeks. It’s one that’s experienced with intensity. You can’t help but feel the shame as well as the pain.
The thing that may surprise you the most, is that as you watch you realize that never once did Jesus use his God-given powers to lash out or get even…not once! The Bible tells us that He had used his power to heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, and even raise the dead. It would have been nothing for him to have spoken a word and to have brought the forces of heaven to bear upon his persecutors. The book of John tells us that he was present in the beginning of time, and if he could speak a word and birth creation into being, how much would it really have taken to have said a word and brought stopped this terrible events from taking place?
Yet Jesus did nothing to reveal any inclination towards retaliation. Rather than responding in an Arnold Schwarzenegger sort of way and pulling out his weapons and unleashing his fury, Christ absorbed the anger and accepted the abuse.
It raises the question, “Why?” Why would Christ have chosen to suffer like he did? Why would he have gone through that if he had the power to resist it? What was it that enabled him to resist any temptation to get even? Was Jesus some sort of meek and mild weakling who didn’t have the courage to stand up for himself? Or, was there something else going on?
In the introduction to the film the words from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah are seen. It’s the passage you heard read this morning.
Isaiah is called the messianic prophet because he wrote so much about the Messiah who was to come. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means “The anointed of God.” In the New Testament the same word rendered in the Greek is the title Christ. Christ also means “the anointed of God.” So Messiah and Christ are actually synonyms.
The New Testament quotes more from Isaiah than all the other prophets combined, with an amazing 308 references in the various New Testament books. As a matter of fact, when one reads verses like we heard this morning, it’s almost as if Isaiah was an eye witness to the flogging and crucifixion…that he was there. But understand that Isaiah lived roughly 700 years before Jesus. Seven centuries separate them. That’s like someone writing in the early 1300’s about the events of 9-11! This scripture passage is amazing as we are able to see it fleshed out in the story of the death of Jesus.
Listen to the words of Isaiah 53:5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”
Another translation of the Bible puts it this way: “The fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins!”
No matter how we endeavor to explain the passion of the Christ, the events of Isaiah 53 and the final twelve hours of Christ’s life come down to one simple word: love! He did what he did and allowed to be done what was done because of love.
Now there’s a word that’s misunderstood today isn’t it? In one sentence I may say “I love hot dogs” and in the next “I love my wife.” There’d better be a difference between the way I feel about hot dogs and my wife.
Do you remember your first love?
I do. She had long flowing red hair and freckles and a smile that lit up the room if it hadn’t been for the fact that she was missing her two front teeth. Kelly was her name and I came home from kindergarten star struck by this freckle faced kindergartner who I was certain was the love of my life.
Isn’t it incredible how our understanding of love changes with the years? Our understanding of love has got to grow and mature if we are to be healthy adults. We can’t live healthy lives and sustain healthy relationships if our conception of love doesn’t change from that of a child or teenager.
It’s unfortunate, however, that our culture has not matured in this manner. If anything our cultural understanding of love has become less mature as love has become a feeling rather than what those who have been married for some time know it really is: a commitment.
If you’re into the recent trend of reality television then I’m sure you saw or least heard about the Fox’s series: “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé” in which love and marriage became the material for a joke played on a young woman and her unsuspecting family.
Or how about “Forever Eden” in which contestants are replaced by other contestants when they are deemed the “least desirable man/woman in Eden.”
How much more cruel could things get?
We live in a cultural which is so superficial and in which we think nothing of hurting another person as long as it makes us happy.
But deep down inside most people aren’t happy. They’re searching for something deeper than they’ve found. We think we can fill it through relationships but we’re never quite content.
Ladies and Gentlemen: there’s only one love that is truly pure and unadulterated – it’s the love of God. It’s that love that caused Jesus to go to the cross for us.
The Message translation of the Bible says this: This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one needs to be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
This morning I want to invite you to do more than just see the move or be touched by it. There are any number of experiences in life that can be touching, but if the experience is to be transforming than it must engage our lives at a level that goes deep. That’s what I want to do with you over the next few weeks.
This morning as we close the question becomes, “How do we experience the personal and pure love of God? How does one move beyond the position of witnessing the passion to experiencing it fully?”
First, begin by realizing that you are loveable to God. That’s right… you are loveable to God! You are the passion of your Creator! You matter to Him! Why was he willing to come to this planet? Why was he willing, in the form of Jesus, to allow himself to be hung out there in such a publicly vulnerable way? Because he considers you worth loving.
The deadliest earthquake in the last ten years filled the nation of Iran with sadness. But in the midst of despair, one story gave people hope. Cradled in her dead mother’s arms, surrounded by the crumbled remnant of a collapsed building, a baby girl was found alive.
The mother shielded six-month-old Nassim from the falling debris and saved her life. Rescuers found the girl 37 hours after the earthquake.
The Red Crescent public relations deputy director in Tehran, said: "She is alive because of her mother’s embrace.”
Christ loved us so much that he chose to shield us from the punishment that we deserved. Isaiah said that he was crushed for our sins! He took our punishment!
If you come away from the movie asking “why?”remember the answer: God love so much that God gave His only Son to die for you.
No matter who you are, where you’ve come from or what you’ve done, God considers you worth loving. You’re not an accident, a product of a happen-chance encounter between two people. You are not a number to be lost in the massiveness of this world. You are significant to God. You count! And nothing in all of God’s entire creation will ever cause God to quit loving you!
How can you experience this love, realize you’re loveable and then realize what God really wants from you. Have you ever thought about that? What does God really want from you? Do you think he wants you to do your duty by coming to church? Do you think he wants you to fulfill your good obligation to do a good deed today? Do you think he wants you to keep the commandments?
Here’s what God really wants: a relationship. God’s desire isn’t that you would believe in religion. He wants a personal connective relationship with you in which He calls you His friend.
There’s a big difference between enjoying a relationship and believing in a religion. What do people mean when they talk about “religion”? They generally are referring to a series of intellectual propositions. Yet while being capable of enumerating a sometimes lengthy list of truths that can be intellectually supported and defended, it does not necessarily indicate that a living relationship exists.
God’s passion for you is that you would move beyond a head-trip with Him and encounter Him in a way that changes your life. He wants to go from the intellectual level to a deeply personal level.
The third way to experience God love is to receive his love for you. I’ve used this illustration many times but it makes so much sense. If I have give you a gift it’s not yours unless you accept it. I can spend as much money on the gift as I want and wrap it in the most beautiful paper available and give it with the most sincerity, but unless you actually take the gift it’s not really yours.
God has extended his love to you by Jesus’ death on the cross. Receive it. Say yes to his reach. Give yourself permission to fall into the same arms of grace that were stretched on the cross.
In his book “Next Door Savior” Max Lucado shares a story told by Dr. Maxwell Maltz.
A man had been inured in a fire while attempting to save his parents from the blaze. He couldn’t get them out. They both died. In his attempt to rescue his parents the man’s face was burned and disfigured.
As many who suffer do, the man mistakenly interpreted his pain as God’s punishment. He wouldn’t let anyone else see him – not even his wife.
She went to Dr. Maltz, a plastic surgeon, for help. He told the woman not to worry. “I can restore his face.”
The wife was unenthused. Her husband had repeatedly refused any help and she knew he would again.
Then why visit? “I want you to disfigure my face so I can be like him! If I can share in his pain, then maybe he will let me back into his life.”
Dr. Maltz was shocked. He denied her request but was so moved by this woman’s love for her husband that he paid a visit to their home. Knocking on the man’s bedroom door, he called loudly, “I’m a plastic surgeon, and I want you to know that I can restore your face.”
No response.
“Please come out.”
Still no answer.
Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man of his wife’s proposal. “She wants me to disfigure her face, to make her face look like yours in hope that you will let her back into your life. That’s how much she loves you.
There was a brief moment of silence, and then, ever so slowly, the door-knob began to turn.”
The way the woman felt for her husband is the same way God feels about us. The difference: he did more than make the offer. He took on our face, our disfigurement. Our failures. Our pain. Our brokenness. Our imperfections. He became like us so that we might know Him. He did it all because he loves you.
Will you open your heart to experience that love?
Let us pray…
Next week we’re going to talk about how we can obtain freedom from the guilt that we carry around every day. You know the guilt I’m talking about… for the things that you wish you hadn’t done. For the mistakes that you’ve made. For those terrible secrets that you bear. The good news there’s forgiveness that you can actually experience. Join us then.
