Which Version of Jesus?

We’ve all experienced it. We hear a news story on one channel, and then turn to a different channel and hear a completely different “twist” on the same story. Then, we go online or listen to the radio. Which version of the story is true? Which one can we believe? Which one do we choose to believe?

Now, think about your spiritual life…which version of Jesus do you believe? Is He merely a historical figure, a religious anomaly that showed up a little over 2,000 years ago? Is He a crutch you pull out when you need Him? Is He a Cosmic ATM you go to when you need something? Or…

Is He God Almighty who has full control of your life and brings order to this chaotic world?

In your darkest times, when it seems as though your world is about to come apart, there is hope because of what transpired so long ago, on a lonely hill in the Middle East…

It was a dark day, that Friday so long ago. Little did the world realize or care to understand the significance of it. For most then, and many today, it was just another day, another set of criminals hanging on a tree for the crimes they committed. Except…for One. He was hanging there because…He CHOSE to be there!

Not many hours before, He prayed in a garden while His closest followers slept. He prayed to His Father in heaven that, if it were possible, let the maelstrom that was about to descend upon Him be averted. YET, He submitted His will to the will of His Father and in that instant, committed Himself to the torture that was coming. In that instant, the possibility of the world to be freed from the shackles of sin had been secured.

So, there He was on that dark day. He committed no crime but was, in fact, hanging there in someone else’s place. He was hanging there…

…for YOU! For ME! He chose to be ridiculed, spat upon, beaten to a pulp, humiliated, His back torn to pieces upon the rough wood. He chose to have the nails driven into His sinless flesh to make the payment required for OUR sin.

It was a dark day, that Friday so long ago. He died upon that tree and was buried in a borrowed tomb. As far as anyone knew, that was the end of it. A life ended too quickly. Such promise, now lying lifeless in a dark tomb!

But…SUNDAY was yet to come!!!