SCANDAL OF THE CROSS: His Trial and Death

  Thus far, the scandal has been accusations against Jesus: (1) His birth of a virgin was denied, (2) his miracles were decried as fraudulent, and (3) his claim that a poor carpenter is God was ridiculed and questioned. Those things made Jesus seem scandalous, but he was not the scandalous one! (Does that ring true of the accusation this week of President Trump?). Jesus was unimpeachable, but the world impeached him! Impeach does not infer guilt; it is a mere accusation. Jesus was not guilty, but was impeached, prosecuted, and made guilty. Jesus took on all the sins of everyone in the world – past, present, and future sins.  That was the most notorious scandal in history! Why? Because people sin, and fail to accept the gift of redemption.
  What the world did to God was scandalous, not what God did to the world. The victim on the Cross was God in the flesh. The horrible deed is that the creatures endeavored to kill their creator. The sons turned on their own Father. That is the most horrific deed anyone could do! What was the sin which was so scandalous? There were two: (1) The world presumed that Jesus was not God in the flesh and many cared not whether he was or not. They just wanted their brand of justice; someone must die because of their indignation! (2) And the indignant people were the guilty ones, but transferred their guilt onto The Innocent One. Jesus readily accepted their bloody sacrifice by draining his own blood and water.  
  Blood and water? Certainly; his blood was not enough… the soldiers required his water as well. Living water flowed from his abdomen as he gave up the Ghost. It wasn’t enough that the mob killed Jesus, they wanted his Holy Ghost as well!

Gnostics thought a phantasm (ghost) died on the cross. They dismissed the idea that God’s Flesh died on that day! Moreover, those so full of knowledge (Gnostics) got it all wrong; God’s Flesh did die, but his Ghost lived on, and carried off the sins of the world and dumped them in Hell. Satan got his sins back! They were his and he owned them!
  It was a scandal that the Jews not only got the “Substance” they endeavored to kill wrong, but they also go wrong who died that day! First off, Jesus didn’t die. Death is eternal. Jesus’s body slept for parts of three days. They said that he was dead, but that was a lie. He did suffer death, but remains alive to this day. Of course, his heart ceased beating and his breath as well, but his soul was busier than ever. It took three days for Jesus’s soul to accomplish what his body had finished, then all was well between his body and soul again.
  The travesty of it all is that Jesus was mocked, denigrated, spat upon, disfigured, nailed, pierced, and left for dead, but failed to convince the Jews that he suffered death for them. It is written from Abraham’s words in Heaven, “And he said unto him, ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead’” (Luke 16:31). That was so true.  Jesus died for them, rose from the dead, but the Jews were still not persuaded. The scandalous situation was that the Jews had feigned knowledge and submission to the Laws of Moses all those hundreds of years, but they never truly hearkened unto Moses. How would they heed Jesus’s resurrection, if they would not remember the God of Moses who saved them Pharaoh? The Red Sea parting was a miracle saving all the Hebrews from Egypt, and Jesus’s death saved all of mankind from perishing forever.
  It was scandalous that the Jews really did not believe Moses, let alone Jesus. The Jews persecuted the same God that Pharaoh had impersonated, mocked, and tried to kill off!
  Jesus was and still is The Tree of Life. Ironically, the Jews selected another tree over the “Jesus Tree.” It is believed that the components of the True Cross were of four species, surely representing yellow, red, black, and white races of people. Perhaps that is the case, but it appears that the Jews would have the wood from any other tree in preference to the “Jesus Tree!” In Genesis 2:16-17, it is written, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’” They could eat of the Tree of Life and any other tree in the Garden but the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve still chose the forbidden tree, and the Jewish mob chose the wood of four other trees to the “wood” of the Tree of Life!
  Today we hear the words of the “Never Trumpers.” What’s worse is that the world hollers more loudly, “Never Jesus!” People still chose the “wood” of any other “tree” to the Tree of Life! Which woods? Idols of any wood! Actually, any idols of any material or idea. That the Tree of Life would be cut down for all the other “trees’ of the Garden, and the “wood cutters” denigrate what God generated is horrific!
  That people would say, “God is dead,” although he never ceased to live, is equally terrible. That the Creatures murdered their Creator is the most horrible story ever told, and that the greatest story ever told is taken as a lie is as horrific! It was not Jesus who was scandalous, but the mob who killed Jesus, failing for their own failure to see him as “the face of God.”

God had warned Moses:

And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”  And he said, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live… thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” (Exod 33:19-20, 23)

  Finally, after all those years, God showed His face, and what happened? Those who saw Jesus as only a man or a phantasm died. Those who saw Jesus as the face of God lived. When God finally showed His  Face, those who saw God in Jesus’s face, are those who God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious! 
  Jesus’s crucifixion was throughout scandalous. He was the only one innocent, but the one most persecuted. That is the normative throughout the ages. Accusing the innocent is the horrible, and always has been, but the most grievous sin is killing the innocent. The psalmist, David, wrote, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (Psalm 19:13).
  The murder of Jesus was presumptuous sin. David asked that that the Lord keep him from presuming evil thoughts. He further asked God, “Let them not have dominion over me.” That would imply that his thoughts were inclined to be greater than God’s and that he feared another master over God. David, since he was humble, would then be innocent of “the great transgression.” That “Greatest Transgression” was crucifying Jesus. That is THE scandal of all times!  David sought to be innocent of doing what the Jews would do, but he himself was not innocent. The travesty was that David sinned grievously against God, then God died in David’s stead!
  Was it only the Jews who killed God? No! He died for everyone (whosoever in John 3:16), and since none are without sin, Jesus died for all mankind. David didn’t want to share the guilt of killing Jesus, but when he wrote Psalm 51, he knew that he too was responsible! David was part of the scandal in killing Jesus, and like David, we are all “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). We all killed Jesus! Is that not scandalous; that we all killed Jesus on the Cross, but thereon he died for ALL who killed him?

Peter was impeached for being Jesus’s friend and follower. Even Peter killed Jesus. One of his best friends was Jesus’s “Brute.” Not only Peter, but Judas Iscariot as well.  Satan had entered Judas before he sinned, and apparently remained in him. The scandal was that there were two spiritual personages who died that day: the flesh of Satan and the Flesh of God. We remember that God sacrificed His Flesh and gave up the Ghost. We forget that Satan’s flesh (Iscariot) died that day, but Judas’s “ghost” (Satan) was bound in chains until the final days when Satan’s ghost will die as the Beast is consumed in fire.
  Is it not scandalous that we think that Jesus died and his Holy Ghost fled, when it was Judas who died and Satan’s spirit which fled?
  Scandal after scandal is associated with the Cross. Is it not scandalous that centurions gambling for Jesus’s apparel were gambling with their own souls? Is it not scandalous that Jesus who would not drink wine was given vinegar and bitters to drink on the way to the Cross? Is it not scandalous that Jesus would be required to carry his own cross, when we were asked to carry his? Is it not scandalous that Jesus was disfigured beyond recognition that he was a human, when he created mankind? Is it not scandalous that we are the guilty but he suffered the penalty on our behalf?
  Let’s clear up the scandal: We all sinned, and are guilty, but Jesus paid it all! Jesus is the redeemer and we paid nothing for redemption. Jesus died so that we not perish, but we did nothing! Jesus is God and we are mere imposters as gods.