I wrote and read this for a large group talk on the Gospel that I gave for my students in InterVarsity about two weeks ago.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was intimately face-to-face with God. Everything that has been made was made through Him. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.
Immanuel
God with Us.
This God-man, not too big for our dirt, not too holy to stay away, came to earth to be with us, walk with us, talk with us, eat with us, and breathe with us.
He touched the sick and healed the lame, turned the kingdoms of this world on their heads, and came to make way for our shame.
He came to restore that which was lost.
Intimacy with God.
A holy nation. A family.
He came to heal all of creation.
He said, “I am the Bread of Life.”
Feed on me, and you will live forever.
He said, “I am the Light of the World.”
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
He said, “I am the Good Shepherd.”
I lay down my life for the sheep.
He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet he shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Jesus came to proclaim
Good news to the poor
Freedom for those captive
Recovering of sight to the blind
Freedom for the oppressed
The Year of the Lord’s favor
And so, in his time with us, he revealed his love, his life, and his healing for us.
But we are selfish.
Even the high priest- the one man who could go into the holiest of holies in the temple to be in the presence of the Lord did not recognize his very God when they spat in Jesus’ face.
What a dark, sad place.
So we took him, and we nailed him to a cross,
And he bled there
And there he held the weight of the world on his shoulders, all of our sin and shame, all of our selfishness and darkness.
He said he would lay down his life for his sheep so that they may not die.
This God of compassion saw us helpless to save ourselves, helpless to heal ourselves, feed ourselves, redeem ourselves, so he came to do it for us.
He preached a life eternal, one that never ends.
He spoke of life and light to replace our death and darkness.
He would no longer live without us, he had to give us a way, longed that we would know of His deep love for us.
A God willing to die so that we may live.
And in his last breath, he spoke the ultimate grace:
“It is finished.”
No more do we need to run to our witch doctors and magicians, to our elixirs and salves. No more do the temporary fixes have to fake any fix at all because,
It is finished.
Our constant striving for the best life for me, Me, ME can end.
Our broken hearts from broken relationships have hope to mend.
The pressure’s off.
We don’t have to save ourselves from death,
Because after it was finished, we had a Risen King.
Our old life dies in Jesus’ death and our new life rises in Jesus’ life.
Three days later he set in motion a reversal of all the mess we had made.
He rose from the grave.
A God who does not stay dead.
That’s a God I want to follow.
That’s a God I want to know.
So when I’m asked, “why Jesus?”
I say because I know who I would be.
Without Jesus, I would fatherless.
I would be brotherless and sisterless.
And my mother would be nothing like a mother at all.
We’d all be drowning in our broken family, broken identities.
I know that I would seek the love of men in a way I could never return from.
I know that without Jesus I would hate myself.
I would be ugly, inside and out.
Without Jesus, I would be hopeless for rescue.
Nothing would be good enough to heal my heart.
I would fill myself with ways to satisfy like a smoldering oven, the never-ending need for fuel.
I would be empty and brokenhearted.
But I’m not.
God came for me.
He chose me.
He rescued my dad from
13 years of drug addiction
and “snap” like that,
our lives are changed forever.
One year old baby Bridget would never know
Life without a father
Life without Jesus
Life without Rosemary and Luke
I would never know divorced parents, or a dad in prison.
My father visits men in prisons and psyche wards, to share the story
Of a God who loved him enough to come for him and save him
A God who had a plan to restore our lives and relationships.
That’s why Jesus.
Because even in our sin he comes.
Even in our selfishness he makes all things new.