Love Prevails

Pastor Derek at FBC wrote:
This time of year is very important for Christians as we gather to celebrate the validated prophecy that the messiah would have victory over death. We know from scripture and many witnesses in the bible that Jesus was seen after His resurrection proving His power over our enemy.

Nonetheless, there are still people that question the walk to the cross. They ask, "why did He even have to go to the cross in the first place?" They say, "after all He claimed to be the son of God and if so why didn't He use His powers to stop the violence that met His body on that night of betrayal?"

These are questions that have been asked for decades and will continue to be asked for decades more. To answer these we need, obviously, to turn to the Holy Scripture that God left us for teaching others. To answer the first question, Jesus knew the cross would be the only place that he would be able to express his love for every person on the earth, not just those he came into contact with. It is through this suffering that He showed He was wiling, as an incarnate man, to suffer for every person. If he had shown His divine nature prematurely, many would never believed He cared for them, instead, just His immortality.

The answer to the second question would be known as passive resistance to violence. Jesus never harmed another being; he only showed love and compassion for all he came into contact with. In this time of betrayal, it was this passive resistance to the violence that was put upon his body that expressed He believed that love would prevail over evil. "If someone slap you in the face, turn the other cheek." This instruction from Jesus says, do not fight back with violence, yet give them the other cheek, it says you can hit me again and again if you want but my love for you will prevail. And His love did prevail on that first Easter. God, the father of Christ, gave the power to Jesus to be resurrected into the flesh once again and show all people, including those who were enemies that love does prevail.

Easter is a time of year to remember that Jesus rose from the dead as the prophets said He would. he did this because the power of love will always be greater than the power of evil. Jesus loved us so much he suffered without causing any suffering among the people. His passive resistance was a perfect display of this love for all, even His enemies.