144) EPILOGUE

A young mother strained to see through the torrential rain as she drove toward home with her two small children seat-belted in the back seat. As the roadway took a dip, suddenly the pavement in front of her disappeared.

What was usually a dry ravine had turned into a rampaging river across the road. When she saw the flooding, it was already too late to stop. The car splashed into the water and came to a stop.

As the water surged higher and began carrying the car downstream, the mother knew she had to get the children to safety. After unbuckling the children and pulling them over the front seat, she pushed the door open and stepped into the flooding waters.

Repeatedly she fell and struggled back up again, still holding her two crying children. For every step forward, she was washed back almost as far. Progress was slow, but inch by inch she neared shore. She was almost out of strength, but she had to save her children. A man on shore spotted her and shouted encouragement as he waded toward her.

The stream was gaining strength as the mother’s own strength waned. With one last desperate effort of love, the mother thrust her children toward the rescuer as she herself was swept away to her death.

What a tragedy! But what love those children should remember. Their mother could have escaped the watery death. All she had to do was drop one of her children. But she would not – no matter the consequences.

I clipped this Associated Press story from a newspaper and kept it in my file for many years. To me it was a near-perfect analogy for Christ’s sacrifice for us.

As Jesus took upon himself our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, he sweat great drops of blood and would that the Father could find another way. Yet there was none. Only the Son of God could withstand the pain caused by the cumulative sins of mankind. Only the unblemished Lamb of God was worthy to make the sacrifice. Only the son of an earthly mother and a Heavenly Father had the power to lay down his life and take it up again to open up the way for all mankind to live again.

Following the pain of Gethsemane came the illegal nighttime trial before the high priest and the Sanhedrin. They whipped him, slapped him and spat upon him. Yet the bribed witnesses could not agree on their accusations. Finally Jesus confessed to the truth – he was the Son of God. And the high priest declared it blasphemy worthy of death.

The mob continued to brutalize Jesus as it made its way to Pilate’s palace. There the soldiers scourged Jesus with a multi-lashed whip with bits of bone or metal attached to the end of each lash. The whip dug into his back time after time. Then the crown of long, sharp thorns was placed on his head and pushed into his skull.

As the mother in the middle of the flash flood, Jesus could have abandoned us and escaped his fate, but love drove him on toward his ultimate destiny.

Pilate initially refused to condemn Jesus, but his fear that the Jewish leaders would send word to Caesar that he had failed to condemn the alleged “King of the Jews” caused him finally to consent.

Jesus’ strength was waning as he struggled under the weight of the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and up the hill called Golgotha.

Pain then surged through his body as the soldiers pounded spike after spike through the flesh, bones, tendon and nerves in his hands, his wrists and his feet. The soldiers pounded and pounded and pounded. At any time he could have called down legions of angels, but Jesus refused to save himself. And the spikes dug deeper and deeper as the soldiers pounded and pounded and pounded.

Then the soldiers pushed the cross upward to an erect position as the spikes tore against the flesh. They had dug a deep hole in which to place the base of the cross. As the cross was pushed upward, it suddenly slipped downward into the hole, falling several feet before slamming to the bottom. With the jolt, the spikes again tore into the quivering tendons and sensitive nerves.

Jesus hung on the cross hour after hour, his weight pushed down on the spikes. From time to time he had no choice but to shift his position and to stand, as it were, on the spikes driven through his feet. But Jesus would not give in.

Satan, realizing that Jesus would not submit to physical pain, made one last attempt to stop Christ’s victory. As if he were whispering his words into their ears, one Jewish leader after another walked by to mock the King of Kings, to spit on him and to tempt him to react in righteous indignation. “You who would save others, save yourself first. Then we will believe!” Even the condemned thief at his side joined the chorus: “If you are the Son of God, save yourself and us, too!”

To react in anger would have been so easy, so justifiable in the minds of men, but all eternity hung in the balance as he remained true to his mission.

And as Heavenly Father withdrew all light, all sustaining spirit and abandoned his Son to claim the victory alone, Jesus made his last proclamation of love even for those who had tortured him through the night and his final day of mortal life: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Even at his time of greatest pain and deepest despair he refused to abandon us, and still he calls out to us to come, follow him. Follow him to peace. Follow him to true happiness and joy. Follow him in helping save others, too. And follow him to glory.

Jesus asks us to do what would seem so very easy, under the circumstances -- to love him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength.

He calls out to us to be his disciples, to take up our cross and to help share his Gospel to all the ends of the world.

Will you do it? Will you be his disciple?

I challenge you to read the Story of Jesus every month. Learn to quote his words with confidence and to tell his story with power. Ingrain his story into your mind and into your very soul.

One way to help spread his Gospel throughout the world is to simply let people know about this free version of the Story of Jesus. Invite all your friends, relatives and acquaintances to download this powerful story from our web site, or send them a paperback copy.

I hope this book has been helpful to you in more clearly understanding Jesus’ life, his teachings and his sacrifice, and I pray that you will continue to use it and continue to share it with others, that it might touch the hearts of hundreds of millions of people around the world before Christ’s return.

And I pray we will truly love Jesus and show it by being his followers. In his holy name, Amen.

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