April 2, 2010 (Good Friday): Rick Warren began his bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, with these words: “It’s not about you.” But for Jesus, His purpose was all about you and me. He came to restore us to a right relationship with God/Himself. He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10) – to restore to the access to the Tree of Life lost in the garden. And to accomplish that He had one principle plan: to die. Contrary to much popular belief, Jesus did not come to teach us how to live a good, moral life. He came to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Romans 3:23) that we might meet the demanding standard of God – sinless perfection, which no amount of good, moral living can begin to measure up to. He didn’t come to teach us how to live because that could never solve our problem (Romans 8:3-4).

In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus telling those around him that “his hour had not yet come” as he went about ministering in Galilee (John 2:4; John 7:6-8). He successfully avoided those who were seeking to kill Him (John 7:1; John 8:59; John 10:39-40). So you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. Sounds to me like Jesus was really trying to avoid death.” He fled and hid, not because He didn’t come to die, but because He came to die at a specific hour. John 7:30 says “So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Then in John 12:23, Jesus states, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He immediately follows with an explanation that a seed must die if it is to become a plant and bear fruit (John 12:24-27). These words were uttered at the Triumphal Entry, what we celebrate as Palm Sunday. That was the same day that the Passover lamb was chosen by a family and brought into the house and treated as a pet for few days before being slaughtered on the Day of Preparation at 3:00 PM. The Day of Preparation was Friday when Jesus was crucified and died at 3:00 PM (what the Bible refers to as the “ninth hour” since sunrise). Was this all a coincidence? I think not.

The problem was that the Law, although given by God, was incapable of making man righteous. It couldn’t change who he was on the inside. But it did reveal man’s utter failure and incapability. And it did implement the concept of substitutionary sacrificial atonement, of the shedding of blood for those actions which missed the mark of God’s standards by taking the life of an innocent animal. Jesus came to be the perfect Passover Lamb, to atone for men’s sins once and for all, for those who would accept the offered gift. With this in mind, Jesus waited until the Passover when the symbolism would be unmistakable and the Law would be fulfilled. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus did not allow His life to be taken, but he offered it when the time was right. Jesus comments inJohn 10:18, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” At the cross, Jesus freely fulfilled the purpose of His incarnation – to die for us. As Romans 6:23 sums it up best, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”