Have you ever experienced silence? Real silence - the absence of all sound? It is lonely. And, it is torture.
When Jesus was crucified, when Jesus died to rescue us, when He willingly gave His life for ours, he was beaten, he was bruised, he was mocked, he was tortured. Jesus was beaten beyond recognition. His hands and feet were pierced with huge nails that stuck Him to a cross. A crown of thorns was placed - probably beaten into His head. He was literally tortured - for our sins, for the curse, AND He never said one word. Except that He begged God to forgive those who were nailing His hands to the cross: “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”
The bible says that Jesus actually became the curse for us. The curse - all that sin is and all the darkness that comes from sin, Jesus took this from us, for us. He became everything that He hated, that the Father hated. He bore all of our sins, sickness, darkness, and evil. He took all of that on Himself. In His own body. He gave His life for the sins of the whole world: the world that was, the world He lived in, and the world that would come.
Jesus did not just give up His life, though. Jesus was in constant communion, constant relationship with God, His Father. His entire life on earth was filled with the harmony and Melody that flowed from God to Him and from Him to God. Jesus only knew a wonderful existence and harmony with God that can only be described as beautiful, poetic, flowing Love. BUT up on the cross, when Jesus became the curse, when He bore all of our sins, for the first time in His life, He heard.........Silence. Agonizing silence. He was being tortured by silence. His communion with God was broken. He was in severe pain. So much so that He cried out, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?” For the very first time in His life, Jesus felt alone. It was not the beatings He took for us that hurt Him. It was not the nails in the cross that pained Him. It was the SILENCE that tormented Him. Jesus gave up the everything He had, He gave up His relationship with His Father, to rescue us. To give us abundant life - HIS LIFE. He traded our lives for His life. He gave us access to the melody, the harmony, the beautiful, poetic, flowing Love and relationship that He shared with God.
Why? Love. God never intended for man to be separated from Him. We were made in His image, to share Love and relationship with Him. We were meant to swim in the Melody that is God, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. When God made Adam, when God made Man, Man was in perfect harmony with God. Man was God’s prized creation, His masterpiece, His heart.
But Adam, but man, chose to disobey God so that he could know the difference between good and evil. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, do you know what happened?
God heard silence - the same silence that Jesus heard and felt.
The Melody had stopped. God heard an agonizing silence that was so loud, Love cried out. The Melody, the harmony, the dance between God and Man was broken. The curse was born.
How much does God love? God is Love. The Love that is God, Jesus, came down to this earth and gave His life for ours. Jesus gave up everything He knew, everything He had, everything we were made for, He gave it away. For us. We were created for God’s pleasure. We were made to enjoy relationship with God. We were never made for separation. We were never made for silence. Jesus endured the torture of silence so that we could be restored back to God, so that we could hear the Melody. Jesus returned what Adam gave away.
Smile. You were made to dance with God. You were made to dance in His Love. Jesus took your silence away.
Can you hear the Melody? We are never alone.
