by Jims Vincent Capuno
He came, He lived, and He died. We’re talking here of Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, wrote: “Christians predominantly believe that Jesus is the ‘Son of God’ (generally meaning that he is God the Son, the second person in the Trinity, with the Holy Ghost as the third party) who came to provide salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins.”
Although nobody for sure knew when Jesus was born, it is a fact that He came into this world. The prophet Isaiah said, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
He was the Kings of Kings, but he was born in a manger. “The coming of Christ by way of a Bethlehem manger seems strange and stunning,” C. Neil Strait commented. “But when we take Him out of the manger and invite Him into our hearts, then the meaning unfolds and the strangeness vanishes.”
During Christmas – the day Christ was supposed to be born – the Christian world celebrates. Of course, His death is also commemorated. Luke 23:44-46 had this account on how He died: “It was now about the sixth hour and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour for the son stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.”
He died on the cross for our sins. He was the ultimate sacrifice of all. “For Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (I Peter 3:13). “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people” Hebrews 9:27).
“Many who saw a Man hanging on a cross almost 2,000 years ago thought: ‘The Christian religion is dissolved.’ But it was not so,” Ian McCrae pointed out. “It is true now as it was then. The end is the beginning.”
Today, Christianity is the world’s greatest religion. It is so because it is founded upon the Man whom God has given to us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Christians are urged to follow their Master. “The radiant Christian is more concerned with carrying his cross than with complaining about his callouses,” William A. Ward contends. “He remembers the harvests, not the hardships. He thinks about his friends, not his failures. He talks more about his blessings than his backaches, more about his opportunities than his operations.”
Another authority said of what a Christian is: “A mind, through which Christ thinks; a voice, through which Christ speaks; a heart, through which Christ loves; and a hand, through which Christ helps.”
American evangelist Billy Graham once told this story: “An Indian told me several years ago in Delhi, ‘I would become a Christian if I could see one,’ and he was looking right at me when he said that. That is one of the greatest sermons I have ever heard preached. People want to see a Christian… They are the only Bible many can read.”
A man from the interior of China, who had attended church at a Christian mission for a while, was not particularly inspired. Then one morning, he came to the missionary in a happy mood saying, “I dreamed last night and now I understand.”
The missionary was baffled. So he asked what was the dream all about. “I seemed to have fallen into a deep pit, where I lay helpless and despairing,” the Chinese explained. “A priest of Confucius leaned over the edge and said, ‘Let me give you some advice, my friend; if you get out of your trouble here, never get into it again.’”
“Then a priest of Buddha came and stretched out his arm over the edge, saying, ‘If you can manage to climb up far enough for me to reach you, I’ll help you out.’”
“Then Christ came. He went down into the pit, let me stand on His shoulders and then I hopped out.”
Although Jesus Christ died, He was raised from the dead. An agnostic professor condescendingly confronted a little girl who believed in Jesus: “Throughout history, there are many who have claimed they were God. How can you be sure who told the truth? Which one of these men can you believe?” The girl responded without hesitation: “I believe in the One who rose from the dead!”
The news of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo was brought by sailing ship to the south coast of England. From there by semaphore, it was wig-wagged over land toward London. Finally, the message reached the roof of Winchester Cathedral. “Wellington defeated.”
A heavy fog covered the landscape and the signals from view. The sad news was relayed to London, plunging the citizens into a deep gloom. In a short time, the fog lifted and the remainder of the message came through: “Wellington defeated the enemy.”
Quickly, the news raced on – lifting gloomy hearts from sadness to joy. Similarly, that is a picture of Good Friday’s (“Christ defeated”) to Easter’s more complete (“Christ defeated the enemy!”).
But the greatest news of all is this: Jesus will come back again. The Holy Bible gives us this scenario as to what will happen when that time comes: “At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:30)
