Was Death The “Easy Way”?

SUN., MAR. 17, 1991, 5:45 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is the Lenten season, which leads to Easter in just two weeks. Easter, naturally, is a great celebration in the Church, for it is the symbolic basis for grace. Because I, as Jesus, died I, as God, resurrected Me and agreed that this sacrifice would be the atonement for all of the sins of all of those who accepted Me, for all of time, here in the earth (whew!), By good old Puritan standards, grace seems like the easy way. Was death the easy way? How do I feel about “easy ways”?

I have told you repeatedly that, although the whole Palm Sunday – Maunday Thursday – Good Friday – Easter was necessary and was the best way, My life as Jesus could have been longer and could have ended differently. Isn’t it ironic that the Letter to the Hebrews, a piece of legitimate Scripture, argues that I, as Jesus, was a priest forever, like Malchizadek. Yet this mystical priest was never born and never died, while My birth and death are celebrated as the two great “festivals” of the Church. Actually, of course, it is not My death that is celebrated, but the remembrance of it as a necessary precedent to resurrection. I was born. I was put to death. I returned as a mystical reality, as on the road to Emmaus.

I also have told you that I chose death, even as it seemed that I was put to death. It was not a suicide. It was, however, a both/and situation. It was important that I be put to death under legitimate Roman authority AND that I gave My life willingly. I had verbal skills, and Pilate and his influential wife would have responded to My human explanations. I also had supernatural powers that I could have used… or some combination with the rabble-rousers who were calling for My crucifixion.

In one sense, I’ll admit to you, speaking as the Holy Spirit, that death was the hard way. The whole Golgotha experience was humiliating and very painful. I was enjoying My life. I loved to make up parables and tell stories. I had much more to say than was recorded in the New Testament. Consider what Scriptures you now would have if I had had a ministry of another 40 years! I knew My disciples were not ready to carry on this Christian message. And yet… was there a distinctive Christian message without death and the resurrection? So I had to do it the hard way in order to bring forth a distinctive faith.

(I’ll add here, as a mild Christian heresy, that I, the Holy Spirit, “did it differently” with Mohammed. For the spiritual descendants of Ishmael I enlightened an ordinary man, allowed him to lead a long life, in marriage, be a political and military leader and write down the Koran, another great Scriptural source. Did I know these would be competitive today? Silly question.)

In another sense, then, death was the “easy way.” So, symbolically, I have no objection to the “easy way” as a matter of principle. I encourage you to do the things that you do well. The presentation you made this week was an incredibly easy one. You wrote the Ruminations in somewhat difficult circumstances, but you acknowledged that I made it easy for you to do.

You wonder about your own death. If death was a threat now you probably would seek medical care that would help you fight for life. And you don’t know at what age and under what circumstances you would just let death be the “easy way.” You hope that you will be able to live out your faith… that death is the easy way and it’s often good to follow the easy path. In your culture, it could be difficult.