The first Christian song most children learn to sing is “Jesus Loves Me.” It is a simple song with a profound message. “Jesus loves me! this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
The Easter story is about love. The focus is on Jesus’ love. He loved us enough to die for our sin. He did not want to die. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed that “this cup” (the cross) be taken away. He also prayed to His Heavenly Father that “not My will but Thine be done.”
The next day, what we call “Good Friday,” Jesus died. He did not pretend to die or “swoon,” as some suggest. Jesus, a real human being, was physically put to death. It was not a pretty scene. It was brutal and ugly, capped off with a spear being thrust into the side of One who had been beaten and battered for hours before being nailed to a cross.
Jesus’ death was not another of life’s meaningless tragedies. At His birth, an angel had announced that Jesus would “save His people from their sins.” John the Baptist later identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
Jesus Himself said His blood would be “shed for many for the forgiveness of sin” (Matt. 26:28). The Gospel of Mark declares that Jesus “gave His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
His blood paid the price
Under Jewish law, the problem of human sin required repeated sacrifices. Jesus changed that. Hebrews 9:12 declares, “not through the blood of goats and calves but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
This salvation provided through Jesus’ death is available to all who will believe. In John 3:14–15, Jesus looks forward and says that the Son of Man must be “lifted up” and that “whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” In the following verse one reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Is it any wonder that believers of all ages, not just children, sing “Jesus loves me?” After all, Jesus paid the price for our sin.
For some who hear this wonderful story, another question comes to mind. What kind of God would make His Son die, these ask. The question lays the groundwork for serious misunderstanding and confusion. The question implies that Jesus may be a friend but God the Father may be some kind of cruel tyrant.
Those who ask this question hear the cry of Jesus from the cross asking, “Why have you forsaken me?” and wonder where God was when His Son died. They equate the darkness around the crucifixion with God turning His back on Jesus like an earthly father might disown a child.
Such reasoning turns God into some kind of angry being who has to be appeased by the gory suffering of His Son.
That is not the God of the Bible.
The apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” In other words, whatever one sees Jesus doing to bridge the sin gap between God and man is also an action of God the Father.
To His own disciples, Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). It is as if Jesus provided a new window through which humanity could glimpse God the Father. All that one sees in Jesus — love, grace, mercy, righteousness, power, wisdom and more — are qualities of God the Father.
God the Father is a suffering God just as Jesus is God the Son. He is the longsuffering God who endured the rejection and abuse of a wayward people like a loving spouse might suffer from the actions of an unfaithful spouse. That is the message of the Old Testament book of Hosea.
In that light, the darkness of the crucifixion is not God abandoning His Son in the midst of suffering. It is the tenderhearted agony of a suffering Father who glances away, even though He understands the ultimate prize is worth the momentary pain. Even the cry of Jesus is a faith-based cry. The words are directed toward the same God the Father into whose hands Jesus later commits His spirit.
What unspeakable joy it must have been that Easter morning when God the Father raised His only begotten Son from the grave. God’s condemnation of human sin had been displayed for all to see. But the most amazing, miraculous, marvelous story was the spectacle of God the Father’s holy love for sinners. Sin and death were conquered. Salvation had been won.
God the Father is not a villain while God the Son is a hero. The Easter story is about love. It shows the lengths to which God’s love will go, because “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”
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