Once again as with the last 2011 years, the Christian world mourns the passion and death of Jesus Christ, beloved Son of the One True God this Holy week. We recall that Jesus perspired blood as he contemplated what He had to go through very soon in the garden of Gethsemane to fulfill the will of the Father to redeem mankind from the consequences of original sin and all sins great and small and in between that ever occurred since man came into being and until man is no more.

As he pondered what He was about to go through, betrayal, suffering, torture and death by crucifixion, Jesus asked God the Father if He could let “this cup pass”. What exactly was Jesus asking for? Was He afraid of the physical pain and death? Or, was He feeling that He would not be able to bear the weight of all the sins of mankind, past and present? From our human point of view, what we can see is that any man would want to avoid being tortured & crucified. Jesus was not an old man. He was a young man of 33, healthy and robust. Imagine being tied to a pillar and whipped with nails and hooks that rip through your flesh. The scourging at the pillar is but the first step to Mt. Calvary. A heavily bleeding Jesus, wearing a crown made of thorns, must carry a heavy wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Mr. Calvary, where he will be crucified on it.

Imagine being nailed to a wooden cross with six inch nails through your hands and feet. Why should Jesus go through all these physical suffering and torture and even death when He has done nothing wrong? Maybe what Jesus was afraid he could not bear was the cleansing of all the sins of mankind through Him. Maybe that was too much to bear even for Jesus. Imagine the sins of Hitler who caused the death of 50 million people, including 6 million innocent Jews. Jesus had to answer to God the Father for the sins of Hitler. Jesus had to answer to God the Father for sins of the Japanese when they raped, plundered and killed a million Chinese women and civilians in Nanjing, and 20 million Chinese when they invaded China. The Japanese have not apologized to the Chinese for all of their brutality but Jesus has died for the Japanese. The bond between God and man was broken by Adam and Eve when they were tempted by the serpent Lucifer and ate of the forbidden fruit which gave them the knowledge of good and evil.

《楊清泉律師專欄》EASTER GREETINGS (Part II)