My wife will often times give my 15 month old daughter
something to carry while she is holding her.
My daughter never refuses to carry something for mommy. For example, when mom hands her her car keys
to carry, without fail, my daughter’s concealed dimples are exposed as she
smiles with excitement.
Lately, when my daughter is handed something to carry she
tries to pass the item off to me. Seeing
that my hands are empty and hers are now full, triggers a thought in her
developing mind that goes something like this, “Daddy is perfectly able to
carry something; I will delegate carrying mommy’s car keys to him.”
Just recently, after taking the car keys, or whatever item
my daughter had just told me to carry, I got to thinking, “This is backwards, I
should be delegating work to my daughter, not the other way around.” (For the record, she will be mowing the yard
by time she is 4).
Let’s use our imagination just for a minute and picture the
scene in the cosmos between god the Father and God the Son when the Father
revealed His will concerning creation to His Son (understanding that we have to
guard our imagination with the Word of God to keep it from developing errors
about God). The foundations of the world
have not been laid yet, the earth and it’s fullness is a distant reality. The Father turns to his Son and says, “Son, I
have a job for you to do, we are going to create mankind. These people that we will create will turn
their backs on us, spit at us, worship fake gods that they create, and stir my
wrath against them. At times I will want
to destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth. But we are going to love them in return. In fact we are going to love them so much,
that I am going to need you to give up your life as a sacrifice for them so
that I can live with some of these people that we will create for the rest of
eternity.” If the conversation went
anything like that, then here is the Son’s (Jesus’) response in John 6:38, 40
to the wicked people discussed before hand, “For I have come down from heaven,
not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me… For this
is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in
him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
What love is that!
Jesus didn’t try to take this horrendous task of carrying the sins of
the world on his back and place them on us.
He didn’t try to delegate the task his Father gave him to the very
people who deserve to carry this burden.
He simply said, ok I’ll do it. And
anyone of these wicked people that looks to me and believes in me I will
save from their sins. The reality is we
deserve to carry the burden of our punishment.
But God, our creator, delegated that task unto himself.
What a humbling picture of God’s love. Why would we want to carry the burden of our
sin any further when Jesus was sent here to do that very thing? It’s so backwards in our finite minds. Think about for a second, you can actually
delegate the punishment that you deserve to Jesus, who didn’t deserve it, and
he will gladly take it. This is why he
says, “Look on me and believe in me and you will have eternal life…”
I guess it’s so hard to give Jesus all of my sins because
ultimately, I feel bad because my sins are so many. They are a lot for someone
to carry, and I want to try to help carry them, I am the one guilty of breaking
God’s law anyways. But Jesus is God, he
can handle them, and not only that, he has abolished them.
Today, where you are, take a moment and look
to Jesus, giving him the sins of your heart, and be free of that burden. It was his delight to carry them, and he
wants to because he loves you.
