Behold the ill-starred Nazarene who went about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.”
Behold the artisan from Galilee, the one who called Himself the “Son of Man” (which means “son of Adam”—“the human being”).
Watch Him as He is taken before Rome’s delegates in the city of Jerusalem. See Him standing before Pilate—rejected, dejected, bludgeoned, beaten, spat upon. Behold Him who created the heavens, the Lord of the universe, suffering the most horrific, gruesome form of torture that was ever invented by the human imagination.
Observe Him hanging on a wooden stake, dying a slow, hideous death, covered with blood—naked, mocked, and shamed. The Messiah has become a public spectacle that elicits the spine-chilling, gleeful laughter of satan himself.
Watch death, the child of sin, emerge from the pit. With open arms, it darkens the wood of the cross and takes the Prince of heaven into its silent, hopeless domain.
The powers of Rome may have defeated the suffering artisan two thousand years ago, but in the end, He shall triumph. Christ shall subdue all things and put them under His feet, for upon that bloody hill, Jesus of Nazareth—the spotless, sinless man— defeated the powers of darkness and won for Himself the keys of death, hell, and the grave. He is a Savior to the uttermost for our “guttermost.” He saves in every situation and at all times. There is no circumstance too hard for Him.
By Jesus’ resurrection, God the Father vindicated Him before angels, demons, and the human race to be the universally triumphant, sovereign Lord. This same Jesus now sits at the right hand of power, as a faithful high priest, tirelessly interceding for His own in the presence of God. He lives by the power of an endless life, and He never fails.