POWER IN HUMILITY

Whenever I think about the cross I can’t help thinking about power and when I think about both the cross and the power, especially around Easter season, I can’t help thinking about all the possible things that Jesus Christ could have done to avoid being crucified on the cross, and dying such a shameful death. In fact, at such times my thoughts go wild.

There is a game we used to play with my friends and siblings when I was young. The game was called statue. In this game, the lead person would time when you are least expecting him, just when you were doing something that requires your full attention (the more awkward the situation the sweeter the game would be) and then, from the blue he would appear and shout out the word statue, and there you were.

 In whichever position you were found regardless of what you were doing you were expected to freeze and look like a statue and stay put until the lead person gives you permission to stop at the time he wishes, thus having power over you.

In the same manner, Jesus Christ being all so powerful had many options to avoid death on the cross:

1. Right at the Garden of Gethsemane, when the reality of the redemption strategy downed onto Him while talking to His Father about the possibilities of removing the cup from Him, He could have refused to take up the cup and probably asked His Dad to take it up Himself. He, in fact, had the power to influence a change to the whole redemption strategy. But instead, He said “…not my will, but your will…” and the will of His Father prevailed.

2. He could have refused to move from a spot of His choice on the way to Golgotha and just by standing and staying put, no one would have been able to move or touch Him. Who can move the Rock of all rocks? Instead, He walked on like a sheep being led to the slaughterhouse, like one who is powerless, He cooperated.

3. He could have frozen the hands of the cruel soldiers whose heavy hammers nailed His hands and feet onto the cross. Probably like in my childhood game, He could have just shouted the word statue, and voila, the heavy hammers would have remained hanging on the soldiers’ hands in the air until He unfreezes them. Instead, He allowed them to sink the six-inch rusty nails through His flesh and into the wooden cross.

4. While hanging on the cross He could have just commanded the nails on His hands and feet to fall off and the wounds to seal up like nothing had happened, then in a slow motion the way we see in the movies, land softly on the ground. After all, He had replaced the man whose ear was cut off back to its place with no trace of a wound. Instead, He allowed the nails to hold Him on the cross and even bore more pain as it was raised in the upward position, tearing up His flesh quite a bit due to the hanging weight.

5. The list of what Jesus Christ could have done is endless…just like the famous TTB - Neno Programme slogan that says Na Neno litaendelea…but ooooh, what manner of power in humility was displayed on the cross for our redemption!