Luke 23:35: "The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."
The world didn't understand then, and still has a hard time understanding love. They can't get how someone could epitomize true, unselfish love in such a real way. What the people then didn't understand was that Jesus didn't come to earth to save himself, he came to earth to save us!
I want to love like that! To show a love so dramatic, so real, so unselfish that the world looks at me like I am crazy! A love so unexpected that they think I can't be for real. A love that changes the world.
The cool about this, the thing that gives us hope, is that some people will get it! No one will be unaffected. Even the vilest criminal is changed by this love! The cross is a punishment so severe, that it is reserved for the most heinous of criminals. Listen to what one of those criminals said. In the midst of all the agony he recognized this love, and was changed!
"One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, 'Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'"
This is the love that the world doesn't understand, but that changes the hearts of those who are willing to open them! This is the love that has changed me and the whole world! This is the love that changed a hardened, terrible criminal, hanging on a cross, dieing a death and receiving a punishment he deserved!
