“And they took off his clothing, and put on him a red robe. And they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a rod in his right hand, and they went down on their knees before him, and made sport of him, saying, Long life to the King of the Jews. And they put shame on him, and gave him blows on the head with the rod. And when they had made sport of him, they took the robe off him, and put his clothing on him, and took him away to put him on the cross. And while they were coming out, they saw a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they made him go with them, so that he might take up his cross. And when they came to the place named Golgotha, that is to say, Dead Man's Head, They gave him wine mixed with bitter drink: and after tasting it, he took no more. And when they had put him on the cross, they made division of his clothing among them by the decision of chance. And they were seated there watching him. And they put up over his head the statement of his crime in writing, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then two thieves were put on crosses with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who went by said bitter words to him, shaking their heads and saying, You who would give the Temple to destruction and put it up again in three days, get yourself free: if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests, making sport of him, with the scribes and those in authority, said, A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will have faith in him. He put his faith in God; let God be his saviour now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. And the thieves who were on the crosses said evil words to him.” - Matthew 27:28-45a.
Joshua was the opening act of this thrilling show. He led off with what he does best: run around and jump and tumble and flip and all kinds of other such stuff. Some of his ‘act’ was a demonstration of what he remembered from his gymnastics class... and some of it he just made up… but all of it was fun to watch. And he did all of this while pretending to be Superman. And Superman he was… one time, he stood at the top of the steps in that preschool room and literally tumbled – end over end - off into the floor. He then did a somersault (of sorts) back up to the top. The rush of blood turning his head a bright shade of red didn’t stop this superdude from performing his stunts.
Sensing that it was time to let the next act on, the emcee (Anna) got up on stage and tried to introduce the next act. But Joshua kept trying to get more time in… running around and ‘finishing’ (as he called it) what he was doing. Anna – knowing the way her brother is - just cut him off and told him instead to go run around in the hallway outside the room. Joshua tried to still get more time in on the stage. Finally, Sarah and I told Joshua that he had to go out. Even then, he still tried to get his neck in the room and talk over Mrs. Emcee (unlike his big sister, Joshua has no problem whatsoever with being the center of attention)!
Oh that I would have Joshua’s no-quit attitude when it comes to spiritual warfare. So often, I let discouragement keep me from trying something that God is calling me to… or I give in to the temptations I find around me, instead of standing firm like I should… or I want to quit when the going gets tough… but not Joshua.
And not Jesus, either. When the time came that He knew He was facing death, He boldly became vulnerable and willingly surrendered Himself to the cross, in order to pay for the sins of the world. And nothing – not insult… not injury… not anything – kept Him from accomplishing what God had planned for Him.
Daniel
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