Each year, I’m reminded of a Friday in 2012 when a small group of us were in Munich, Germany visiting the grounds of the Dachau Concentration Camp. After walking through the various displays, I looked out across the main part of the camp and wondered “Why would they do such a thing?” It’s one thing to read about in history books, but something totally different to see in person and stand in the rooms where such horrible atrocities happened. It was a powerfully moving and sobering reminder that sin is incredibly ugly. It is the sickness we struggle with and scripture tells us in James 1:15 that sin fully grown brings death. Man’s capacity to do hurtful things is often shocking because we desperately want to believe we’re inherently good, but the evidence reveals otherwise. We need serious help and thankfully it came…
On another Friday 2,000 years ago, the unimaginable weight of mankind’s darkest sins and cruelties were laid on Jesus in a crushing blow of blunt force trauma. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus knew the full scope of sin’s price tag and still chose to pay it. He was literally “crushed and bruised” for our transgressions. Our world has been affected in every way by sin entering creation and only Jesus has the ability to bring peace at the soul level (John 14:17).
May we always remember that Easter Sunday is a celebration because Jesus came out of the tomb having paid our debt in full!
