Simply a Must

Prayer for the Day

Jesus, I want my life to be a living statement of who You are and what You have done in my life. I don’t want to hold anything back from You. I want to be like You in every way, so that I can clearly proclaim You to the world.

Reflection

Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." (Luke 9:22)  This is a fairly simple statement, one that ought to make sense to us.  But there is one little “four-letter word” in there that I’ll bet is often overlooked: “must”.

Must is an interesting word with an interesting context.  For instance, “I must go to work in order to make the money to pay the bills.” Or “You must always treat others with dignity and respect.” Or “One must first be an adult before they are allowed to vote.”  From the sounds of things, “must” seems like a trap: a series of shackles that inhibits our freedom and keeps us from doing as we wish.  And so often we allow it to be.

So the question is, was Jesus forced, obliged, or coerced to be beaten by strips of leather with razor-sharp studs, stabbed by a crown of piercing thorns, and then above all, to be crucified upon a cross?

Obviously, the answer is No.

His choice was made in an act of freedom; more importantly, by an act of nothing but pure love for us.  Being fully human and fully God, Christ had every means to get Himself down from the cross, or hide from Pilate’s army.  Then again, He had every means to turn stone into bread, to worship Satan, and to thrust Himself from a mountain. (Luke 4: 1-13) But He chose not to do any of that.  He chose to be crucified for you and me.  That makes things personal; conscience and morals become involved.  Christ did not have to die to for us; rather, He knew that His actions would bring a greater good.

We are therefore left to better appreciate this act above all other acts.  We must come to recognize that our own freedom is a gift that we are called to share with each and every one of our own brothers and sisters in Christ, friend and enemy alike.  I believe that what I believe is not nearly as important as what we believe.  And it is in this fashion that we strive to take something personal and make it something even more personal with each other.  That my brothers and sisters….is simply a must.