The Greatest Gift

At Easter we like to remember what Jesus did.

In our family, that means one evening we have hot cross buns with grapetise.  It’s a bit of a variation on the Lord’s Supper I guess, contemporary Easter style.

This year we read Isaiah 53.

And I realised again that God gave the greatest gift.

All the things he could have given, he didn’t.  Things like fame, or wealth.  Easy platitudes on his part.  Useless cover-ups on ours, they wouldn’t solve a thing.

Instead, he gave himself.  His family.  The person he loved the most, he hurt the most.  His son.

“Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?”  Isaiah 53 (The Message).

And yet it does.  It defies logic.  It challenges fairness.  It is simply crazy, that the God of all, the King of all, would give up his son, even harm his son, so that we, miserable us, could know him.

“We looked down on him, thought he was scum.  But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us, We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed…

Justice miscarried, and he was led off – and did anyone really know what was happening?  He died without a thought to his own welfare…Even though he’d never hurt a soul, or said one word that wasn’t true…Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.  Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones.””  Isaiah 53 (The Message).

The greatest gift.

It cost the most a gift can possibly cost.  It cost someone’s life.

The greatest gift.

Because it meant the most.  It means OUR LIVES.  Eternity.  Hope.  Freedom.  Fearlessness.  Joy.  Excitement.  Purpose.  Eternity.  Now.

What we couldn't do for ourselves, Jesus did for us.  The burden we are unable to carry, he carries, every day.  The scars that are too deep for us, that pain us so much, he will take those too so that we can be healed and whole again.

The greatest gift.

Himself.