Author: Gary Witcher

Highs and Lows

What comes to your mind when you think about the highest point in history?   Some of you remember a great battle or war that resulted in freedom for a group of people.  Others recall some great achievement in music or art.  For some, entire groups of people come to mind.  For others it is a single individual and some heroic act or outstanding accomplishment.
What comes to mind when you shift to the lowest point in history?  Better yet, what has been the lowest moment in your own life?
The Apostle John had a very close relationship with Jesus.  He is sometimes identified simply as "the disciple whom the Lord loved."  It appears from John 18:15 that John was the only disciple to accompany Jesus at His trial, And it is obvious from John 19:26,27 that John was near the cross when Jesus was being crucified, since Jesus was able to tell him to take care of Mary, the Lord’s mother.
Put there was one moment during this ordeal that had to have been the lowest moment of John's life.  Matthew 26:56, speaking of the arrest of Jesus, says, "Then all the disciples left Him and fled."  Since John was one of the disciples who were with Jesus at this time, he must have fled along with the others.
We are all familiar with what happened to Peter during Jesus’ trial.   Although he had bragged earlier that he would never leave Jesus, he denied the Lord three times in the courtyard outside the house where Jesus was being tried.  Matthew 26:75 tells us that Peter "went out and wept bitterly" when he realized what he had done.  This must have been one of the lowest moments in the life of Peter,
As the governor, Pilate was responsible for carrying out justice in his region.  This meant that the guilty should have been punished, and that the innocent should have been protected.
"I find no fault in him," Pilate says of Jesus in John 18:38.  "I find no guilt in Him," the governor reports to the mob in John 19:4. "I find no guilt in Him," he repeats in verse six of that chapter.  To allow an innocent man to die must have been a low point in the life of a man who was responsible for upholding justice.
"Don't have anything to do with this just man," Pilate’s wife urges in Matthew 27:19 after suffering the night before because of a dream about Jesus.  This must have been a low point in the life of Pilate's wife.
	When Pilate heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he tried to solve the problem by sending the Lord to Herod, the ruler of that area who happened to be visiting Jerusalem at the time.   Herod questioned Jesus at some length, as we note in Luke 23:9, but Jesus gave no answers.  Herod and his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt and mocked Him.   But, according to in the words of Pilate recorded Luke 23:15, Herod could find no guilt in Jesus. This must have been a low point in the life of Herod to abuse an innocent man.
A Roman centurion was assigned to oversee the crucifixion of Jesus.  His men nailed the hands and feet of Jesus to the cross and raised Him up to suffer an agonizing death.
"Truly this was the Son of God,” he acknowledges fearfully in Matthew 27:54 after viewing the events of the day.  "Certainly this man was righteous," he is quoted as saying in Luke 23:47.  Some translations put  "innocent" in the place of "righteous."   This must have been a low point in the life of this soldier.
According to Matthew 26:59-60, the Jewish leaders searched for false witnesses to accuse Jesus.  They could find none, until two finally came forward.  These leaders had already violated Jewish law by conducting a trial at night.  They added another violation by having two witnesses testify at once.  They always appeared one at a time so any discrepancies in their stories would be obvious.
Pilate understood what was motivating the Jewish leaders.  "For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him up,” it says in Matthew 27:18.  It must have been a low point in the lives of men who were supposed to the religious leaders to violate their own laws and actually search for false witnesses in order to condemn a man of whom they were envious.
The mob, which represented all of humanity, participated by crying out "Crucify Him!"  This was a low point in the lives of all these people and, through them, in the lives of all humanity.
As we find in Matthew 27:39-44, the world considered this the low point in the life of Jesus.  The One who had claimed to be the Son of God was about to die a shameful death at the hands of a few Roman soldiers.   Was this the true picture?
The beauty is that, while this WAS the worst moment for humanity, it was the highest moment for God.  In our most hateful moment, God loved us to the point of allowing His Son to die for us.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," Jesus notes in John 3:14.  "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He," He adds in John 8:28.  "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself," He states in John 12:32.  This was the high moment in history when Jesus attracted mankind to Himself.
"For while we were still helpless,” Paul writes in Romans 5:6-10, "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
"For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
"For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
"By this the love of God was manifested in us," John explains in 1 John 4:9-10, "that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins."
	Luke chapter 24 records the story of two disciples as they travel to the village of Emmaus from Jerusalem.  They had been to the feast while Jesus was there, and then, all of the sudden, things had seemed to fall apart. Their master had been arrested and crucified, and now it seemed as if all their dreams were over.  It was the lowest moment in their lives.
Then a third man joined them on the road. The first two explained their hopes and their frustrations.   The third explained to them things about the Christ from Moses and the prophets, including the things that the Messiah had to suffer.  The two convinced the third to eat supper with them.  As He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them, their eyes were opened so they could recognize Him as Jesus.  Then He vanished from their sight. Their lowest moment had been transformed into their highest by seeing Jesus,
What does all this mean for us?
For non-Christians, it means they don’t have to be worthy or wait for the right moment when they are ready.  There has been only one "right moment" in all of history, and it was not the men who were "right" in that moment.
For Christians, we realize that God asks for our best and doesn't accept less.  But our great successes are not what carry us to salvation, or what push the kingdom on to victory.  It is simply that great, high moment of God, on Calvary, 2000 years ago.
This is the Truth that makes us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."