What kind of love is this?

EASTER SUNDAY - Today let us remember and celebrate Christ’s redemption of mankind, His act of love, using the words of Isaiah, a poet, who described Christ's sufferings 700 years before it came about.

"But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed."

He was pierced.
He was crushed.
He was beaten.
He was whipped.

Four things the Creator passively subjected himself to, four things inflicted to Him by His very own creation.

Omnipotence meets impotence and lets it strike it.

Four tortures designed to accomplish something for you and me:

He was pierced for our rebellion.
He was crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.

One such cruelty would destroy someone. All four together are inhumane, annihilating, a clear indication of wanting to eradicate all traces of that life.

The first pair justifies two fundamental human flaws: rebellion and wrongdoings.

The second pair restores two fundamental human needs: wholeness and health.

But had Jesus only suffered and died, nothing would have been accomplished. Jesus won and rose again:

"Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious)."

Let me explain:

The soldiers of a victorious army would have been rewarded according to the roles each had in battle. The more crucial the role, the higher the reward.

- Being rewarded "with the great" was the highest honour.

- Dividing the spoils "with the mighty" meant: you choose first and receive a larger quantity.

The higher the risk, the larger the reward; the closer to death, the greater the honour.

The above description of Isaiah is military-style, to remind us that it was a war, the war for our eternal destiny.

It was brutal, it was monumental, it was relentless.

But Jesus won, at an immense price. He won: a balancing act of precision strategy, disguised-mammoth power, unbreakable fortitude, perfect timing and the humility that only God, paradoxically, could possess.

His spoils?

We are.

He disarmed all principalities, making them a public spectacle and the Father honoured Him and placed Him in the highest place.

He walked in Hell, setting free forever all who choose Him.

We are His spoils.