Prophesies Linking to the Crucifixion: The Cross Was God's Plan All Along

As we're a little less than a week out from Easter, I'd love to take this week's post as an opportunity to slow down and truly reflect on why Easter matters. Growing up as a "church kid," I always knew that Easter was about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, and then resurrecting from the grave, defeating death. And that's absolutely true, but sometimes, when you hear it for so long, it's easy for that message to lose it's power - which it never should. Year round, we need to fix our eyes on the reason for the cross, meditating on God's heart behind it all and why we so desperately needed saving. Daily, we need to ask God to soften our hearts, to break our hearts in grief and gratitude for Jesus' sacrifice.

So today, we're going to take a moment and reflect on that. We're going to be diving into some prophesies about Jesus' death as a reminder that this was God's plan all along, and to take a peek into His extraordinary, extravagant love for us.

Psalms 22:16-18

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?" - verse 1

"Dogs surround me, a pack of villians encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display, people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment." - verses 16-18

Here in Psalms, so many of David's words are prophesies of Jesus' life and death, and they are so specifically fulfilled. The really cool thing about prophesies is that they are God's little tidbits, hints to us, giving us a glimpse into what He has in store. They foreshadow His plan, and give us hope for the the future. While these verses don't indicate much joy, they connect us to Christ's sacrifice.

Jesus went through so much pain that He felt abandoned and forsaken by His Father (Matthew 27:46). The distance that we feel from God is nothing like what Jesus endured on the cross; He felt as if God had turned His cheek and was ignoring His suffering for all of eternity. He felt that so we wouldn't ever have to experience true separation from the Father.

As He was hanging on the cross, Jesus was stared at and put on display for all those who passed by to see. He was made into a spectacle, nails in His hands and His feet (John 20:25). And just as this Psalm prophesied, they cast lots for His garments, arguing over His clothes as if there wasn't a man dying right in front of them (John 19:24). The Savior of the world, Immanuel, was reduced to a criminal. Innocent, but convicted for sins He never committed.

Even during the time of David, God knew this was how it would be. Our Father wove bits His plan into the heart and writing of David, giving us reminders of His plan and confirmation looking back that He was always in control, always planning this tremendous sacrifice for us.

Isaiah 53

This chapter is too long to write it all out in the blog post, but I'd really encourage you to spend some time soaking in it as we prepare our hearts for Easter. This is probably the most well known prophesies of Jesus' death in the Bible, and the imagery is striking.

Jesus was "rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain." He came only to serve, only to heal and draw us closer to Himself, and yet we hated Him. Even His family, His own hometown despised and rejected Him. "He took up our pain and bore our suffering," yet we thought it was rightful punishment from God. We believed He was deserving of the pain we inflicted on Him, but all along, Jesus endured it for our sake, knowing that was what we deserved. His pain brought us peace, forgiveness, and new life. We turned away, we wandered, but Christ drew us back in, bearing the weight of all our failures.

Yet the entire time, He didn't complain. Verse 7 says that "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open His mouth." Indeed, when Pilate questioned Christ, He remained silent (Luke 23:9). He didn't protest or persuade the officials to treat Him justly, and was punished for the sins of the entire world, past, present, and future.

And just as Isaiah 53:9 predicted, our Savior was buried with the rich. He borrowed the tomb of a wealthy man, Joseph of Arithmathea (Mark 15:43). He was buried alongside the wicked, crucified between two criminals (Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:38).

"Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer," and all along, that was God's plan. "He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors," because without His sacrifice, we would remain separated from Him and the Father, drowning in our sin and brokenness. Our Abba desired to sacrifice His only Son, and Jesus desired to give up His perfect life, because they longed for us more than anything else.

Psalms 16:10

"because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay."

While David is the one who spoke these words, I can only recall one person who ever escaped the realm of the dead and decay. Jesus.

David sang in confidence that God wouldn't abandon him, wouldn't let his enemies triumph over him. People constantly sought David's downfall pursuing and attacking him, but he had faith that wasn't how his story would end. He wouldn't be able to avoid dying all together, but he died of natural causes, not because of unjust evil that had been done to him.

For Jesus, however, these words rang true. As in the first verses we covered, Jesus did feel abandoned and forsaken by His Father. He felt alone and drowning in despair, but that wasn't the end of the story. God hadn't left His one and only Son to die with no plan; this was the plan all along. Although the pain and suffering was beyond brutal, beyond anything we could imagine, it wasn't the final chapter. Our Father didn't abandon Jesus, and He wouldn't allow Him to decay in the grave.

This verse sings of victory. Not only are there prophesies of Jesus' death, foreshadowing His grand gesture of love that He would demonstrate for all of us, there are prophesies of His resurrection. And indeed, Jesus wouldn't remain in the grave. He's alive, and we get to tell His story. We get to build our life on His love, grace, and the freedom He so generously bought for us.

That's the reason for Easter.

We are called to remember the sacrifice, meditate on the pain and suffering He endured on our behalf. We deserved to be hanging on that cross, humilated and mocked for all to see. But Christ took our place, instead giving us gifts of a new identity, eternal life, and a relationship with Him that we could never earn. He suffered in our place - and then He rose again. He conquered Satan, death, and sin, so that none of those things can ever have victory or power over us again as long as we walk closely with Him.

We have quite a reason to celebrate, my friends.