Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8 NLT
Satan put a bullseye on Jesus way back in the Garden of Eden when God promised that there would be a Messiah who would come to crush the Serpent’s head. Satan knew it would be the Son of God Himself, and has fought all throughout history to destroy Him. Before Jesus uttered His first cry as an infant in the manger, Satan had deployed evil itself through King Herod to find and kill the newborn king. Joseph and Mary, warned by an angel that Herod did not give up easily, left for Egypt, a territory out of Herod’s control, staying there until they received the news that Herod had died. They came back home to Nazareth and raised Jesus to be a man. Jesus did not do miracles as a child. His upbringing was that of a normal Jewish young man. Can’t you imagine Satan’s hope that Jesus would fade into nothingness?
But one day the young carpenter who had apprenticed to His earthly stepfather, Joseph, came walking along the water. John the Baptist, the first prophet in hundreds of years, was preaching and baptizing there. John looked up and saw Jesus, then immediately cried loudly, “Look! This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 GWT). I can almost hear the anger and frustration in the realms of hell as they heard the shout echo through the dark halls: “He’s up and on the move!” Jesus moved into the desert for forty days and Satan followed Him there. Jesus went there to draw closer to His Father before actively beginning His ministry. Satan went to destroy Him. This time he tried to destroy Him by ruining His mission. He tried to get Jesus to cut short the plan of the Father, handle things on His own, force the hand of His Father. That would make Him go away. God’s plan could not be accomplished if He and His Son were not on the same page. But Jesus was faithful. After forty days, the Devil left him, utterly frustrated.
But Jesus did not go away. Satan spent the next three years trying to kill him. He was very clever and conniving and worked through the religious leaders to do it. Very early on they were so jealous of Jesus that they began plotting to kill Him. Satan even thought he could make Jesus effectively go away by discouraging Him, but in the Garden of Gethsemane right before He was led to death, He reaffirmed His surrender and commitment to the Father’s will. He willingly gave Himself to the soldiers, endured the mockery of a trial, and died at the moment HE chose, when He gave up His spirit. He Himself said, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again” (John 10:18 NLT). He breathed His last breath on the cross. And then He was gone. Or was He?
- Imagine the conflicting emotions when Jesus said, “It is finished.” For the soldiers; His friends and family; for Satan; for the religious rulers.