Jesus Christ is the King of kings…

The Romans were the best when it came to execution and torture. They perfected it to the point that they needed to invent a new word for how heinous and excruciating crucifixiones were - hence EXCRUCIARE on the front of your hoodie. The word literally translated means, “by way of the Cross”. Jesus Christ took it completely upon himself for the sake of our salvation, the price being the most excruciating way to die imaginable. He endured every single institutional injustice - beaten and bruised, whipped, mocked, crown of thorns pressed into his scalp, and all in front of His own mother. Innocent of His crimes, and betrayed by one of his own apostles, Jesus Christ hangs on the cross for our sake, and still intercedes for the ones putting him to death to His Father; he asks the Father to forgive them.

If that isn’t perplexing, impressive, or inspiring enough, He endures all this pain to take all the sins of humanity upon himself, and fulfills many prophesies simultaneously. In Jesus’ lifetime He fulfills over 300 prophesies from the Old Testament, (I would encourage you to learn about those)  and the one we are going to focus on here is from a Psalm sung by a King, hundreds of Years before Jesus was even conceived in Mary’s Womb.

We hear in the Gospel, Jesus, hangs on the cross before His final moments and cries out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Many have interpreted these words of Jesus to be a very human moment where He enters into a moment of doubt like how we frequently do in our own human nature. During difficult times its easy for us to fall into distress and ask a similar question, “why me God?” However, when we look to the Old Testament, we see a much more clear picture of why Jesus chose these exact words, and fulfills a prophesy.

Jesus is fully Human and fully Divine, make no mistake, and it has been revealed to us how this is possible. Jesus’ divine nature and human nature, exist together in a perfect unity without mixing, separating, or mingling - in other words, Jesus’ divinity does not consume his human nature, and his humanity does not corrupt or diminish his divinity. We can see a clear example of how this may work in the burning bush that Moses saw. The fire of God does not consume the bush, rather, it enhances and intensifies its very essence creating something Holy. Jesus Christ is the perfect Incarnation of God. Even Jesus himself was tempted by the devil during His life here on earth, and He withstood the temptation with prayer and Scripture. So, again, make no mistake, Jesus felt every human emotion we feel, but His relationship and unity with the Father is far stronger than his humanity. So was he feeling doubts in his last moment, enduring excruciating pain? On the contrary, He was expressing something much more profound.

This brings us to the Psalms, Chapter 22, on the back of your hoodie. The beloved King David sings a song of excruciating pain and betrayal and of death. He sings of a death that he himself would never experience, however. Following the distressing words comes a proclamation of praise the God of Israel, in whom they put their trust and saves them always. David was never killed or suffered in any physical way similar to what he describes in his psalm. He also did not know the future, or God’s divine plan when he composed and sang this psalm. Every Jew of the time of Christ would have been well aware of the Old Testament, the Psalms included.

So when Jesus Christ is hanging on the cross, unrecognizable to His mother, with some of his last breaths, He utters the words of King David. His words reach their ears with the implication to everyone who was present, finish the Psalm.. At this moment we see mixed reactions. Many remained skeptical, and others recognized how Jesus Christ was, in fact, fulfilling the exact words of King David from centuries before. Soon afterwards, Jesus breaths His last breath; and if His words didn’t convince them, the earthquake and  tearing of Veil in the Temple had people reconsidering that Jesus was in fact The Truth. Many, still remained skeptical, unfortunately.

What good is a dead man to us? Luckily, that wasn’t the end of the story. Three days later and our Lord, raises from the dead, and returns to His apostles. Jesus Christ, turns his crown of thorns into his rightful Crown over all of Creation. He breaths new life and the Holy Spirit into them, granting them the authority to forgive sins in His name, preach the good news of the Risen and everlasting God, and build a Church that evil will never overcome.  This is our History, we are all citizens of Jesus’ New Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus conquered death so that we could live without fear in Him. Never forget this.