Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Silence of Forgiveness


Deserted streets. Closed doors behind which families gather around a simple meal. The smoke from hundreds of cooking fires slowly lifts its hazy grasp. Jerusalem is virtually silent.

Silence is sometimes peaceful. At other times, though, silence is eerie and heavy. The silence in Jerusalem on the evening of Passover must have been an eerie, heavy silence. During the day Jerusalem bustled with activity. The walls of the city could barely contain all of the pilgrims who had come bringing their sacrifice to the temple. Each sacrifice bleated out its own music during that long and fateful day. Then, as hour after hour slowly crept by, the sounds of the sacrifices diminished. Family after family returned from the temple carrying their Passover meal which had been sacrificed on an altar.

As this scene unfolded in my mind, I couldn't help but think about the silence of forgiveness. I couldn't help but think about what it must have been like to witness the thousands of sacrifices which attested to the sinfulness of so many souls and the extravagant grace of the Almighty God to forgive. And I couldn't help but think about my own sinfulness and how trivially I treat God's grace and forgiveness. There is no bleating of sheep speaking out my sins. There is no long walk up the hill to present my sacrifice before God. Rarely is there any point in my life where I am confronted with the reality of my sins.

But tonight I hear the silence. And the silence is deafening in my ears as I think of the Lamb. The Lamb I think of in this thick silence is not a cute and cuddly pet that must be given at too young an age, but the all-powerful Son of God who willingly walked that road and laid down his life for sinners.

Too often I fail to think about the price for my sins. I ignore the reality of Paul's words that the wages of sin is death. I trivialize sin and think that it is no big deal for God to forgive me yet again. I ignore the fact that the sin in my life actually destroys the life that Christ came to give me. And so tonight I am reminded by the silence of forgiveness.

Life as I know it came at the cost of God's Son.

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