miracle of no miracle

41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:41-46

If ever a moment demanded a miracle, it is this moment. The crowds are clamoring and calling out for it. Amid their screams and curses, the two thieves on either side of Jesus are demanding it as well. Above all, it would seem common sense demands it.

"Now is the moment! Now is the time to show them your miraculous power!"

As Jesus endures the horrific crucifixion experience, as he pushes himself up on the nail that has been driven through his ankles to catch a gasping breath, only to fall back on the nails in his wrists, the people mock him and ask for a miracle they would not believe even if Jesus were willing to do it. They don't realize, and perhaps neither do we, that—as Frederick Buechner said—the miracle of the cross was that there was no miracle!

"He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Behind that cross is the greatest of all miracles, and at this moment it is completely hidden. Hanging there, it seems that Jesus has been emptied of every drop of his miraculous power. He does just one more un-miraculous miracle; when the cup of suffering is completely drained, he will dismiss his spirit.

In the course of his misunderstood life, this moment he is most misunderstood. The crowd is still clamoring for miracles. But he did not come to give them miracles—he came to give them himself. And on the cross he is doing precisely that.

Jesus of Nazareth was one of hundreds of thousands of men who died on a Roman cross. To have stood before that cross as one of his disciples and witnessed his death would have been to know with absolute certainty that it had not all been for nothing. That is the meaning of the Friday we call “good.”

The cross reveals to us that Jesus' greatest miracle was his refusal at that moment to perform any miracle at all. —Michael Card michaelcard.com

seeking: Jesus, how has reflecting on your death challenged me today? What praise will I offer you?

responding: What is fundamental about the character of Jesus and his miracles? • What do I see is the difference between Jesus' way and the world's way of doing anything and everything?

O miraculous Savior, I praise you for the gift of yourself. I honor you for the humility you revealed here on earth. You could have grasped equality with God, but instead you won praise for him in everything you did! Crucified Lamb, risen Lord, who is like you?

following: Jesus' greatest miracle was his embracing the cross.

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