Nowhere in Scripture are we instructed to sorrow over the Savior's death for us. Jesus knew that His disciples would be in deep sorrow when He was crucified, but He promised them He would rise again and they would be full of unimaginable joy!
When He told them of His impending death and resurrection, they were exceeding sorry. They didn't seem to hear at all the promise of the resurrection. Even after He rose again, and they were told of it by the faithful women, it was all discounted as nonsense.
Why were they sorrowful? Not, sadly, because they knew Jesus was dying to save them from their sins. Even though He is God's Lamb of sacrifice, yet He never explicitly explained His offering to them - rather, He declared it in several places, but they seemed not to take notice of it. In this way, Jesus went as a lamb, meekly to the slaughter, not proclaiming His consciousness of being the sacrifice, just as Isaiah had foretold.
No doubt, had the disciples had such knowledge, that He died for them, their grief would have been far worse.
Instead, they sorrowed at the loss of their friend, and at the loss, they thought, of all hope of the kingdom restoration.
How odd that the disciples never grasped the missing key to restoring the kingdom: a sacrifice that saved and cleansed! They thought all it took was for Messiah to come down and take up His rule and His throne.
They never grasped that the true impediment to the kingdom restoration was their sin.
Without a sacrifice that cleansed away their sin, they could never enjoy Christ's righteous and holy kingdom, and He loved them too much to restore the kingdom without first rescuing His people from sure judgment. |
