Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Guest (Female): This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. And here's Joni with a beautiful Easter hymn for this Passion week.

Joni Eareckson Tada: (Singing) When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.

Wow, what an appropriate hymn to sing, especially this week as we draw near to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. And actually, this beautiful hymn inspires a very interesting lesson about the death of Christ on the cross. Because when Jesus went to the cross to atone for our sins, He went as the Passover Lamb. The death of Christ coincided with the Jewish Passover.

Which is so odd when you think about it. Why didn't Jesus go to the cross on the Day of Atonement? After all, He was atoning for our sins. Because it was the Day of Atonement, sometime equivalent to our August, that the nation of Israel sought reconciliation for its sins. They would sacrifice a bull, the high priest would choose a goat for a sin offering and sacrifice it, and after that, a scapegoat bearing the sins of the people.

Bulls and goats. With all this emphasis on sin and sacrifice and atonement, you ever wonder why Jesus didn't go to the cross on the Day of Atonement? Well, the reason is simply this: God chose Passover rather than the Day of Atonement as the time His Son would go to the cross because Jesus is not symbolized as a bull or a goat, but He's symbolized as a lamb.

At the first Passover in Egypt, it was the blood of a lamb that was smeared on the sides and the tops of the doorframes, ensuring that the firstborn of the family would not be killed. Picture that blood on the top of the doorframe and on the two sides. It kind of forms the design of a cross, doesn't it? And I think it's interesting that the blood of the lamb was not smeared on the threshold of the door where your feet could walk.

The blood of the lamb was not to be stepped on; it was not to be trampled underfoot. The lesson is for us today during Passion Week. Christ has rescued us through His precious blood. May we never tread on His gift or crush it underfoot. It was in the Passover that God provided an escape for His people from judgment. That's the whole point of Passover: it's an escape. God provided deliverance; He provided a way of rescue.

And that's what God did through Christ's death and resurrection. It was a way of escape, and God did it. On the other hand, the Day of Atonement was something that the people did for God. But Passover symbolized a time that God did something for His people. He provided deliverance; He opened a way for rescue. That is what happened at the cross. We have done nothing for it, but it has done everything for us.

And that's what I think about when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. Friend, that's an important lesson, and that's something for you to reflect on as well as we draw near to Easter Sunday, because what a celebration that will be when we honor the Passover Lamb.