Greatest April Fool's Day Ever

“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus...and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said. They spit on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.” Matthew 27:27-31

It is tough to read this passage but it’s inclusion was the Lord’s decision and worthy of our consideration. I think it sets the stage of a time when evil was certainly battling divinity. The treatment of Jesus prior to His crucifixion is one that makes us want to turn our head away. The sacrilegious savagery is more than our minds can handle. But there were actual men who locked eyes with Him and did these things. The Son of God completely understood that the will and plan of God must be carried out to save the world. But these men were fools and they were getting ready to experience the greatest April Fool’s Day ever. Little did they know that He would die mocked and abandoned but would rise worshiped and adored! Little did they know that the crown of thorns on one day would be exchanged for the crown of Glory on another day. The very robe from which they stripped Him would be replaced with the robe of righteousness that would endure forever. They were foolish men with foolish hearts and I would give anything to have seen their faces on the most beautiful April Fool’s Day ever lived…Sunday when the stone was rolled back, and the tomb was empty! When the news came I can only imagine the words they spoke. Was it the same words that the disciples spoke when Jesus calmed the seas? "Who is this man?" they asked each other. At what point did they understand that this was the man who God sent to save the world? Did their hearts become fearful at the realization that this was the man who would become the very King for whom they mocked? All fools…

I ask myself the same question on this symbolic day... ‘Who is this man? Who is this God?’

He is:

the kind of Man who took those who wanted Him dead and offered life to them.

the kind of Man who forfeited His life to not forsake His calling.

the kind of Man who was buried in shame but raised in Glory.

the kind of Man who comforted me walking the halls of the Hospice House.

the kind of Man who carried me through my daughter’s addiction.

the kind of Man who promises me things now that will be fulfilled later.

He is:

the kind of Man who will heal your heart.

the kind of Man who will provide for your life.

the kind of Man who will comfort you in your loneliness.

the kind of Man who will give back to you one day in Heaven everything that was taken from you on earth.

He IS that kind of Man and His name is King Jesus!