I know that Easter is on the other side of the calendar, but the Easter story is full of grace, yet the word itself is not mentioned once. Rather than talking about it, the life of Christ shows it.
The first ”grace full” moment occurs early in the events of that fateful weekend. On the night in which He knew He was about to be betrayed by Judas, He told him in John 13:27 “What you are about to do, do quickly.” and excused him from the rest of the Passover meal celebration to make his arrangements with the religious leaders. Later Judas comes with the soldiers to arrest the Lord in the garden. Then he greets Him as his respected teacher and kisses Him to signal the soldiers Who was to be taken into custody. Jesus knew He was being betrayed, yet instead of becoming angry, we find Him in Matthew 26:50 addressing Judas as “Friend” and giving him permission to do what he came for. What GRACE, to call the one who has just turned against you “friend.”
A second “grace full” moment occurs on the cross, when almost everyone present is either ridiculing Him, cursing Him, or condemning Him. In that moment of torment a criminal, who just before was joining in the abuse and is likewise being crucified for crimes he did commit, speaks out against the insults of the other thief by acknowledging the justice of their receiving this punishment but He didn’t do anything to deserve this kind of suffering and death. Then he said, “Jesus Savior, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”
Now why should Christ honor that request? As far as we know the man had never before in his life done anything worthy of being included in Christ’s kingdom. In fact, he had done all kinds of things to exclude himself from consideration for the kingdom. Even including joining in the personal attacks on Christ just a few minutes earlier. Why should he be forgiven? He couldn’t even do anything for Christ to show the sincerity of his change of heart.
I love the description given by Max Lucado in his book, Six Hours, One Friday of what happens next.
“At this point Jesus performs the greatest miracle of the cross. Greater than the earthquake. Greater than the tearing of the temple curtain. Greater than the darkness. Greater than the resurrected saints appearing on the streets.
“He performs the miracle of forgiveness. A sin-soaked criminal is received by a blood-stained Savior. ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’ This is a solemn promise.”
Such is the definition of ‘Grace.’
The other thief and Judas both perished in their sin because they rejected the offered grace from Christ that others accepted. That’s one of the amazing things about God’s grace, it is freely offered to everyone but never forced on anyone. The choice and responsibility for the consequences of that decision are up to each one of us.
