This week is Holy Week when we remember and declare Jesus Christ’s trial, crucifixion and resurrection. As we approach Good Friday and His crucifixion, I wanted to share the first chapter in my book, Journey of the Messiah — The Awakening. It describes not only the horror of the cross imagined from His perspective but also the ramification of His redemption to a lost world. Note: The book is written in the first person of Jesus, as if He is telling the story. It is from the author’s perspective and imagination.
Chapter 1: To the Cross, from the Cross
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).
From the beginning, I knew My life as the Son of Man would come to this torturous end. It was the redemptive plan of God for man, before man was to be. This knowledge did not make My pain any less but added grief to My agony. The weight of the sinful guilt for man is a knife to My soul as the nails are to My flesh. I hang between heaven and earth, bridging the gap for all time and for all who come by faith to drink My blood and eat My flesh.
The jeering crowd beneath Me is gawking at My demise on the cross. Through My clouded eyes, I can see the pierced heart of My mother as she witnesses the crucifixion of her firstborn, promised Son. Her emotional pain echoes the words of the old man Simeon, who prophesied on the occasion of her purification, forty days after My birth: “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34–35).
The horror of the cross, invented from the depths of hellish hearts, was designed to maximize suffering in the victim and fear in the watchers. Glee from the executioners is the spatter from the boiling point of evil hearts.
My journey in flesh culminates with this harrowing end. This is not only the fulfillment of My walk among men but also the climax of FATHER’s redemptive plan for man and creation. This is the taking of the sacred scroll from FATHER’s hand and opening its seals.
My torture is magnified by the debt of humanity’s sin and the wrath of My FATHER. Here on the cross, the grief of My mother on earth is dwarfed by the abandonment and wrath of My FATHER in heaven toward His Son. Though FATHER and I have always been one in absolute unison, now and for this moment We are conflicted and divided.
Even though I have been in perfect and sinless harmony with FATHER, the sins of the whole world and of all time are now imputed on My whole being. As I had been one with FATHER, now I am one with all the sinners of earth. Upon this cruel tree of judgment and condemnation, I bear the punishment for all the sin of fallen man. The retribution of death and destruction weigh totally upon Me.
The pain of My separation, for the reason of My imputed sin though I was sinless, is the anguish of My soul today. I feel the sore grief and helplessness of all the condemned who will stand before the white throne to be judged by God. It is necessary for Me to bear the unbearable sentence of those condemned to hell with “I never knew you; depart from Me!” (Matt. 7:23). The horror meant for those who were once known on earth but then were exiled, as if they had never been, into the oblivion and doom of hell, is Mine to bear upon the cross. For Me it will not be forever, but in this moment, it is as eternity.
I refused the Romans’ cup of wine mixed with myrrh, but I willingly take FATHER’s cup of wrath. I drink it all till no dregs remain. I take it all until nothing is left. The sword of God’s vengeance for every murder, theft, and despicable sin of man pierces through My soul as the execution of all time. The world sees an execution of Rome, but I receive the execution from My loving FATHER as Judge and Avenger. The multiplied grief of My soul dwarfs the pain of My brutalized body.
The dreadful darkness in the noontime day is only a fraction of sin’s darkness in My once spotless soul. I can feel the eternal annihilation of those who would be doomed to hell when the final gavel of judgment falls. My soul quakes like the earth on this dreadful day of My earthly ruin.
My shame and reproach are laid bare to the world, as My nakedness reveals. Gethsemane’s seed of anguish is now bearing twice-rotten fruit on My body and in My heart. Unbearable—the word cannot describe what courses through Me. All the forces of being in Deity and creation seem pitted against My soul, bringing all creation to the brink of utter destruction. How did it come to this? The pure justice of God bringing mankind’s full guilt of sin into complete account, weighed in the balance of My body and soul.
The unexplainable suffering of the cross is only articulated by the groans and screams of the punished men on this hill of torture called Golgotha, the place of the skull. My eternal purpose of becoming the sacrifice for man’s sin does not lessen My anguish. The climax of judgment I bear comes into fullness until I can bear it no more. I scream out to Him who loves Me but has now turned away, blackening the sky: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:33).
All had to come to this, but in the unmeasurable expanse of eternity, before I was the sacrifice for sin, I was Ima’s son, and before I was her son, I AM.
**This perspective of Christ on the Cross by author, Harry L. Whitt from his book.
Book Order: If you would like to purchase the book, you can order it HERE.
Pathway Journey 