Who Takes the Son?
When war broke out, the son went to fight and died while rescuing another soldier. Not long after, there was a knock at the father’s door. He opened to find a young man holding a large package.
“Sir, you don’t know me,” the young man said, “but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him and he died instantly. He often talked about you and your love for art.” The young man held out his package. “I know this isn’t much, but I wanted you to have this.”
The package contained a portrait of the son, painted by the young man. The father hung the portrait over his mantle, and thereafter, he always showed visitors the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the masterpieces in his collection.
When the father died, an auction was organized to dispose of his art collection. On an easel next to the platform was the portrait of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”
Silence. Then a shout came. “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one!” The auctioneer was unmoved. “The son. Who will take the son?”
Finally the family’s longtime gardener spoke from the back of the room. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” He felt embarrassed offering so little, but it was all he could afford.
“We have $10. Will someone bid $20?”
“Give it to him for $10, and let’s get on with it!”
“Going once, going twice, sold for $10!” The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “The auction is ended,” he announced. “When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the man’s will: only the painting of the son would be auctioned, and whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate. The man who took the son gets everything!”
Like the auctioneer, God’s question today is, “Who’ll take the Son?” Because, you see, whoever takes the Son receives everything.
God’s Son died for us nearly 2,000 years ago. This Easter, let’s remember Him together. – Author unknown
God’s Gift to Me
I’ve always especially liked Easter. While Christmas is a celebration of joy and excitement for the entire world to take pleasure in, I feel Easter is a celebration of what Jesus did for each of us as individuals.
Easter is all about the relationship between Jesus and me. As a child, I never understood this relationship. Jesus was my friend, sure, but He was more someone who I would call on when I needed help.
It was a one-way relationship, and I didn’t really realize what I was missing until one night, when I was 14, I lay in bed listening to my MP3-player and it started playing a song I had forgotten was even on my playlist. It was a song sung from Jesus’ perspective and went like this:
I still would have died for you,
If you were the only one.
I still would have cried for you,
If you were the only one.
And rose from the dead,
If you were the only one.
The song went on, saying that all the things that He’d gone through had been for me, and that He would do it all – He did do it all – just for me. I remember lying in bed, thinking about the enormity of that concept. The Son of God, coming down to earth and going through unspeakable amounts of torture and His last breath, for me.
Although I’m not usually a very emotional person, I buried my face in my pillow and cried, because the thought of such love overwhelmed me. This man, who knew He would be rejected, despised, and alienated, saw my soul and deemed me worthy of such a sacrifice. He went through each and every humiliating and painful experience as an individual sacrifice for every one of us that ever lived on this earth.
This is why Easter is particularly special to me, because it shows the story of an always present, very loving God, and the length He was willing to go to have a relationship with me. I know I can never equal His love, but I will try to give Him all of mine. – Amy Joy Mizrany
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A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
That’s why Jesus died for us, because we all make mistakes and it’s impossible for us to earn our way to Heaven. But Jesus was perfect, and that’s why He could pay the price of our sins so God could forgive us.
You can’t be too bad, but you also can’t be good enough. You cannot save yourself, no matter how good you try to be, because you can never be good enough.
There is nothing we can do to earn our way to Heaven, it´s a gift from God. (That we can simply just receive.) – Ephesians 2: 8 and 9 paraphrased.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) is quoted as saying, “I know of no one who has done more for humanity than Jesus.” Much of the world, Christian and non-Christian alike, would agree.
Copyright © 2019 Activated; Picture: W. Schmidt: