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 The Crucifixion of Jesus. This is the story that will enflame
the prayer movement. If you want to intercede with fervency, meet your King
here. If you stare at Him hanging on a Cross you might just find yourself
suddenly emboldened in love. He came this low, He wants to hear from me and I
want to discover Him there.
What kind of King do we have? Imagine the prayers of all the
people throughout the ages who groaned for a Messiah. Imagine their surprise at
how the events played out. Who could have known how greatly He loves mercy? Who
could have imagined that Israel’s Messiah, who came in a manger with the thunder
of a thousand angel’s voices singing “Glory to God in the highest,” would die in
a coronation of spit, blood, taunts, scorn, and derision? Who would have
believed that His innocent flesh would be torn by Roman nails? In the dark hour
of Calvary, the brutal truth unfolded. This King was born to die. John the
Baptist testified in John 1:29, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world!” The herald from the wilderness announced, “Behold your King, the
one marked for death, the One designated from birth to be slaughtered for the
sins of the world.”
The story of Jesus’ death will cause you to be transformed.
The Cross is more than a theological proposition. Once and for all, this event
displayed the heart of God to men and made possible the nearness of men’s hearts
to God. This story has caused men and women from every religious background to
give way under its power. It is our privilege forever to ponder the crucifixion
and the work of intercession He accomplished there.
In Jesus, two offices of priest and king were made one. The
only way He could ascend into His kingly function was through the high priestly
ministry of intercession, a prophetic picture of this is in Zechariah 6:11 when
the Lord commanded the crown to be put on the high priest. Jesus defined His
role as the King, as the Messiah, the Anointed One, through the lens of
intercession and atonement. Jesus could only be crowned as King and manifested
before the whole earth after He had fulfilled His intercessory function on the
Cross as High Priest. In John 17, Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus
prayed His high priestly prayer. Jesus entered into a level of intercession
never seen before. His spirit was troubled and sorrowful. He was looking for
companionship in His hour of sorrow. He wanted friends who would partner with
Him in the burden of His heart. Are you willing to meet Him there?
The Son at Calvary stands in the gap as the ultimate
Intercessor of the ages. In His very person, He pleads the cause of God and the
cause of humanity. In Christ, the very justice and mercy of God find solace. He
is the ultimate Intercessor! There is no one like Him.
Jesus invites us to meet with Him in His own passion for
justice and mercy to be displayed on earth, as it exists in heaven. Can you
comprehend the privilege? One who meets with God at love’s most sacred moment;
between the sovereignty of God and the destiny of man, one finds the
intercessor. There, in the great chasm between God’s blazing righteousness and
man’s fallenness, an intercessor is found waiting. There, love waits and
wrestles for God to be heard and man to be pitied. This is where the courageous
are found, fighting for God to be adored and man to be accepted. In this holy
place, one enters into the suffering heart of the Mediator, Jesus, who
vindicates His Father’s glorious name and atones for all of humanity. This is a
holy place, a divine meeting where doors open to deep caverns of divine paradox,
where God’s emotions lead us to groans and pleas for triumph and redemption.
Blessed is the man or woman who wait here with God. Blessed is the one who
enters these secret chambers in God’s heart where justice and mercy give birth
to love in action. In the swirl of God’s own passions, the intercessor is
beckoned to enter the place where God prays to God, where the Son asks the
Father to forgive them – and the Father agrees, crushing the Son with the burden
of the masses. The intercessor meets the crucified Jesus at Golgotha’s triumph
and finds fullness there: God’s fullness and our acceptance into it!
As you sit in the seat called intercession, pursue this Man
Jesus and let the great Intercessor teach you of Himself. To know Him, His
suffering and His path to glory, is to embrace the journey of understanding the
glorious honor of asking Him for the desires of His own heart and watching those
passions become yours.
Glorious Father, precious Jesus, how could it be that You
died for me, that you would ransom my life with Your precious blood? What kind
of love pierces so deeply, stoops so low, and fights so tenaciously, even to the
point of death? I am stunned and humbled by Your love. Thank you Father, show me
the depths of this humble King. Thank you Jesus for showing me the paths of love
and strengthening me to meet You in the deep places of Your heart, that I might
pray the very prayers of Your own heart, for myself and for others.
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