World-shaking murders abound in the historical annals. Beyond their achievements, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King are known as widely for being assassinated as any of their achievements.
One murder stands above all murders: The day God was murdered. Ponder that. It seems incredulously impossible. How can a mere group of men murder the One who created the universe and all of life? How can they end the life of the One who, through His grace, allows these same men to draw their next breath?
Let’s not compare this to Superman dying because some lackey afflicted kryptonite upon him. God is not susceptible to mortal dangers. It creates a conundrum: Mortal man can end the life of immortal God? Adding to the riddle is combining Greatest Historical Event #2 and Greatest Historical Event #3. God lowered Himself to become a human baby only to be murdered as a grown man?
On the surface, how does this become a noted historical event? The world sees a non-significant baby born in a trash-heap of a town and becoming a man who holds no power, no high political office. He’s executed by a humiliating crucifixion. That shouldn’t move the historically significant needle. It’s the same scenario of the thief who was crucified alongside Jesus. From the world’s perspective, Jesus should be as nameless as the thief.
Yet, He’s not. The reason is the underlining. Man succeeded in murdering God. How is that possible?
Because God said this would be so. The prophet Isaiah wrote about God’s death centuries before: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
The Jewish authorities, with the blessing of the Romans, murder a man proclaiming to be God. If the man stays dead then he must not be God.
Yet, He doesn’t stay dead. Three days after His confirmed death on the cross, He lives again. He walks from the tomb, and over the span of forty days, over five hundred people witness Him alive. He eats with them and visits with them. He shows them the healed wounds in his hands and feet and the healed sword wound in His side. He even builds a campfire and fries some fish.
Before He ascends into Heaven after those forty days, He instructs His followers in this way: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19)
Thus, the Christian religion is born. Thus, all of world history falls either on the BC or AD side of the birth year of the baby—that non-descript, plain baby who turned out to be God Himself.
The proof of His Deity issued forth when He allowed Himself to be murdered on the cross as a common criminal. His enemies believed they were done with Him.
However, because He is ‘I AM,’ and never ‘I CAN’T BE,’ He brings Himself back to life. What other god can match this feat: Through His prophets, God directs the telling of a future event in which God becomes human, the newborn son of a virgin. Hundreds of years later, God makes it so; God lives with people.
Then those people kill God. The universe doesn’t collapse because its Creator is no more. Instead, God comes to life again, living and breathing once more as a man.
For what purpose? It’s not because God needs to prove how powerful He is. Does He need to prove He’s more powerful than those other ‘gods,’ all of whom are made of stone? Hardly. He left those ‘has-beens’ in the dust long ago.
It’s because of you and me. Go back to Greatest Historical Event #1. Wouldn’t the universe be just as incredible if He had never created one human?
But He desired more. He desired a relationship with you and me. In order to make that happen, He became human and dwelled with us. He allowed men to murder Him. He showed mankind He could overcome death, graciously gifting us with the wondrous opportunity to live with Him forever.
Mission accomplished with Greatest Historical Event #3.