It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man. When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. (Luke 23:44-49)
The Loving Ransom In the United States, there is a gravestone with a simple inscription on it. It says this: “I want to stand where you’re standing.” Underneath those words is the lovingly-engraved story of an incident that occurred during the American Civil War. A soldier, only 19 years of age, was part of a firing squad assigned to execute a man guilty of treason. As he closed one eye and took aim down the barrel of his gun, he was horrified to see that he knew the man he was about to shoot.
He lowered his gun, walked over to his captain, and said: “I can’t do it. That man has a wife and children at home. If I shoot him, I not only end his life, but I end their lives too. I will make his wife a widow and I’ll be robbing the children of their father. I can’t do it.” But everyone knew that the punishment for treason was death. The price had to be paid. So after a short discussion, they came up with a plan. They agreed that the young soldier could take the condemned man’s place. The 19 year-old marched up to the captive and said simply: “I want to stand where you’re standing.” The captive took off his blindfold, and walked away. Back to his wife, his family, his life. But his freedom came at great cost to another: the young man who had chosen to die in his place.
That is just a small glimpse of what Jesus achieved on the cross. As he went willingly to his death, it was as if he was saying to each one of us: “I want to stand where you’re standing.” And his death earned the freedom of more than one person. He died – to use the words he used himself – “as a ransom for many.”
Extract taken from - The Real Jesus
