Dear Disciple,
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:15
As your Master was publicly humiliated inside and then outside the walls of Jerusalem so long ago, He was, unbeknownst to all those looking on, publicly humiliating the dark spiritual “powers and authorities”. Even as Jerusalem’s Jewish and Roman rulers played it out in the physical realm, the spiritual enemies of God and of His Messiah were naively celebrating the Nazarene’s utter disgrace. The One who had been so powerfully destroying the devil’s works (1 John 3:8) and setting free all oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38) was now silently and nakedly exposed to the ridicule and mockery of all His enemies. What a spectacle. What a disgrace. What a waste.
And yet.
The same Paul who helps us peer behind the veil into the unseen realm in Colossians 2:15 also offers us this fascinating insight into the psychology of the spiritual powers: “None of the rulers of this age understood it [the long-hidden mystery of God’s purpose], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). The all-wise God had lured His enemies into a trap. If they had known what the agony and shame of the Messiah was going to mean for them, they would never have plotted His demise – let alone reveled in it. Ah, but they wouldn’t know until it was too late – until the mystery of God had done its darkness-destroying work.
So in what way did the shame and humiliation of our dear Master become the shame and humiliation of the powers and authorities? Though they threw everything they had at Him, Jesus of Nazareth did not abandon the purpose of His Father or the good way of His kingdom. He received every cruel taunt and all the unjust derision that was leveled at Him with unconquerable kindness, mercy, and love. As brother Peter pointed out with such admiration: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (1 Peter 2:23). No, instead He entrusted Himself to the just Father (1 Peter 2:23) and called on Him to forgive those who were murdering Him with such satisfaction (see Luke 23:34).
He did not call on the legions of angels who were standing ready. He did not call down curses on those who so gleefully cursed Him. No, the Kingdom way of Jesus triumphed that dark day. All that He had called His disciples to do, He did. The vision of the life offered in God’s righteous realm that Jesus painted with every word and deed of His brief mortal ministry was vindicated in His humble righteousness. The powers of darkness failed. The love of God overwhelmed their hatred, and the mercy of God overwhelmed their condemnation. All this in a naked and humiliated Nazarene. Our Master. Our beloved who conquers even in His own defeat.
Honored to follow Him with you,Ryan