Sand Mountain Sermonette 90
2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:14-16
Jesus and the Little Girl’s Box of Crayons
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
In the later half of the Nineteen Thirties, on her first day of school, my mother came home and told her mom, my Mamaw Iris, that she needed some crayons and a big matchbox (they used frequently in those days) to put them in to take to school the next day. Mamaw wondered why such a little girl needed a big matchbox to accompany a smaller box of new crayons, but she was more than happy to purchase the crayons for my mom that afternoon. When my grandmother and my mom arrived home, mother proceeded to take her brand-new crayons out of the box, break each one of them, and then place her broken crayons into the larger match box she had emptied of its remaining matches. And when my grandmother asked her why she was doing such a thing, my mom replied, “Because all the other boys and girls in my class have broken crayons and I want to have broken crayons, too.” So, the next morning mother took her broken crayons to class so she could be like her classmates.
What was happening to Jesus as He was hanging on the cross? Paul tells us the sinless Son of God who was God born in the flesh in a manger in Bethlehem, was taking the full weight of the sin of the world: your sin and mine, upon Himself so that we could be clothed in the Father’s righteousness now and forever! Only the innocent Son of God: fully God and fully man could receive the lash of the whip across His back and the piercing of the nails and the spear into His flesh in-order-to make the way for the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation to God for broken crayons such as you and I and everyone else on the planet. This was accomplished once and for all though the spillage and the cleansing of His precious blood! Only Jesus’ blood could satisfy the Father’s Holy right to demand a pure and innocent sacrifice to die for our sins so that we could stand before God now and at the day of judgment washed clean and pure in the sight of God! Jesus understands you! He came to identify with humanity for the purpose of dying for our sins. Will you offer Him your brokenness and receive His crucified and resurrected life today? (Read Hebrews 4:14-16).
Pastor Louie