The next week the Leader met with the kids, and he read to them the third Christmas letter. The Leader reminded them of the introduction to previous letters:
Imagine Jesus wrote five letters to you just before Christmas to explain the meaning behind His coming to earth and being born as a baby. What would Jesus put in those letters? What would He say? How would He say it?
In this series we will attempt to create letters that Jesus might have written. At best this will be a feeble attempt to express the heart and feelings of our Savior, and it should be recognized as a very feeble attempt!
Dear People:
This is Jesus, how are you doing? In my last letter I wrote to you about the three years I spent ministering to people, I experienced all the human emotions, and I taught and helped the people I encountered. It was now time to finish God’s plan to conquer sin and restore the relationship between God and humans!
It was the evening of the Passover feast, and I was in Jerusalem with my disciples. The Jewish Passover feast remembers the time when the Jews were slaves in Egypt and my Father sent Moses to rescue them from slavery. The King of Egypt, who was called Pharaoh, would not listen to Moses, so God sent plagues on Egypt. The last and worst plague was the plague of death! The firstborn son in every house died, unless the family slaughtered a lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorway of their house. When the angel of death saw the blood, he passed over that house. Now I was going to be the Passover lamb! I was going to shed my blood on the cross to pay for sins and everyone who accepts my forgiveness is covered by my blood sacrifice. At the coming time of judgement at the end of this life on earth, if a person is covered by my blood sacrifice, then judgement will pass over that person because their sins are covered by my sacrifice. If a person comes to the time of judgement and does not have their sins covered by my blood, then that person will face the punishment for their sins and suffer for eternity!
Making this sacrifice for sins was not going to be easy! My human nature dreaded the physical torture I would go through on the cross, and my Divine nature dreaded having the sins of the world put on me while I was on the cross paying for all those sins!
At the Passover meal that evening I tried to talk to my disciples about what was going to happen to me in the next few hours, but they were not listening very well. They thought that I was going to raise an army and overthrow the Roman government, and they were arguing about which of them was going to be the greatest in my kingdom. I told them that one of them would betray me, and I even told Judas that he was the betrayer, but they did not seem to hear me. I told Peter that he would deny that he even knew me three times, and he would do this before sunrise tomorrow, but Peter just bragged about how faithful and fearless he believed he was.
After the meal I led the disciples out to a garden where we sometimes went to pray. The disciples were so tired that they could not keep their eyes open, but I was in agony! I was praying to my Father and asking for help! My human nature was terrified of going to the cross, but since I was God as well as human, I knew that this was the only way to pay for the sins of humans! Many people wish that they could know the future, but knowing the future can be terrifying! My Father sent an angel to comfort me and give me strength.
Just as I was finished praying Judas arrived with a crowd of people to arrest me. Peter tried to show he was brave and tried to kill a slave. Peter missed and just cut off the slave’s ear. I healed the ear, and then all my disciples ran for their lives! The loneliness was overwhelming!
During the night they put me through many mock trials. They were not interested in facts or justice; they just wanted to invent a reason to put me to death! John and Peter snuck back to see what was happening, and just as I predicted Peter denied that he knew me three times during the night. I turned and looked straight at him and felt so sad and lonely.
When morning came, I was sentenced to die on the cross. The religious leaders, the governor, and the king thought that they had won, but this was all part of God’s plan to pay for the sins of the world so that people could be forgiven and become friends of God again.
When they were nailing my wrists to the cross the pain was terrible, but my Spirit loved humans and I prayed and asked God to forgive them because they did not understand what they were doing. The pain and agony of the crucifixion got more intense every moment, but the greatest pain was still to come!
Six hours after the crucifixion began, at noon, the sky suddenly got dark! The people did not know what was happening, but I knew! At that time the sins of the whole world were put onto me! The pain was much worse than the physical pain! Then the worst thing happened! My Father cannot stand the presence of sin because of His holiness, so He had to turn His back on me and not look at me! This was the only time in all eternity when my Father and I did not have perfect friendship and fellowship! I could not stand it, and my heart was breaking!
When the payment for sin was complete, I knew that my job was done, and I released my Spirit back to my Father and I died! My disciples and the people who believed in me were heartbroken when I died! They thought that this was the end of me, and they thought they had been fools to believe in me and follow me, but God’s plan was not finished! My death on the cross accomplished two things; all sins were paid for, and I conquered death! People who believed in me and followed me no longer had to fear death because they have eternal life in heaven with my Father and I after this life on earth is over!
To prove that I had conquered death, I was raised from the dead three days after I had died on the cross! My disciples and followers could hardly believe it when I met them again just a few days after I had died on the cross, but it was true; I had risen from the dead!
I spent a few weeks on earth with my disciples and others that believed in me. I explained to them again about God’s great plan to pay for the sins of all humans and to conquer death! This time they listened! I also told them that I was going back to my Father in heaven, but I would be sending God’s Holy Spirit to live in their hearts and the hearts of everyone who would believe in me in the future. The Holy Spirit would help them to remember all that I taught the people and guide them into the truth about me and my Father. The Holy Spirit would also be with them always; He would never abandon them or leave them (even for a moment)!
So, now all believers have the Holy Spirit living in them and when their life on this earth is finished their spirit instantly goes to heaven to be with me forever. In heaven they will receive a new body that will not grow old or die, and sin will not be possible again. Since the believers have each chosen to love me, they will have friendship with God like the friendship that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden of Eden so long ago. This friendship will never end!
Also, at the right time the Father will send me back to earth to snatch all the living believers out of the earth and up to heaven. Then I will put an end to the sin and wickedness in the world, and I will make the heavens and the earth new again without sin!
That’s all for now. I will write more later.
I love you!
Jesus