Secret Code.

Secret codes are cool to me. We use them pretty regularly these days in our Apple Android world of living. Swipes and numbers get us into pixel land. Once in pixel land, most every account is coded in secrecy for our hopeful protection. When we need to change one of our secret codes in pixel land, we are usually sent a secret code in order to update our secret code.

I remember as a kid playing in the corn field next to Danny Pearman's house. When the corn was harvested and the really tall stalks were dead, we would make tunnels into the middle of the cornfield and build forts that you couldn't see from the outside edges. Of course, even though there were only a few of us that would ever seek entry, we had a secret code word that allowed us into corn world.

Much has been made of Peyton Manning stepping to the line of scrimmage in a football game where, just before the ball was snapped for the play to begin, you would hear Manning yell the words, "Omaha, Omaha." Thing is, people never really knew what it meant. Some said it was just a way to get the defense thinking about just one more thing before the ball was snapped. Whatever it was that he was doing as he said Omaha over and over again, it has gained some traction as one of the great secret codes floating out there in the spheres. And don't get me going on backwards masking on my LP's.

Jesus and a secret code.

Think of all the things that Jesus could have said as He was dying on the cross. "You miserable, filthy, sons of Pilate." Right in the midst of this blood spilling suffering, Jesus is purposeful in His words. What He actually said was, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me." And those words make total sense in the midst of these gory, tortuous moments in His life. But they apparently mean more that just the obvious sentiment that they convey in the gory details.

The words that Jesus utters, if not gasps out, on the cross are actually words that are recorded in the old testament book of Psalm, chapter 22, verse 1. This is what they exactly say in Psalm 22. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" Why the eerie overlap? Secret Code. This is really crazy when you take in what seems to be happening. Jesus was throwing a secret code out to anyone who would have been listening while His blood dripped. What would that secret code be? For any that would have been in close enough proximity to hear those " My God, My God" words, they would more likely than not recognize these words from their learning heritage as being from the wisdom literature of the Psalms. "Go to the Word." That seems to be the code. While I'm dying, I'm pointing you to the nourishment of the words of God.

A small group of people are crashing in the bloody reality that Jesus is literally dying in that moment. And not just dying. Dying tormented. Dying with mocking mouths slithering their foul curses. Dying with piercing thorns in His scalp. Dying with metal spikes like human flesh on a clothes line. And He, the One who would humanly need the ultimate reviving His very self, was tending those with ears to hear. And if someone heard the secret code and remembered the learnings from the wisdom words of this particular Psalm, what kinds of nourishment would they find? What themes could Jesus have been pointing them to from His bloody perch?

Try these themes.

- declaring God’s name and praising Him together.

-future generations will honor God together.

-there is unity around following You

-the poor will be relieved of misery

-the nations around the world will bow to their King

-You will rule as the righteous King over all nations

- there will be feasting and worshipping for those in God

-all will bow to the King

-generations to come will hear the story of the great King and believe too!

Would any of these themes have been in view in the reason that Jesus was enduring the cross? Yes. The book of Hebrews reminds us. "Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross." Blood and joy mingled together at the foot of the cross. Not just a cute, pithy slogan. The blood transfusion that alters your eternal trajectory.

When I burrow down to really take in the specific action of Jesus' "My God, My God" words on behalf of me and you, it is stunning. So powerful that He was still a Consuming Fire while being crucified.

He would not be stopped.

There's more.