At a recent team-building exercise, the participants were paired together. One person was blindfolded, and the other was given a set of instructions for them.
The goal was trust, to be able to put yourself into the care of another, and to follow them (literally) blindly.
That doesn’t come naturally to most of us. We scoff at how gullible someone is, how naïve or innocent, when they take someone at their word without proof.
We need a reason to place our life in the hands of someone else. We need them to have experience, verifiable skills, a history of consummate proportions.
We want nothing left out.
What are Jesus’ credentials? What is there about the man that might convince us to place our future in his care?
Here are 4 Motivations to Come to Jesus and follow him.
Isaiah 53:5-6 says:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Our 1st Motivation says he was pierced for our transgressions.
Jesus took one for the team, and he accepted the pain for us.
Our 2nd Motivation reveals he was crushed for our iniquities.
He bore the weight of our wrongdoing, and he did it willingly.
Our 3rd Motivation is his chastisement that brought us peace.
Jesus was mocked and cursed so that we don’t have to live in fear.
Our 4th Motivation is the wounds he bore in his flesh.
The whipping, the scourging, the crown of thorns --- Jesus bled for our physical renewal through him.
This is Jesus’ list of credentials, his set of verifiable skills. And if those aren’t enough, this passage in Isaiah has one more award-winning experience Jesus took on to prove his love for us.
Jesus bore every sin ever committed by humanity so that we could be forgiven by his Father in heaven.
Team-building exercise complete! Jump aboard.
We can trust Jesus no matter where he might lead us.
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