Jesus’ Mission

Jesus came to earth to carry out a massive act of justice. In Genesis 3:15, God’s judgement is recorded as, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (ESV). Because of this enmity, Satan spent many years further assaulting humankind using their weaknesses, to cause them to sin. His goal was, and is: exploit any weakness found in humans and separate them from their creator. He punished me, I am strong, so I will try to hurt Him in the only way I know how. By looking at the possibilities of the Hebrew word meanings we may describe this picture a bit differently. Enmity, essentially means “hostility”, so a series of battles was predicted. However, a final battle would happen between another man, God’s son, and Satan himself. In this battle, Satan would have His head (Heb. rosh) or his process of deception bruised, or greatly damaged, yet not stopped. This coming human champion would do what the first human, Adam did not. He would resist all opportunities for deception and always choose God’s intentions. He would do everything God asked him to do without sin. In this eventual battle, and the Old Testament contains at least 44 predictions of what this champion would do during the series of skirmishes leading to the final battle. This champion would resist Satan’s direct attacks {Lk. 4:1-12}. This encounter ended with Satan waiting for a more opportune time to continue his temptations (Lk. 4:13). Jesus would frequently ask for God’s guidance about the task He was sent here to through prayer. There are about 25 instances in which Jesus approached the Father in prayer remembered in the New Testament Gospel writings. When faced with realization that the final battle was at hand, He would choose to follow God’s direction (Matt. 26:36-46) above His own desires. He would fight the final battle alone, all the while having the power to stop His mistreatment, although Satan had used His chosen people to reject and kill Him, Jesus loved His creation too much to allow Satan’s deception to continue. Yes, by His own creation, He would be rejected, mistreated, and finally killed by another group who held God’s people in subjection, the religious leaders. And the death would be carried out in the most humiliating way possible; it was an execution reserved for criminals, those who did wrong, an accusation that was rejected by even the executioner. All these things the creator would endure to apply justice to Satan and reclaim His creation. God’s effort to reclaim His creation would appear thwarted when the Champion was killed, or separated from human life. This physical life ended in prayer, (Lk. 23:46), and God altered the observed result. He rewarded the perfect, fallen champion by raising Him back to life (Matt. 28:1-20). Satan could no longer threaten death as punishment for humans, following God would overcome this threat. Since there was one human who finished the task and followed God’s directives completely, the final battle bruised or (essentially destroyed) all the works Satan had done in the past to separate the creation from the creator. With Jesus’ death, God’s demand for justice was satisfied. In this way, Satan’s head was bruised, but the sufferings of the savior were also described as bruising. But it was the heel (Heb. aqeb) which means the hind part of an object or lesser part. As we examine the possibilities of this pictorial description, we should realize that the head focuses on the front part of an object, or where it is going. Further, the heel (Heb. aqeb) means the hind part of an object or where the object has been, perhaps a lesser part. The Old Testament predicted 44 or more things the Messiah would do while on earth. In a mere 3 or so years, Jesus completed all of them and finally stated, “it is finished,” as He hung on the cross (Jn. 19:28-30). Once the predictions were complete, Jesus voluntarily gave up His life. With His death, He provided the last piece of the mission, a sacrifice suitable to satisfy God’s desires for humans. Jesus did what Adam did not. Adam and Eve’s actions brought sin and separation from God, Jesus’ life brought restoration of this relationship for all creation. Jesus fulfilled all God's objectives for humans and was resurrected. In this, He brought forgiveness to faithful ones before Him and also all those who accepted the gift He offered after His death. When His mission was complete, as instructed, His apostles to continued His work; it was time for Jesus to return to His place before the mission commenced. “After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life — to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth." - Jn. 17:1-3. It seems a conundrum to us, but His mission was not to extend the length of life on earth or bolster the quality of the time spent on earth. His goal was to provide for humans a different life, an existence that would endure, forever. The life He offers, lasts longer than any of the physical items we think of as being created. The way to partake in this different life is to accept Jesus, be introduced to God the Father, and be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. It is simply a relationship with God (the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit) and a dependence on them in everyday life. It is searching for God, learning to trust in Him implicitly. It is trying to meld with God as we follow our unique individual spiritual journey, ultimately into His goals for us.