...Yes, I stole the title from Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse :) Oddly enough, I never read it- only watched the movie. I'll have to read the book. I did, however, read the sequel, Nightmare Academy.
Anyways, I found something very interesting about Jesus that I think is pretty telling. Check this out- Deuteronomy 21:23 (Deut. 21:23 NIV*) says that whoever is hung is cursed by God. The Greek version of Deuteronomy (LXX or Septuagint) says that whoever is hung on a tree is cursed by God, as shown by Paul in Galatians 3:13 (Gal. 3:13 RSV) (although it seems some translations render it as "pole" rather than tree. I doubt it makes a difference, though, since one could argue that the cross had a pole-like structure).
And Paul makes the point clear in that same verse that I'm making- Jesus got cursed and became a curse for the sake of saving mankind. He got hung on a tree (or pole) that was the cross. And since whoever's hung like that is cursed by God, boom. And certainly the curse He got was bigger than any other- the weight of the sin of the world on His shoulders. Thankfully, though, He was able to take it. And, obviously, it's left Him scarred for the rest of His life. Though it seems He thought it was worth it, as found in Hebrews 12:2 (Heb. 12:2 NKJV). He went through it because He could see the joy He was gonna be getting from it. And I have a theory as to what this joy was coming from.
While reading the NET Bible (which I like because of its overload of footnotes), I found this footnote at Galatians 5:22 (Gal. 5:22 NLT): "Another way to punctuate this is 'love' followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following 'love' as defining love." Basically, it's possible that rather than there being 9 fruits of the Spirit, there is but one, with 8 main characteristics that're found from it, and the one fruit is love. And check it out- the first characteristic listed is joy. So, if this alternate reading is accurate, joy is a result of love.
Even if one doesn't think this rendering is correct, I doubt one can really separate love from joy. When one loves another and they see eachother, what happens inside? No doubt joy, along with the other 7 as well (heh, I could really make a case for that verse being rendered that way.).
So, why go through with the cross and get Himself scarred for the rest of eternity due to a huge curse that He put onto Himself? What was the reason this joy ahead in time existed? I'm willing to bet it was love.
Now, don't get confused. I'm not talking about "He died on the cross because He loved us." It is true, but I'm talking about, "He died on the cross to get love." It's an interesting thought- the Creator and Designer of everything in existence paid blood to get love.
*For those who don't know, I have a plugin that turns Bible references into links that make the verse(s) pop up in a little box when you hover your cursor over it. The default translation is KJV, but for those who prefer a more modern version, I put in parentheses the same reference with a different translation specified.
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