Complete Surrender

He was crucified in weakness. (2 Corinthians 13:4)

Jesus surrendered.

I let those words wash through me.

How could:

the most powerful man in the world,

the one who was God,

the one who was creator of the universe,

the one whose power cannot be measured—how could he come to a place of surrender?

Isn’t surrender for those who lose? They are the ones who raise the white flag!

“Take us over, put us in handcuffs or chains or ropes and lead us away…we are finished. We confess that we aren’t stronger than you, that we can’t overcome your defenses or offenses, we will not be able to succeed….so we give up and cede power to you. You do with us as you please because you obviously have the upper hand, and regarding whatever it is right now that we are up against, we will not overcome you. We give up.”

That’s the key phrase, isn’t it: give up. Jesus gave up his rights to exercise his power. “Don’t you know that I could ask  my  Father and he would dispatch 10,000 angels to help me [to show Our power and to deliver me from this evil situation]?” And by the way, have you ever heard anyone  else say that?

Instead, He yielded to the “weakness of the cross”—to the place where others demonstrate their power over another person and take away their life. He did that even though life was his to give and to take away. But he laid down that right as well. It was all part of the complete surrender. Without his surrender, we would have no victory. Ironically, he wasn’t worried about his victory. He was concerned with ours. And that flows out of this complete surrender.

I’m still stunned and sobered by the words of the Ash Wednesday service of administering the ashes: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The ashes are a sign of surrender for us. They are a reminder that we can’t succeed if we insist on trying to be in control of our lives.

“Father, we surrender again today our hearts and lives to you, just as Jesus demonstrated surrender to your will in his example for all of us.”

Copyright 2019, Freddy Boswell. From the book, Torn Curtain.