Mission Impossible…Accomplished!

     On September 17, 1966, the first episode of Mission Impossible aired on TV.  The show featured a group of brilliant spies, with expertise in their own fields, that belong to a special intelligence force called the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).  In 1996, the show was adapted into a series of major action movies. In each film, the action hero, Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise), always completes an ‘Impossible Mission.’   Since the movie’s conception, this franchise has grossed over 2.7 Billion dollars. For that amount of money, you could not only own the Los Angeles Lakers but you could also buy two, not one, Airbus 380 Airplanes.  These masterpieces of aeronautics are considered to be the largest passenger planes in the world.

     Even though the fictional Mr. Hunt always achieved his assignments, not even he could have accomplished the greatest mission of all.  What exactly could that be, you may wonder, it is to sacrifice his life for our sins.  There is only one who could have ever attained this universal task.  In case you still haven’t guessed where I’m going with this…last week was Resurrection Sunday.  I don’t like using the term Easter because as someone once cleverly said, “No ‘Bunny’ has ever laid his life down for me…only Jesus Christ!” 

     Have you ever considered how great Jesus’ mission truly was?  No, not really?  I hadn’t either until recently.  Truth is, there was so much He did long before He willingly came to the cross.  For instance, did you know the facts surrounding His birth and existence fulfilled over 100 prophecies before His crucifixion?  Considering the fact that, while in the flesh, His ministry was only for three years, that’s an amazing feat!  What is even more sublime is that He would choose to die for me.  When I look in the mirror…I see a former adulteress, fornicator and liar.  I recognize a woman who has lived a lifetime being fearful, insecure, hateful, rude, selfish and unforgiving.  Fact is, we do not have enough time in this year for me to neither list all the sins I’ve committed nor the ones that I still struggle with. 

     But Jesus looked down through the portal of time, pass over two thousand years, and focused His unwavering sight on my life.  He would see an embryo formed in my mother’s womb. One that would shape into a healthy, female infant.  She would develop into a clumsy toddler, then later as a hard headed, little girl.  Only to grow up and become an imperfect but repentant woman.  All those years ago, as they spit on, mocked, scorned and shamed Him.   He would choose to hang in the scorching sun, beaten unmercifully, thirsty and pierced in His side.  His stinging, aching and broken body nailed to a cross simply because He peeped into the future, saw me, with all my faults, and thought, “She…Is…Worth…Dying…For!”  I give thanks to my Sovereign King!

1 Peter 3:18 (NIV) tells us, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”  

     Beloved, no matter who has left us or tried to make us feel unworthy of love, we must hold our heads up!  We are cherished by the Creator and Commander of the Universe.  Furthermore, there is no condemnation in Christ. He proved that by dying for our sins, we may have a chance at eternal life.  

As of result of His love for us, He rose from the grave and returned to heaven to forever receive a real Hero’s celebration for accomplishing the ultimate Mission Impossible!