Questions:

Am I OK?

Am I worth anything?

Do I have a valid future?

All these are questions we ask, and we don’t have the answers. So we run away from them to get lost in distractions, and/or we make ourselves into a superficial personality that pretends to be OK.

Still, underneath it all there is the doubt and the nagging lack of a sense of worth.

Another favourite strategy we have is when we try to adopt a worldview which seems to makes sense, and give us some protection about the sheer problem of not knowing. But, today, as we watch and follow media of various sorts, we are often presented with distorted worldviews and dystopia. In fact much of today’s culture is dystopian and weird. This undermines the world views which we have constructed, and we are easily made to feel uneasy.

Added to that there are the real memories of things that have gone wrong or we have done wrong in our lives. It is so easy to fall into negative thoughts.

Answer

On the cross it was precisely into this region of powerful negative self-obsession that Jesus entered. He drew it all into himself, and challenged the “prince of this world” in the very heart of his power, where he undermines mankind with accusations and criticism. He was not expecting a human being to voluntarily draw into himself all the guilt and brokenness.

Normally, it is Satan who whispers into people's minds a vile concoction of negativity and personal faults. And he influences their physical surroundings to weaken their minds. He is used to them curling up under the torrent until they despair.

He expects that, ultimately, everyone will break under the sheer weight of despair. But Jesus voluntarily took it all in, and clung to his Father in the hope and belief that his Father could heal it

all and forgive it all. The weight of it was almost intolerable, even causing him to feel deserted by his Father for a while. But as each incident of sin was held up to the Father in trust, its power was broken under the cascade of the Father's sheer loving mercy. He has the power to put every single one of them right.

More than the physical torture he endured, it was in his mind, heart and soul that Jesus had his greatest agony, as he experienced and owned the totality of human sin. It is no wonder that he sweated blood in the garden and longed for someone to stay awake with him, but the full hell of evil gathered around him made the apostles sleep "from sheer grief" (Luke 22:45).

All the physical torture Jesus suffered up to his horrible death was influenced by Satan to weaken Jesus' mind and heart and soul so that he was too far gone to hope. But the “prince of this world” lacked the strength to break Jesus’ resolve to remain open to the Father’s merciful love. It was when the "father of lies", the prince of darkness and negativeness was exhausted that Jesus proclaimed "It is accomplished" and went to the Father with all of us little brothers and sisters. He led us home.

Revelations 12:10 proclaims: “Now the persecutor, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down”. Now there is no reason to ask what our worth is or our future. Negative self-condemnation melts before the image of the Crucified Christ. Our worth is his precious blood generously outpoured.

Our self-image is now being  transformed into the image of the risen Lord who walked through the closed door of the Upper Room to breathe onto the bewildered disciples the life of the Spirit.  All accusations have been counteracted, here is only the Son’s urgency for us to join him in the family of his Father.