Life Ministries

“Beauty And The Beast”
Romans 12:9-21 and  Mark 15:6-32

    Once again I have to give credit for the inspiration and the insight of this series of messages to Max Lucado. His book entitled “He Chose The Nails” is destined to be another classic Christian writing on the Easter story. How many here today have seen the movie or read the classic story of Beauty and the Beast? When you were reading or watching, did you catch the parallel of the story to the biblical history of mankind?  Well, neither did I. But, Here was a person whose face at one time was handsome and his palace pleasant, but that was before the curse. Here is the parallel - There was a time when humanities face was beautiful and the palace pleasant…but that was before the curse….and, ever since the curse we have been different…mankind has become the “beast”.

    If you have seen yet another movie called “Star Wars” you could say we have been living on the dark side. Mankind has become the “Darthvader” within himself…while God desires the beauty and good of the “Jedi” spirit.
    The Apostle Paul wrestled with this same idea of the beast within in Romans 7:15 where he says; “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do! “For a what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil that I do not want to do…this I keep on doing! Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it!”  That’s the dark side…that’s the curse. Man, who was created to be a prince, has become a beast, and there is hardly a page of scripture where the beast doesn’t bare his teeth.
    The evil of the beast was never so exposed as it was on the day Christ died.  Look at the words of our scripture; They struck him; they scourged him; they spit on him; they mocked him; they hurled insults at him; they cast lots for his clothes; they forced him to carry his own cross; they crucified him!  This was truly the dark side of mankind.  What had happened?  How could mankind become so degraded?….The Bible has a three letter word for it…SIN.  It’s not that we can’t do good, we do. It’s just that we can’t keep from doing bad.
    God’s Word would agree; “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to his own way.”  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”  “There is none righteous, no not one…All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Some might disagree and they look around and say; “Well, compared to other people in this world, I’m a pretty decent person.”  Max Lucado says; It’s like a pig looking down the trough and thinking; “Compared to the other pigs, I’m not too bad!” However, the standard for righteousness is not found at the troughs of earth…but at the throne of heaven. If we feel the need to compare, then we must compare ourselves to the sinless perfection of Christ…and we fall short every time!
    And so, we have a problem. We are cursed…we are inherently evil and unrighteous…we are sinners and the Bible says that the “wages of sin is death”. And, if we are willing to face truth…We are guilty as charged!  Though we try our very best to change, we cannot. If anyone disagree, I challenge them to spend one day… or one hour…in sinless perfection.  We are beasts and we know it. We may not want to admit it, but when we look in the mirror of God’s Word… we know what the curse has done to us. We know that though we were once created to be a prince or a princess, we have become the beast.
    Herein lies the “beauty” of the Cross of Calvary. The beauty cares about the beast. The beauty sees something in the beast no one else sees. And through the power of love, the beauty has the power to overcome the curse ….and save the beast.
    Think about the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, could have shriveled the hand that held the whip…he could have turned the spit to dust…he could have called upon ten-thousand angels….but he didn’t.  Jesus never once used his divine, super-natural power for selfish reasons. His purpose was God’s purpose…and that purpose is found in the story of his birth, where the angel told Mary “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 
    Here is where the correlation between “Beauty and the Beast” ends. In the fable, the beauty kisses the beast and the curse is lifted and the beast becomes a handsome prince once again.  In the Bible, Jesus - the beauty - does much more. Jesus becomes the beast so the beast may become the beauty. Jesus changes places with us.
    We are under a curse - the curse of sin. Jesus takes upon himself the curse. He takes upon himself the sin of the world...Nails it to the Cross…Covers it with his blood…and suffers the punishment of death…so the curse, and the consequences could be taken away, and the beauty restored.
    My friends, whenever you again see or here of Beauty and the Beast, think about this message.  One story is a fable created in the minds of Disney animators…The other is a fact created in the heart of God.  Both have a “happy ever after” ending for those who believe.