-Duke Jeyaraj
The Ram Gopal Verma movie The Attacks of 26/11 chillingly showed how Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, Tukaram Gopal Omble, a family man and a father of four daughters, armed with just a baton took on the dreaded terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a Mumbai road on 26.11.2008. Kasab acted as if hewas dead when the police fired into the hi-jacked silver color Skoda car he and his accomplice were riding on towards a checkpost. Kasab’s accomplice died in the firing. When Omble daringly took the lead to open the Skoda car door, Kasab suddenly started to move menacingly. Omble acted quickly to catch hold of the barrel of Kasab’s AK47 rifle with both hands. Kasab, in retaliation, opened fire. A spray of bullets entered Omble’s stomach and intestines. Omble tightly held onto the barrel of Kasab’s AK 47 and would not simply let go of it till he breathed his last. This brave act forcefully prevented Kasab’s AK47 – a machine that he had mercilessly used to kill innocent people in the Mumbai CST Railway Station and the Cama Hospital just minutes before this event – from firing at anyone else. Omble died but he gave the police forces enough time to reach the terrorist and catch him alive. Kasab, part of a team of 10 terrorists who entered Mumbai that day, was the only terrorist to be captured alive (Story reconstructed using various news websites). Omble sacrificed his life for many Mumbaikars who did not even know him that day.
Omble’s sacrificial act somewhat typifies what Jesus did for us in an imperfect way. He died a cruel death for each one of us when we were still sinners and far away from him enjoying the temporary pleasures of sin, the Bible teaches (Heb. 11:25; Rom. 5:8, The Bible). The punishment that brings us peace was upon him when he hung on the Cross, the Bible declares (Isa 53:5, The Bible). Our backs should have been whipped as a punishment for the sins of our body – be that over-eating or masturbation coupled with porn-watching or any other unprintable sin. But Jesus took that punishment upon his own back. Strong-armed Arnold Schwarzenegger-like Roman Soldiers whipped Jesus’ back 39 times with leather belts that had broken bone and nail pieces embedded on them. As a result his back was lacerated and looked like a plowed field in accordance to a Bible prophecy – just one of over 110 major prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during his earthly life (Micah 3:12, The Bible). He loves us so very madly that he himself took upon his body, the punishment for our sins meant for our body (I Peter 2:24, The Bible). Because Jesus is 100% God who in turn is beyond the dimension of time he could die for all humans of all times. Because He is 100% human (even while he was 100% God) he could become the substitute for every human being. As the Bible puts it, “Jesus loved us and gave himself for us” (Gal. 2:20, The Bible). No one could have loved us the way Jesus did! No one loves us the way Jesus does. And what is more - Jesus came back to life, a feat that points to the fact that he is God and he is above everyone in the long line of self-proclaimed gods, so records the Bible (Rom. 1:4, The Bible).