The Cross - Part Four
What is the cross?
Crucifixion was considered the ignoble death of thieves and worse, which Jesus underwent. In The Passion, as Jesus falls beneath the cross in an alley, his mother Mary runs to his side screaming that she is there with him, having seen how the people spat at him, turned their faces away, betrayed him, lied about him, beat him all because he came to spread the truth and love of God. And Jesus, embracing his cross, says to her, “Behold mother, I make all things new.”
The cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love. To quote Ravi Zacharias, “The cross stands as the central piece because it shows the dastardliness of what sin is, and the beauty and love of what forgiveness is.” My friend Victor once said that the love of God is utterly scandalous; the scriptures show the scandalous nature of this love by revealing God as a loyal husband and savior, and we are his disloyal prostitute of a wife. Maybe, then, Jesus is justified when he says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me… (Matthew 10:37).”
The cross is the renewal of all things. It is the turning of the ignobility of crucifixion into a symbol of hope that has endured for two thousand years. It is the spreading of truth from a carpenter and his haggard group of confused and sometimes disloyal followers to the corners of the world and that truth being made into the world’s most read book of all time.
But most importantly, it is the renewal of our relationship with our heavenly father, our daddy, our God from whom we have wandered away. Not only have we spit upon God all of our lives and he demands justice be done, he undergoes that sentence of justice himself, to reconcile his prodigal children to himself.
Have you read the story of the prodigal son? I’m sure many of you are familiar with the son who asks his father for his inheritance and leaves to go spend his money on parties and having a good time or whatever. But here is the significance: the son asks for his inheritance. If you are a parent, then you will identify with this illustration best – imagine if your child came to you and asked you for their inheritance while you were still alive. It is tantamount to that child saying to his, or her parent, that to the child, the parent is dead. And God lets that child go. But when that child returns, as the story of the prodigal son illustrates, as soon as the father hears word that his son is returning he runs out to meet him. The father (God) does all the work as soon as the child is ready to come back and not only that, he throws a huge party – what believers know as the joy of salvation, something that David asks for in his psalms to be returned to him.
The cross is the renewal of life, because it reconciles us back to God who is the source of life. It is a life able to be lived consistently, it is a life with a loving daddy, it is a life with meaning, purpose, hope, fulfillment, destiny, justice, direction, evidence, and morality. It is continued life with God in heaven.
But most importantly, it is life through a relationship. When POW’s are given a few seconds to say something into a camera, what do they express their love for? Knowledge? Cars? Games? No, they express love for a wife, a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother. If I may be so bold, here is a clue to the meaning of life – that it is found in relationships. And ultimately, in a relationship with God. Jesus does not call you to his ethic, like Zoroaster does. Jesus does not call you to the Qur’an, as Mohammed does. Jesus does not call you to nothingness, or the Way Which Cannot Be Named (Taoism) or to your ancestors he calls you to himself and offers not a way of life, but a relationship.
The cross is life. “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. For whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:37-39).” It is easy for our relationships with other people to eclipse our relationship with God; we become so enamored with the gift that we forget the gift-giver. But more importantly, that gift cannot offer the life that God does to anyone who wants it. An idol is anything that eclipses our relationship with God. That is why Jonah says “Those who cling to idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Why did Jesus need to die such an excruciating death? (The word excruciating, by the way, finds its roots in the crucifixion, literally meaning “as from the cross”) Some other critics said that Gibson’s film, in its gritty and realistic approach, would cause anti-Semitism to rise for people blaming the Jews for killing Jesus. It wasn’t just them, it was the Romans, it was the Samaritans, the Philistines, his own followers. He died because of me, and he died because of you.
If you don’t know Jesus, I encourage you to get to know him. I encourage you to ask him to make himself known to you in a very real and understandable way.
I will end this series with a hymn that, I think, best captures the significance of the cross.
The Wonderful Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did ever such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
All who gather here by grace draw near
And bless your name.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Forbid it Lord that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
All who gather here by grace draw near
And bless your name.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
Crucifixion was considered the ignoble death of thieves and worse, which Jesus underwent. In The Passion, as Jesus falls beneath the cross in an alley, his mother Mary runs to his side screaming that she is there with him, having seen how the people spat at him, turned their faces away, betrayed him, lied about him, beat him all because he came to spread the truth and love of God. And Jesus, embracing his cross, says to her, “Behold mother, I make all things new.”
The cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love. To quote Ravi Zacharias, “The cross stands as the central piece because it shows the dastardliness of what sin is, and the beauty and love of what forgiveness is.” My friend Victor once said that the love of God is utterly scandalous; the scriptures show the scandalous nature of this love by revealing God as a loyal husband and savior, and we are his disloyal prostitute of a wife. Maybe, then, Jesus is justified when he says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me… (Matthew 10:37).”
The cross is the renewal of all things. It is the turning of the ignobility of crucifixion into a symbol of hope that has endured for two thousand years. It is the spreading of truth from a carpenter and his haggard group of confused and sometimes disloyal followers to the corners of the world and that truth being made into the world’s most read book of all time.
But most importantly, it is the renewal of our relationship with our heavenly father, our daddy, our God from whom we have wandered away. Not only have we spit upon God all of our lives and he demands justice be done, he undergoes that sentence of justice himself, to reconcile his prodigal children to himself.
Have you read the story of the prodigal son? I’m sure many of you are familiar with the son who asks his father for his inheritance and leaves to go spend his money on parties and having a good time or whatever. But here is the significance: the son asks for his inheritance. If you are a parent, then you will identify with this illustration best – imagine if your child came to you and asked you for their inheritance while you were still alive. It is tantamount to that child saying to his, or her parent, that to the child, the parent is dead. And God lets that child go. But when that child returns, as the story of the prodigal son illustrates, as soon as the father hears word that his son is returning he runs out to meet him. The father (God) does all the work as soon as the child is ready to come back and not only that, he throws a huge party – what believers know as the joy of salvation, something that David asks for in his psalms to be returned to him.
The cross is the renewal of life, because it reconciles us back to God who is the source of life. It is a life able to be lived consistently, it is a life with a loving daddy, it is a life with meaning, purpose, hope, fulfillment, destiny, justice, direction, evidence, and morality. It is continued life with God in heaven.
But most importantly, it is life through a relationship. When POW’s are given a few seconds to say something into a camera, what do they express their love for? Knowledge? Cars? Games? No, they express love for a wife, a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother. If I may be so bold, here is a clue to the meaning of life – that it is found in relationships. And ultimately, in a relationship with God. Jesus does not call you to his ethic, like Zoroaster does. Jesus does not call you to the Qur’an, as Mohammed does. Jesus does not call you to nothingness, or the Way Which Cannot Be Named (Taoism) or to your ancestors he calls you to himself and offers not a way of life, but a relationship.
The cross is life. “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. For whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:37-39).” It is easy for our relationships with other people to eclipse our relationship with God; we become so enamored with the gift that we forget the gift-giver. But more importantly, that gift cannot offer the life that God does to anyone who wants it. An idol is anything that eclipses our relationship with God. That is why Jonah says “Those who cling to idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Why did Jesus need to die such an excruciating death? (The word excruciating, by the way, finds its roots in the crucifixion, literally meaning “as from the cross”) Some other critics said that Gibson’s film, in its gritty and realistic approach, would cause anti-Semitism to rise for people blaming the Jews for killing Jesus. It wasn’t just them, it was the Romans, it was the Samaritans, the Philistines, his own followers. He died because of me, and he died because of you.
If you don’t know Jesus, I encourage you to get to know him. I encourage you to ask him to make himself known to you in a very real and understandable way.
I will end this series with a hymn that, I think, best captures the significance of the cross.
The Wonderful Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did ever such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
All who gather here by grace draw near
And bless your name.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Forbid it Lord that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
All who gather here by grace draw near
And bless your name.
Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
To find that I might truly live.
posted by Brian at 10:02 AM
1 Comments:
I love the story of the prodigal son, but this weekend, while at a retreat with my youth group kids, the speaker said he liked to call it the story of the prodigal father. We were all really confused for a minute, until he said that because we only use the word prodigal in that context, we no longer know the meaning of the word. Rather than meaning lost, or any other number of words to describe our fallen condition, it actually means "recklessly extravagant."
The son pretty much says to his father "I wish you were dead" wastes his father's money on parties and bought friends, and then when everything is gone, he goes back to his father not to beg forgiveness as a son, but to become a servant. The father does act truly scandalous. His love is just so overwhelming that not only does his go out to greet his son who wished him dead, he runs to meet him, which in and of itself in Jewish culture was inappropriate and laughable for a grown man to do, and then to top it off, gives his son gifts and throws a lavish, extravagant party. It's just incredible to think that each time someone turns back to God, there's rejoicing like that in Heaven.
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