The Cross of Christ

“The Cross of Christ”

“the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “let light shine out of darkness”, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 4:4-6

In the days since Easter morning, I have been reflecting on the suffering and death of our Savior Jesus, the Christ. I think sometimes we race through Holy Week to get to Easter. Rev. Carole Baker at Central Congregtational church reiterates the fact that we must face Good Friday before we reach the victory of Easter. It is an important point. I would rather not dwell on Jesus’ suffering, especially since some of the pain that He endured was due to my sin. It is difficult to gloss over this fact. The cover of an issue of Time Magazine in 1966 stated quite authoritatively that “God is Dead”. I read some of the article and it did not stop there. Essentially it related that God is not only dead, but we (collectively as the human race) killed him! And, the angst that this created was overwhelming as it asked the question…”how do we get His blood off our hands?” So this is the rest of the story…we believed we had killed God but left out the part that He was raised from the dead. The answer to the previous question is “no we cannot get those blood stains off our hands”. But, the GOOD NEWS that no one reported on was that the very God we “killed” was the One who could wash those blood stains away quite completely. God was dead, but is alive, and He wants to forgive us and have an intimate relationship with us!! Paradoxical but true. Those of us who are Christians reading this have ample “evidence” in our lives however “subjective” it may be. Satan does not want unbelievers to hear this message!

In the midst of looking for resources on the Cross of Christ I found that a relative I had not heard of wrote a definitive work entitled, “The History of the Cross of Christ”. The author was William Rounseville Alger. He was a minister and chaplain (of the Massachusetts House of Representives) in the 1800’s. I often wonder how we could have killed the One who loved us first and so well. Alger wrote, “that He who had the gentlest heart that ever throbbed in sympathy with mortal weal or woe, should have been so neglected, despised, spurned, and cast out- that those feet which never wearied on errands of mercy, as He still went about doing good, and those hands which were laid in benediction on the heads of little children, which touched the eyes of the blind with sight, and raised the broken-hearted sinner with a brother’s love and a Savior’s forgiveness, should have been nailed in agony to the accursed tree…” (P. 23- H of C of C).

Returning to the Passion of Christ for a moment I wanted to emphasize that not only did Jesus hang on the cross for us. He was abandoned by His closest friends, was flogged very cruelly ( fueled by His jailers hatred), spat on and mocked …all for us. He endured it all in silence because He knew what His mission was. Not only to die but to be raised by the power of God…so we might believe and be saved.

The Christian singer Natalie Grant (album- the Hurricane) in one song says- “here at the Cross of Christ…the victory is won…Your agony means life for ALL of us.” Somehow in all or worldly wisdom we have missed the point of God dying. He died that we might live. He did all the work for us…Jesus bled and died…was tortured along the way…and disgraced so He might offer us Grace.

Upon reflection it is no wonder that we want to hurry past Good Friday. But, when we do we miss the most important point…Jesus came to save us…for a purpose. He restored the disciples to their mission and it is ours as well…to make disciples of all nations…to spread the Good News. Unbelievers need to hear the message of grace. It is truly their only hope as Jesus was our only hope when we were called out off darkness into the light. Christians are not born…they are re-born. The unbeliever to your right or left may yet become a brother or sister in Christ…and a beloved child of God.