Holy Week Sunday, April 17

Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” John 3:14-15

Theme for the Week: The Truth about the Cross

Disciples are to lead cross-centered lives. There is probably no more surprising image in the history of religion than the cross of Jesus. Every day I see people wearing crosses, hanging from their necks, dangling from their ears, adorning their car bumpers, and, occasionally, embellishing their bodies in the form of tattoos. But isn’t there something more to the cross than being a personal accessory or a decorative item? What is the truth of its meaning?

Symbols are powerful and can speak meaning and purpose into our lives. For example, think of worship. Pipe organs and electric guitars are not just musical instruments. They are primary images of the two sides of most Christian worship today: traditional and contemporary. There are strongly held feelings among us about these two forms of worship. As a symbol that communicates a story, the cross is the most recognizable image in the history of religion. Now think of the cross and what it communicates to you:

·         The sacrifice of Jesus

·         The sinfulness of man

·         The love of God

·         The justice of God

·         The mercy of God

·         The forgiveness of our sins

We can add to this list, but the point is that one symbol can communicate so much.

During this week, we are going to focus on the truth of the cross, as all the clergy of St. John the Divine join in on perhaps this greatest of Christian truths. The whole of the New Testament points to the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection three days later as the victory of God over sin and death that he shares with us through grace. Since Jesus shared in our flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:14-17). What we could not do, Jesus did. The perfection we lack, Jesus provided. The judgment we deserve, Jesus took. The gospel invites those who fear death and judgment to look at Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross and to enter into this truth.

Jesus did not choose to die because there was something inherently good about death. No, he dealt with sin on the cross for our sake—to free us from its deathly grip. The cross shows us not only the costliness of forgiveness but the reality that our sins have been forgiven. The cross is not a good idea but an historic event that declares that the unacceptable have been made acceptable. The cross shouts out to those who are recreated in Christ what humanity last heard from God in Genesis 1: God saw what he had done, and it was very good. The cross is the gateway back to God, who sent humanity packing east of Eden with Adam and Eve.

The reality of the cross has implication for us. To the Christians in Corinth Paul writes, We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). To those who are called, the cross is the power and wisdom of God. The cross recreates us (justifies us) and relocates us into Christ himself. Therefore it is more than an event for the called; it is a new reality. We are now called to live differently and equipped to live differently by the cross, which stands as the central event in our lives and in the liturgy (worship) of the Church. As Hebrews encourages, Therefore . . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (12:1-2). The cross continues speaking into our lives, reminding us that although the victory is won, we still live in a fallen world and will battle with sin and its consequence until the return of our Master.

So, how are we equipped by the cross? Paul says in Galatians 6:14: Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. We are to live on the cross! We have died to the world and to ourselves and now live for Jesus. How and when did this happen? Earlier in the same letter Paul writes, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (2:20). All Christians are cross-centered because it is upon the cross of Jesus that the old self died and the new self was created. The new self now has a single passion: to glorify Jesus and his cross. The cross, therefore, stands at the center of our very being.

You have most likely heard someone says that God overcame evil on the cross, and that he did. But more than that, he made evil serve the overcoming of evil. The cross was murder. John Piper calls it “the most spectacular sin ever committed,” and that it was. Yet God was not absent. God was not removed or unable to act. He was, in fact, the main actor in the event. Piper explains: “The reason the death of Christ is the heart of the gospel—the heart of the good news—is that God was doing it. Romans 5:8: ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ If you separate God’s activity from the death of Jesus, you lose the gospel. This was God’s doing. It is the highest and deepest point of his love for sinners. His love for you.”

As we enter into Holy Week yet again, focus on the cross of Jesus and the deep truth of what it means for you and for the world. Give praise and thanksgiving to God, who through the cross displays the greatest one-way love the universe will ever know—his sacrificial love: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

A Prayer for Today:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.