The Reality of the Cross

 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

 The high point in human history - the cross! . . .  The single greatest force in human life [is] the cross.  And believing that totally flips everything upside down.  (Dallas Willard, Jesus and Culture, Divine Conspiracy talks)

The cross is not primarily a show of how bad people are, but how badly people need God.  Without God our efforts at good are always interrupted by necessity.  Peter felt it was necessary to deny Jesus even though he swore he would go to death with him.  Pilate felt it was necessary to turn Jesus over even though he could find no charges against him.  The Sanhedrin turned Jesus over to the Romans because it was necessary for one man to die rather than a nation.

The reality of the cross is that as a human being, when I try to do good on my own, I will inevitably find it necessary to overturn or betray that good for the sake of something "necessary."  The cross outlines the hope of all people.  When my life is turned over to God, the "necessities" become the very things I have to put to death.  Instead of crucifying what it good, true, and beautiful for the sake of these necessary desires and fears, I have to crucify these desires and fears.

"The wages of sin is death," says Paul.  Living apart from God, away from his grace, and on my own only results in a continuing death.  All that is good will be crucified because it threatens the "Almighty 'I will'".  This form of self-will must die if I am to live.

The high point of the cross is that it really changed everything.  The greatest discovery of humanity was made on the cross by the one who showed us everything a person should be, Jesus.  The cross is mine to boast in because it shatters all the lies that I am fed daily about this world and myself.  The cold, hard reality of the cross crowns the life Jesus lived in this world with the power to be humble, the joy to go through suffering, and the life to conquer death.  These are not mere ideas, but realities found in relationship with God.

The world is crucified to me through the cross.  All the glamour, the display of wealth and power, the fear and dread, the seemingly unending supply of pleasure and distraction turns out to be a lie.  The world is a worn-out shirt, ready to be retired.  The world is a defeated enemy, ready to be destroyed.  The world is uninteresting and bland, ready to be replaced and renewed.  The cross tears the mask off of the world of humanity working apart from God and for its own desires and shows it to be futile and empty, like a dying criminal on a tree.

I am crucified to the world through the cross.  I become an exile in this world rather than a resident.  I find myself "on the outside" in many situations.  Jesus said that the world will hate those who follow him as it hated him.  The systems and institutions set up without God or against him have no place for me.  Occasionally I am attacked or rejected, but mostly where I follow Jesus I am just ignored.

Lord, let the cross define my reality and my hope.  Let me be like Paul who boasts only in the cross of Christ.  Amen.

Who's in Charge?

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.  So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  (John 19:7)

Here is an example of irony in John's gospel. Pilate "hands Jesus over" to be crucified. The soldiers "take charge" of him. Following these statements, Pilate and the soldiers continually and unknowingly fulfill scripture after scripture through their actions. John almost describes them as acting out a script.

It is not that they were forced to do something they didn't want to do. Pilate meant to shame Jesus and the Jewish nation by calling Jesus "King of the Jews." The soldiers acted out of greed in stealing Jesus' clothes and perhaps out of malice in giving him vinegar for his thirst and a spear thrust to ensure his death. If they were actors in a play, they were not playing parts, but just being themselves.

The scene was laid out long before. The cruelty and mockery of people at the cross was nothing less than the picture of human justice without God painted long ago. However such a scene was foreseen, it was true to fallen human nature. Entirely predictable. God's plan was to take the irony of people who thought they were in charge and show that his plans and hopes would supercede all of theirs.

Pilate and the soldiers and the Jewish leaders thought they were in charge because they were giving the orders not realizing that their orders were already accounted for and allowed by Jesus and his Father. They were allowed to show what kind of people we truly are and how God cannot be outmaneuvered by any evil. Like a two-year old saying "Mine!" or "No, I won't!" these people found themselves swept into a much larger world than Rome or Israel. The kingdom of God was present and superceding their little actions with the reality of God's influence on the behalf of his Son and his people. Human will opposed Divine will and was overcome with goodness. Scripture fulfillment just showed the inevitability of God's victory.

The irony is not that everything is planned out before I do anything. The irony is that my efforts to oppose God and his kingdom will end up working for him. Nothing will circumvent the kingdom of God. All will bring God glory and show his goodness. God's light may show in spite of my actions and intentions, but it will shine. The irony is that thinking and living as if I am in charge clearly shows that I am not in charge even of the "little" things that are mine to do.

As John thought and wrote, he saw the hand of God in the cross. Each moment seemed choreographed for this purpose. This was to give Jesus' followers certainty that the cross was not a mistake or a problem, but the known outcome of human sinfulness confronting God's mercy and grace. It was the final, best effort of humanity to push God away when he had come too close. The resurrection is God's answer to that effort. He will not leave. He will not abandon us.  God's love is in charge, not human rebellion.

The other picture at the cross is John and Jesus' mother. Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother. Perhaps he also explained to the ones who knew they weren't in charge what they could take charge of. Realizing God is in charge frees me to work under him and for him in my own place, in my own family, and in my own ways. In the midst of the apparent tragedy of Jesus crucifixion, Jesus says to his closest friend and his mother: "Love each other. Do what you can for each other. This is what you can do. I'm in charge of all that is happening here.  Now I'm giving you this to be in charge of: Love each other." So the ones who thought they were in charge were not and the ones who stood helplessly before Jesus were given a command by the one who was really in charge.

Lord, let me stand before your cross with helplessness. Let me stand before you knowing I am not in charge. Let me be so faithful to stand and wait for you, even as John and Mary did. Let me follow your commands even if they come from the cross. Only in this kind of helplessness can I find what you would have me to do. Amen.

So here are the two pictures of myself. Either I think I am in charge and I go forward to do what I think is best. In the end I crucify Christ either through fear, greed, or necessity. I can also stand in utter helplessness before the cross. I can watch the will of God being done all around me. I can do what he asks me to do, knowing he is in charge: Love one another.

The Good Thing, the Bad Thing

Good deeds do not always lead to God.  There are good deeds that can take us away from God.  This is a tragedy in life.  One of the main reasons that Jesus died was because he pointed this out repeatedly and severely.  He pointed out the difference between the "good" deeds of the Pharisees and the good deeds of many of the sinners.  In one of his teachings he said,

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven.  Many will come to me one that day and say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons and perform many miracles?"  Then I will tell them plainly, "I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!"  (Matthew 7:21-23)

It is possible to do "good" things, but not the good thing.  As a matter of fact, many "good" things keep people out of the kingdom of heaven and away from God.  What keeps us out of the kingdom is the idea that there are some things that are good in themselves apart from being with God.  Jesus came to say, "Only God is good."  There are no actions or intentions performed by people on their own that oblige God to allow their entry into his kingdom or his life.

Since no "good" deeds can oblige God to bring us into his family and into his life, we can only enter by grace, God's strength and undeserved favor.  Grace is opposed to earning.  "Good" deeds that do not lead or contribute to a personal relationship with God are efforts to earn.  This is why Jesus constantly pointed out that the "sinners" of his day were entering his rule before the "good" people.  They were not doing "good" things to earn (demand) God's approval, but instead were seeking to be near to Jesus and follow him.

From this we also learn that there is no bad deed that can exclude us from God's kingdom.  If bad deeds lead to regret, sorrow, rethinking how we think (repentance), and seeking Jesus, then they become good.  Bad deeds become bad when they separate us from God (which they do), but can become good if they lead us to confession and repentance and doing truly good things.  "Bad" people can find God sooner than "good" people because of repentance.  For most of us, we find it easier to repent of the bad things we have done rather than repent of the "good" things we have done.

Really, there is only one good deed:  Jesus' death on the cross.  Anything good must come out of this goodness.  Any "good" thing done outside of this goodness as competition to it, as evidence that I don't need it, or in willful ignorance of its necessity end up taking me away from God and his plans for me and all people.  When my good deeds come from gratitude for the cross, praise to the God who planned such a deed for my sake, and desire to imitate the cross in my life by putting to death the things that come "naturally" but lead me away from God, then they are truly good because they come from the good of the cross.

Perhaps there is also only one bad thing.  Perhaps that is what Original Sin is about.  All bad things come from that first willful act of disobedience and distrust of God.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Bad things can look surprisingly "good," but when they lead us from the loving arms of God they are bad.  Such bad things can be unrepentant actions of self-service that hurt ourselves and others, or they may be acts of self-righteousness that ignore our daily need of God in our life.  Either way they come from a lie that is told: "You don't need God; you can be your own god."  They come from a world living out that lie to its fullest.  They come from an inward propensity to "make it on my own" and "do what I want to do."

Certainly, God is merciful.  He will not turn away people who want to be with him, even at the last moment.  The thief on the cross stands as an icon of hope.  Our good deed may not be much, but when it is turned toward Jesus as our hope and deliverance, it is enough because of the grace poured out on all of us through the cross.  There have been people reported in the Bible who have been delivered by God without knowing much about him: Rahab the whore, a Syrophoenician idol-worshiper, and a thief on a cross.  This shows the kind of God we might serve.  One who is "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love."  (Psalm 103:8)

However, we must be honest about each of these people.  Rahab was one of an entire city.  The thief was one of a great crowd who gathered to see Jesus die.  Many will not come to grace.  The gospel is God's power exerted to save people, his last, best word of mercy and grace, his effort to open up his kingdom to everyone and anyone.  God's mercy to people who do not know Jesus is not the good news primarily, but a loophole of his kindness.  The good news is that we need not guess nor do we have to wait until we are at death's door to draw near to God.  We can see his mercy and live in it through Jesus.  The good news is that the good deed is done and that we merely need to live with it and live by it and live in it.  The kingdom of God has always been, since God has always been king, but now we see that his rule is one of grace and mercy and those who can accept this through Jesus can enter.

The reason we know we are delivered is that we can live with God's voice in our hearts and God's presence at our side daily.  He will not abandon us to death any more than he abandons us in this present age.  The life we begin with him will continue and grow, just as existence without him will also continue and degrade.  The gospel, the good news is that we can start living with Jesus and like Jesus now.

So not all "good" things lead to God and not all bad things lead away from him.  What is needed is a will set on choosing Jesus and his way rather than our own.

Lord, may I learn to see and live in your goodness rather than my own.  May I allow my sins to lead me to your feet.  May I live by the cross so I might be raised with you in every aspect of my life.  Amen.