The Reality of the Cross

     We wear them around our necks.  We hoist them up above sanctuaries.  We make them out of rough wood and pure gold.  Crosses are all around us.  Strange to think that an instrument of death is now accepted as an everday sight. 

     We journey to the cross in this Lenten season.  But what happens when we get there?  Are we ready to recognize Jesus' incredible sacrifice?  Do we want to imagine how tortuous it must have been to die in that way?  While I realize there was much criticism regarding the movie The Passion of the Christ, one thing it did do was confront us with the gruesome reality of death.  The blood, the pain, the scars, the agony.  It made us look at Jesus' bloody, spat upon face and vicariously experience with him what his death must have been like.

     The polished gold layered crosses we wear are a far cry from the reality of what they represent: a man, a God, who died a horrible death out of love for you and me.  The cross has been so sentimentalized that for many it has lost the shock and horror it truly represents.  That's why Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are my favorite services.  They bring me down to earth, back to reality, and MAKE me remember that Jesus' suffering was real, and awful, and excruciating. 
     Would you have done it?  Would you have voluntarily agreed to die in that kind of way at the age of 33?  We can hardly voluntarily give up one meal in order to feed another person.  Yet Jesus says, "Take up YOUR cross, and follow me."  Where was he going?  Calvary.  Take up your cross.  Feel its burden and the pain and the sacrifice.  Take up your cross and travel to the place where you too will die.
     Doesn't sound like fun does it?  Maybe that's why it seems like these days it seems like so few Christians really "get it."  So few are willing to die and follow Jesus to Calvary.  A pastor from Africa came to the states to be a guest preacher for a few months.  At a pastor's meeting, an American pastor recognizing the more difficult way of life in Africa, gave the African pastor his sympathies.  "It must be extremely hard to minister over there," he said.  "Not at all," replied the African pastor.  "In fact it must be much harder to minister in the U.S.  After all, how do you teach people about following Jesus if you don't know what suffering is?" 
     This year don't skip too quickly from Palm Sunday to Easter.  Take some time to live into Good Friday.  Ponder the amazing sacrifice that was made for you. Recognize all that it took to voluntarily give up one's life for others.  Then, go and do likewise.