The Cross Changed Everything

Today is Saturday, April 8, 2023. Tomorrow is Easter — resurrection day. But yesterday was Good Friday, the day Jesus died a brutal, scandalous, and horrific death on the cross. My grandmother used to tell me (every Easter) that Good Friday was always a rainy, gloomy, and stormy day; Easter was always a sunny, beautiful day. I was a little boy, so I believed her. Well, this weekend in North Carolina will be exactly as my grandmother described.

I was thinking about the cross yesterday. A lot of really good books have been written about the cross. ‘The Cross of Christ’ by John Stott is one of them. I found myself thinking about the contrast of the cross as a symbol of torture and death and the cross as a symbol of grace and love.

I remember the pastor of my previous church in Houston telling me he couldn’t understand why anyone would wear a cross on a chain around their neck or put a cross on the wall of their home, let alone a whole melange of crosses of different sizes and colors. He has a point — if you focus on the grim, grisly side of the cross.

But Jesus went to the cross willingly so that my sins could be forgiven, my flesh crucified with His, and the curse Adam and Eve introduced into the human race could be broken off of me — and for anyone who “confesses with their mouth “Jesus is Lord’ and believes in their heart God raised Him from the dead”. Perhaps the most famous passage in the New Testament points directly to this reality: “For God so loved the world (the whole world and everyone in it) that He gave His one and only Son (‘to die on the cross’. I added these words. They are not in the Bible, but true nonetheless), that whoever believes in Him (and not everyone will) shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3: 16). John goes on to write: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3: 17).

Jesus died on the cross so that I could be saved, set free, healed, filled with the presence of Christ, have the indwelling Holy Spirit, live with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Kingdom of God for eternity. And that life begins today! Jesus died because He loved the world, including me. He died for me, in my place so that I could live. The cross, then represents this all-consuming love, God’s grace and mercy, and Jesus’ commitment to do His Father’s will — a sign of surrender and submission.

I think that is why people wear crosses and put crosses on the walls of their homes — to remember love, grace, mercy, and our need to surrender our self life to God. Afterall, Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Him. Follow Him where? To the cross where our self-life dies so His life can live in us. We don’t have room in our hearts for two kingdoms. We must choose one or the other, and to not choose is to choose, because we were all born into the kingdom of the world. That is why Jesus said “we must be born again”. Which will it be? The Kingdom of God and Jesus, or the kingdom of the world (self) and satan? The cross leads to the former. The wide gate and broad road of culture leads to the latter. One leads to life now and life after death; the other leads to a kind of death now and death after life. Really? Yep.

The cross changes everything. On Good Friday, the cross symbolized death. On Easter, the cross symbolizes life. On Good Friday, the cross symbolized judgment and punishment. On Easter, the cross symbolizes forgiveness and grace. On Good Friday, the cross symbolized hatred and evil. On Easter, the cross symbolizes love, goodness, and righteousness. On Good Friday, the cross symbolized death. On Easter, the cross symbolizes abundant life. For eternity.

The same cross has these opposite meanings and dimensions. What transformed the cross from a place of hatred, pain, and death to a place of love, healing, and life? One thing — Jesus died on the cross and then He lived. Roman soldiers were very efficient executioners. He died, but three days later He rose from the grave, He was dead. And ‘Wham’, He was resurrected — brought back from the dead, alive!. If you will believe, it means, among other things, that you too will be resurrected one day. Death does not have the final say. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Death and evil were defeated on the cross. And that changes everything.

Have a joyful and joyus Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed!

John