Over 2000 years ago, the story began. A man named Jesus was falsely accused by self-righteous religious leaders of crimes he was totally innocent of. He was disowned, beaten and made fun of by his very own people. The same ones he loved affectionately and performed many miracles for. Then he was beaten again, spat at, whipped and flogged for several hours. The Roman soldiers did this to the point his appearance was unrecognizable. That wasn’t enough though. They gave him a “CROSS”. A cross was usually reserved for the worst of criminals. They made him carry it for several miles up to a hill where he would hang naked before the whole world to see. In excruciating pain, he willingly took the blame and suffered consequences he did not deserve. Frederick Farrar described the torturous effect: “For indeed a death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds—all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all.”
Struggling to contain my own emotions, I’m reminded of the ultimate sacrifice that was made so that I could be forgiven. I’m confronted with the fact that my Salvation that is so rich and free is definitely not cheap. Theologians say that the cross was actually just a beam. I wholeheartedly disagree. Nailed to that cross, whatever it looked like, was every…………pain, heartache, sickness, failure, fear, doubt, addiction, divorce, depression, discouragement, disease, death, dysfunction, curse, and sin we could ever imagine or commit.
As we approach Easter, let us remember the message of the cross. It still has the power to save and to forgive. For some it many it be too gruesome to fathom, but without the cross, there would be no hope for the world. Let it be more than a piece of jewelry you wear, a decoration in your house or a tattoo on your body. May it resonate loud and clear by the way you live.
1 Corinthians 1:18
; For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
-Joe
