I trust that you had a meaningful time of confession and quiet reflection with the Lord yesterday. In this second day of our Holy Week journey, we will continue to reflect on the cross of Jesus—an earthly implement which has become the single most significant spiritual symbol of reality in all of human history.
Go back with me now over 2000 years to the place of Jesus’ crucifixion where you and I are standing with Mary and the other onlookers at the foot of the cross staring up at the gruesome spectacle. The cacophony of disturbing sights, sounds and smells at the crucifixion scene suddenly hits our senses. What emotions arise in our hearts toward the Man hanging there? Do we feel Pity, Shame, Love, Indifference or possibly even Revulsion? Yet the inescapable truth breaks upon our consciousness that He is fastened there by the gravity of our own terrible sins against God. Can you envision yourself hanging there paying the ultimate price for your own sins because no one else was found to take your place?
What more do we see as we continue to gaze upon the cross itself? Do we only see wood, nails, thorns and a bruised, bleeding body? Is the cross merely a crude wooden implement designed to execute hardened criminals? Or is it much, much more simply because of who hangs upon it? The finality and severity of the cross had to be that way in order to arrest our attention; to stop us dead in our tracks, to say to us: “Hey! Stop! You are going the wrong direction! The only way is this way!” God designed the whole drama of the cross to shock our overindulged senses into recognition of this sober truth—that we are guilty, condemned and headed in the wrong direction toward a sentence of eternal death. And the only way back to God is through Jesus Christ.
As we continue to survey the scene in silent contemplation, the magnitude of its significance slowly cascades over us. We see the foot of the cross stuck deep into the ground on Golgotha’s hill, yet we know it penetrates much deeper into all of human history. It is immovable. It not only goes down, but also points up to the sky and reaches out across time and space. In fact, it reaches out to all people everywhere and points us upward towards heaven. People flock to churches in great numbers every Easter Sunday because deep down they are seeking for a new direction. The cross is that new direction—it causes us to look up, to look to God, to look to Jesus Christ.
As you continue to reflect in quiet contemplation today, be reminded that the cross is God’s compass for the whole world, turning every person from preoccupation with self and pointing us instead towards God and His loving standards of holiness. Be blessed!
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