The Cross - Our Way of Life (6)

 

“It is finished!”

 

“And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30).

 

This is, my friends, the watershed of the cosmos, of the ages, of our lives. Before these holy words, before this eternal declaration, this triumphal cry, was proclaimed on earth and in the heavens, you and I had no hope, no ray of sunshine, no possibility of returning to our Father, no remedy for sin and death and wickedness, no expectation that the Sun would arise over the horizon of eternity’s ocean and bring light and life and warmth to our cold dead souls.

 

But now we have the assurance that Jesus Christ has accomplished all on the Cross for us, for His Father; that a holy offering and transaction and healing and redemption has occurred that is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our experience. Indeed, we are all invited into the experience, into knowing the love of God, the life of God, the mercy and grace of God, the joy of God, the peace of God in Jesus Christ. A Table has been spread and we are invited to live by the Bread of God, the Blood (Life) of God, the essence of God in God the Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:26 – 69).

 

“By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10 – 14, NASB).

 

“And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, and write them on their mind,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.”

 

“Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required. (Hebrews 10:15 – 18).

 

Do we believe these words, dear friends? Do we believe that Jesus has done all that can be done? Do we believe that Jesus IS all that can be done? Do we believe that we can add nothing to Jesus Christ, nothing to His Person, nothing to His work?

 

Do we realize that “the one who has entered His [God’s} rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10)?

 

Did not Jesus constantly violate religious notions of the Sabbath in order to demonstrate that He is the true Sabbath? Jesus is our true and lasting rest.

 

Perhaps He challenges us in our own sabbaths? Might it be that most of us have practices or beliefs that we think make us more righteous than those who don’t have those beliefs or engage in those practices? Is it not possible that our distinctive beliefs and practices are sources from which we derive self-righteousness, thinking that God has bestowed a special righteousness on us because of our distinctives?

 

Naturally we would teach against any such notion (or maybe we wouldn’t), which would make the notion all the more dangerous, much like the person who rejoices in his humility.

 

O how I love Paul’s statement that “while we were without strength [while we were helpless!], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). We could not help ourselves dear friends; we could not help ourselves then and we cannot help ourselves now – we must trust Jesus Christ for everything. Our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and wisdom are all found in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:1 – 3).

 

We look to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ for our source of life, our assurance, the ground of our being. Life flows from the Cross, forgiveness streams from the Cross, our old identity is killed on the Cross and we are clothed with the New Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 6; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Gal. 2:20).

 

Our merciful and faithful High Priest is both our priest and sacrifice and His self-offering is completed and perfect – perfecting us in Himself – accepted by the Father, ushering in the “new and living way” into the Holy of Holies, into the koinonia of the Trinity (Heb. 10:19 – 25; John 17).

 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 – 30).

 

O dear friends, Jesus says to us, “I have done it all. I have paid the price for your sins. I have taken your sinful self into my holy Self and bestowed Myself on yourself to give you a new self, a new identity in Me. I have completed all for you because My Father and I love you and we are bringing you Home to where you belong – in relationship with Us; come Home My daughter, come Home My son, come Home my child.”

 

Is this not a good Day to come Home to Jesus?

 

Is it not a good Day to bring others along with us?

 

 

 

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (5)

 

 

“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”” (Luke 23:39 – 43, NASB).

 

“The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words” (Matthew 27:44).

 

Consider the plea, “Jesus, remember me!”

 

Matthew tells us how this robber began, Luke tells us the rest of the story.

 

How can a person have the presence of mind, the clarity of heart and soul, in the midst of crucifixion, while spewing vitriol at Jesus, to realize that Jesus is more than a man, and yet a man – for He is being crucified? As life is ebbing and breath is ceasing and the end is near and the heart is approaching its last beat, how does this man, this robber, this person who has practiced evil, how is it possible for him to “see” Jesus the Christ and call out, “Jesus, remember me”?

 

Perhaps there was no presence of mind or clarity of heart and soul, perhaps there was only a recognition in the core of this man’s being that His Creator was dying alongside him…or at the very least, a recognition that Something or Someone other than humanity as he had known it was suffering as he, the robber was suffering. But not exactly as he, the robber was suffering, for the robber “saw” someway, somehow, that Jesus “had done nothing wrong.”

 

This man, the robber, who made the plea “Remember me!” also said to the other robber, “Do you not even fear God?”

 

God had arrived on Golgotha, God was suffering and God was convicting and God was continuing to save others even as He chose to not save Himself. Yes, and God was showing mercy, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

 

The Roman soldiers will not be with Him. The crowds will not be with Him. The religious leaders who are preparing to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread will not be with Him; but this thief suffering a shameful and horrendous death will indeed be with Him. This thief crucified in shame will soon know the holy clothing of the white linen of the very righteousness of the Son of God.

 

Since we know that Jesus died before the two thieves died (John 19:31 – 33), we can imagine Jesus welcoming the repentant man on the other side of death, and what a welcome it must have been! There must have been quite the hug, close and tight…and not a few kisses!

 

Christ meets us in our extremities, He speaks to us in the depths of our beings, He calls us to Himself in myriad ways in infinite circumstances. We may be in the midst of our daily occupations, such as the four fishermen; we may be at our accounting ledgers, such as Matthew the tax collector; we may be immersed in a political movement, such as Simon the Zealot…or we may be, we just may be, experiencing our own and upfront and personal crucifixion…but Jesus is there and He is there for us.

 

And here we see that, as with ancient Israel, we need only look to Jesus and be saved (John 3:14 – 15; Numbers 21:6 – 9).

 

But now my friends, let us look to Jesus and His calling in our own lives, for His Resurrection message is that “Even as the Father sent Me, so I send you” (John 20:21; 17:18).

 

If we are called to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering (Phil. 3:10), then we can anticipate the glorious opportunity not only to say with Jesus, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing,” but we can also look forward to serving those opposing us, persecuting us, taking pleasure in our sufferings (Matthew 5:43 – 48), and bringing them into the Kingdom of God in Christ so that they too  may be clothed in the white linen of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

 

All of us are on one of the crosses of Golgotha, some of us know what it is to be on two of the crosses.

 

Some begin on the cross of mocking God and remain on it, dying on it. Those who are not on the cross of mocking and unrepentance are on the cross which cries, “Jesus, remember me!”

 

Do we recognize that our cry is a gift which God has given us through Jesus? Do we acknowledge that our cry is not of ourselves? Not of our intellect, our will, our imagination, but rather of God? (John 1:12 – 13). This raw cry is God’s gift of salvation, akin to the cry of the father pleading for his son, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk. 9:24).

 

O dear friends, there is an eternal transaction in the gut, in the depths of the soul, an indefinable and unexplainable bursting forth of life from the tomb within us, a coming forth of the image of God in Christ, that confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (Matt. 16:16).

 

“Lo, now You are speaking plainly” (John 16:29).

 

But here is the thing dear friends, the plain cannot be explained. We cannot explain love. We cannot explain joy. We cannot explain peace. We cannot explain this “thing” that happens within a woman, a man, a child when that person cries, “You are the Christ!” “Jesus, remember me!”

 

O dear pastors, remember this when Easter arrives – evidence may have a supporting role, but evidence without the appearance of Christ is evidence presented in a moot court.

 

Then there are those who know what it is to hang on two crosses on Golgotha. They begin on the cross of repentance, then in Christ they move to the Cross of the Intercessory Life, Life lived for Christ and others. As Paul writes, “Death works in us, but life in you.”

 

We learn to participate with Christ in His sufferings for the reconciliation of others (Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 5:16 – 21). We learn to pray, “Father forgive them, for they don’t realize what they are doing.” We learn to say, “Today, you will be with Jesus in Paradise.”

 

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

As St. Augustine taught, as with the Head, so with the Body.

 

Shall we live as His Body today?

 

The Cross – Our Way of Life (4)

 

“Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine vinegar was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine vinegar upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth” (John 19:28 – 29).

 

In Matthew (27:48) and Mark (15:36) the sour wine vinegar is associated with Jesus’ cry of “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”

 

It was only the night before that Jesus was sharing the cup of the wine of the New Covenant with His disciples. He has gone from the intimacy of the Upper Room to the open shame of the Cross. The hands with which He broke the bread at the Table are now nailed to the Cross. Instead of lifting a cup of wine to His mouth at the Table, a sponge with vinegar is forced upward onto His lips.

 

Jesus inaugurates His ministry with the sign of turning water into fine wine. Jesus concludes His ministry with wine vinegar. Jesus gives fine wine to others; He receives sharp wine vinegar for Himself.

 

Jesus gives the woman at the well living water so that she will never thirst again. Jesus suffers thirst on the Cross.

 

Jesus clothes us with God’s righteousness, while His own body is stripped bear. Jesus is wounded so that our wounds might be healed. Jesus wears the crown of thorns that Adam and his race have woven, so that we might be crowned with God’s glory.

 

Jesus drinks the bitter, that we might drink the sweet.

 

This, dear friends, is the Way of the Cross, the Way of Jesus.

 

When Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6), He is speaking of us entering into Him and living by His Life. He is our source of life, our breath, our heartbeat; the way He lives is the Way we live. We learn to drink the bitter so that others may drink the sweet.

 

We learn to turn water into wine, we learn to give others the water that becomes a fountain of life within them so that they will never draw water from wells again, we learn to share the Body and  Blood of Jesus in holy Communion at the Lord’s Table, we learn to prepare that Table for others in the presence of their enemies, and we learn to have outstretched hands to the world in the Name of Jesus, and the drink the bitter and sharp wine vinegar that the world offers to us in order that others may live.

 

We learn to live in Jesus the Vine, as Christ toward others, as Jesus Christ lives within us; knowing that we “have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7). Let us make no mistake, we are speaking of a “treasure”! While we acknowledge the frailty of the earthen vessels, let us exalt and magnify the treasure, our Lord Jesus Christ. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

 

With Paul we are called to confess, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

The Way of the Cross is the Way of drinking the bitter so that others may drink the sweet. It is bearing the sorrows and burdens and sufferings of the world, as we live in Christ and as Christ lives in us, so that others may live.

 

The Way of the Cross is living with our arms and hands outstretched.

 

When we appear before Jesus will He ask, “Show Me your hands”?