The Cross: Tragedy and Triumph

The thing that constantly amazes me is that I can never seem to get to the end of the cross. You would think that after being a Christian most of your life, you would sort of move on to other things. In fact, I once thought that. I thought the cross was the way you got saved and then you moved on to all the really deep stuff. What was I thinking?!

The truth is, the cross is the center piece of history. If it is really true that "God was in Jesus, reconciling the world to himself..." then we have to stop all investigations of other things and find out what the cross is all about to make any sense at all of the rest of reality. The cross forces us to look at the kind of people we are, doesn't it? I mean, why is Jesus on the cross? Why is he covered in shame? Why is he dying?

If at the center piece of history is the cross, it means that humanity is really broken and we are just completely and utterly a mess. If not, God would not have had to enter history in such a dramatic way. But also, if the cross is at the center of history--what does it say about the God who would actually die on the cross? I think that is really the point--not what we think about God, but what he thinks about us. I can't wait to talk about all this Sunday.