How Big is Your Cross?

Perspective matters, but perspective does not necessarily equal accurate. For example, the further I drive away from the mountains, they start to appear to get smaller, when in fact their size doesn't change, just my perspective does - my "view" if you will. It is the same with events in our lives, and as more time or distance develops between them, we can have a change in our perspective or their size in our life, right? I am not suggesting whether or not this is good or even bad, but just that it happens.

Easter happens once a year, and we gather to celebrate Jesus' resurrection, His defeat over death, and our promise of hope in eternal life through it. Easter Sunday happened by route through the cross of Friday, and it seems to me that even on Easter Sunday, we want the cross to be a thing in the past: and from Sunday to Sunday, we just move further and further away from the event, and the cross.

The cross is a thing in the past, but as we move away, the only thing that changes, is our perspective of it. The purpose of the cross never changes: it is an instrument of death. The cross's emptiness used to be a sign, calling for the next person so it could do what it was made for. What changed about it happened through Jesus' resurrection through it, and is now full of promise because it was not the end, but the beginning of a miracle that changed everything - and anyone who would believe...Jesus lives!

That is powerful. That is the Gospel = through Jesus' completed work...not the cross's.

Now as we move on through the year, something starts to happen - the cross doesn't move. It stays where it was...left as a horrible reminder in the past of the past, and so it's perspective starts to diminish until it is invisible on the horizon. Maybe thats why so many more people go to churches on Easter and Christmas, because the events become more visible...

We all have sin inside of us, and that is a fact. We can't change this, make it go away, or put distance between it. Because of this sin, we are prone to forget the gospel, and to drift away from it, and what was paid to accomplish it. That’s why the Bible urges us not to be “moved [away] from the hope held out in the gospel” (Col. 1:23) and to “let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly” (Col. 3:16). When we are not anchored in the truth of the gospel, our love for Jesus and our experience of his goodness start become very small, and we end up “shrinking the cross”.

When we shrink the cross, we can't help but shrink the work of the cross in our hearts, and lives as well. Remember God's Word is not a book to be used as a reminder of past events, but as a living and active part of our lives today, just as Christ is alive so is His Word. Paul says that God's Word is "living and active..." (Hebrews 4:12), and "useful..." (2 Tim.3:16). We carry Jesus and His work on the cross when we carry His Word with us. Don't put His Word down, because after all, it can only go as far with us as we are willing to carry it, right?

...just sayin'

In His grip,

Pastor Pat