Faith

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The Cross by Josh Carroll

There is a powerful disconnect between the actual cross of Jesus Christ and what is perceived by our human eyes and thought of by our frail minds. It’s more than just two beams of wood that intersect at a focal point in our church building. Sadly, we have turned this relevant symbol of God’s greatest triumph to a prevalent icon designed to elicit feelings of sympathy and nostalgia. Even worse, some look a cross and feel nothing at all. How many times has this representation of such a momentous event sat idle behind a pastor or speaker who failed even to mention the relevancy of the atoning death of Jesus Christ as they delivered a watered down tirade on the lack of social justice or personal moral value to an apathetic audience? Has this powerful symbol been so diluted by the noise of this world that it ceases to evoke a response worthy of the pain and suffering of our Lord? Have we truly forgotten to care what the cross of Jesus Christ means to us personally?

The actual cross (so miserably represented in our churches today) is a breaking point. It is where we come face to face with God Himself. It’s where we spit on Him, beat and abuse Him, disrespect Him and leave Him to die. It’s where all of humanities anger against the sin in our own lives and our frustration in our inability to gain supremacy over the simplest matters comes to a head. The cross is where the carnal self does its best to disfigure the sacred image we were created to reflect. It’s where we battle ourselves, kicking and screaming, biting and thrashing for one last act of our pitiful will before the ultimate surrender.

Jesus’ death on the cross defines all of us. We are forgiven people because He died to pay the debt. If we don’t go down fighting with our last breathe it is not real. We cannot approach the cross casually. To do so would be a mockery of what happened there 2,000 years ago. The cross cannot and will not share space with our own pride. Our will must be surrendered or it will rear its ugly head and render us useless to the God that created us to be just the opposite.

by Josh Carroll
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